Should I fly Lufthansa or Air France?

March 23, 2006 2:27 PM

Should I fly Lufthansa or Air France?

In a similar vein as this question, I have the option of flying Lufthansa or Air France to Europe this spring. Not having flown either I don't know which to choose. I'll be flying Toronto->Athens and Amsterdam->Toronto. Does it make a difference? Comfort is a big factor – especially leg room. My only other experience flying to Europe was via KLM, and although the experience was good, it was almost 15 years ago.

posted by howling fantods to travel & transportation (23 comments total)

The food on Lufthansa is horrendous in my experience, if that's important to you. I was flying out of Germany though, and they may not serve a platter of obscure German snack food delicacies rather than a meal on every flight. Other than that they were pretty decent. Never flown Air France.
posted by fire&wings at 2:50 PM on March 23, 2006

I didn't mind Lufthansa when I flew to Italy last year...it certainly beat the hell out of Air Canada, which I took on the way back to Vancouver. The leg room's not too bad and there's lots of free beer, which is nice...and useful for washing down the food (which wasn't too, too bad...nothing to write home about, though)
posted by johnsmith415 at 2:54 PM on March 23, 2006

Check out Seat Guru.

I haven't flown Air France, but my one experience on Lufthansa (SF to Munich) was good. The plane (or at least the interior) was new and very nice. My business class seat laid down flat and was very comfortable and the inflight on-demand video thing was pretty good. I think they have wifi available too.

I don't remember the food being bad or odd, but I usually am annoyed by meal service on planes (I feel trapped in my seat when I have the tray out and have to wait for the flight attendant to take it away).

And the male flight attendants all had very spiky hair.
posted by mullacc at 2:55 PM on March 23, 2006

Lufthansa's awesome. True to stereotype, they are efficient and accurate. One of my two AirFrance flights didn't leave anywhere near on time. Small sample size, sure. But I've taken a bunch more Lufthansa flights and have never even been slightly inconvenienced by them.

But realistically, you should probably decide by what kind of airplane each carrier has on the flights that you want and also by cost. Because they're just not that different, even if I think I have good luck flying Lufthansa.
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:01 PM on March 23, 2006

You might want to check whether you'd have to go from Orly to Charles de Gaulle by bus.
posted by McGuillicuddy at 4:13 PM on March 23, 2006

I'd say few things differ between airlines (specially these two - I believe they must be about the same level)

If you're looking for comfort, check the planes for each. I like the 777 (it has individual LCD's, with a dozen movies, lots of series episodes, and games to choose from -- so you're not stuck with romantic comedies), and I'm okay with the 747-400 (the other big one I flew). Small ones make me sick (literally -- they shake too much!)

But if I were to choose, I am a cheap bastard. It's only 10 hours of my life, I won't mind being a bit more miserable if it is financially appropriate. The first thing to see is frequent flyer points: Round trip to europe is going to get you some 10000 miles, which is already half a intra-continental return ticket . If you live in Canada, I guess you'd want these miles on Star Alliance, since it includes Air Canada and a couple US airlines. In any case, sign up for the frequent flyer program BEFORE flying, as you may get a bonus for signing in (and also avoid problems when signing up at the airport).
posted by qvantamon at 4:20 PM on March 23, 2006

I can only tell you that Air France had the smallest hardest seats I've ever found on an airplane. My traveling companion was 4'10" and 90 lbs. and she complained about the legroom.
posted by annaramma at 4:22 PM on March 23, 2006

I've also done Lufthansa from SF to Munich, but contrary to mullacc did it on monkey class, and I gotta say that my experience differs quite markedly. No individual screens, and the film selection sucked.

I did like the generous pourings of beer and wine, tho. No small plane bottles of red wine here - they went around with normal sized (0.75 liter) bottles and poured for everybody who wanted it.

And, contrary to Mayor Curley's testament, it was almost three hours late in leaving SF.

And I haven't done Air France transatlantic.
posted by AwkwardPause at 5:03 PM on March 23, 2006

Lufthansa food was horrific. I never whine about airline food but I'll make an exception in this case. I don't eat red meat, and they ran out of vegetarian and chicken. Served me the worst tasting fish imaginable.

Lufthansa was very unhelpful when I missed my return flight by a few minutes. Will not fly with them again.
posted by vaportrail at 5:07 PM on March 23, 2006

Lufthansa - great service, nice seats, bad food. One of the best airlines to fly business class, as long as you aren't too picky about the food. If you are flying on your own nickel and going coach I don't know.
posted by caddis at 5:12 PM on March 23, 2006

I flew Air France Montreal-Paris in 2003 and was surprised at how bad the food was. I figured the French would at least provide something edible, but they did not.

On the homeward trip I was put in the backmost row in a seat with a a broken sound system so I didn't even have the in-flight movie for distraction. That I caught a raging head cold from my very large, obviously contagious seatmate can't really be blamed on the airline, but left me feeling that there must be better ways to travel.
posted by zadcat at 5:17 PM on March 23, 2006

I flew Air France Toronto->CDG->Pisa a few weeks ago. The seats are really small and legroom definitely is an issue. Also, they're super strict about carryons, you can find the dimensions on the webpage, and there's a max weight of 12kg. They actually make you measure it at the airport before they'll let you take it on. Not so great at keeping track of luggage either, they lost both mine and my friend's luggage in Paris. AVOID flying in to CDG if at all possible, it's terrible. They're still rebuilding large chunks of it and it's completely disorganized, and they land a lot of their flights in the middle of nowhere, you can't even see the terminal.

On the plus side, the food is excellent and there's lots of it. Also, they had the individual screens though they start movies every 15 minutes rather than when you want it too.
posted by orangskye at 6:23 PM on March 23, 2006

Lufthansa was the first airline to offer in-flight wireless internet service, using technology by a company I used to work for. And generally they're still the only one who offers it on most of their flights.

Personally, I'm happy to be off the grid for a few hours. Especially when they offer 12 channels of in-seat video ...

disclosure: ich bin halb deutsch
posted by intermod at 6:29 PM on March 23, 2006

My one experience flying Air France, on a transatlantic flight, was sufficiently bad (really cramped seats, lousy food, unpleasant staff) that I swore to never use them again. I'm not tall, but my knees were nearly hitting the seat in front of me. All of my Lufthansa flights have been ok or better. Since you say comfort is a factor, this is a no-brainer - Lufthansa.
posted by Wet Spot at 6:46 PM on March 23, 2006

Thanks all for the input.

I'm not too picky about the food (I've never had what I'd call "good" airline food anyway.) If Air France's seats are as bad as everyone says (here and elsewhere), it's sounding like Lufthansa is the lesser of two evils.

There seems to be some disagreement as far as efficiency and being on time. Does one airline have a better reputation than the other in this regard (German stereotypes aside?)

The reason I'm trying to decide between these two is because they're my two cheapest options (Lufthansa being about $10 more after taxes.)
posted by howling fantods at 7:44 PM on March 23, 2006

It really makes very little difference: both are good, well-respected airlines. Major airlines employ people of many different nationalities working in different cultures and under different laws, so being treated poorly by one of their agents once rarely reflects on the company as a whole. As far as company policy goes, they are virtually identical among this class of airlines. I really don't understand why people obsess over this.
posted by ori at 9:28 PM on March 23, 2006

In the past 5 years, I did 10 flights going Europe-USA-Europe, on KLM (Northwest), Air France, Lufthansa, Virgin and United.

I wouldn't say that there's a lot of difference between either of those - in fact, I've had more differences within the same airline depending on what type and age of plane you're on than I've had between different airlines. Legroom is bad on all of them (I'm almost 6"3 - an aisle seat helps), food is barely edible most of the time, and I never had any problem with any of the airlines' employees.

The only problem I've had with Air France was that two of their US flights left late; one of these times that caused me to sit in Paris for half a day because I missed the morning flight back to Luxembourg and had to wait for the evening one.

Somewhere along the way, I signed up for an Air France/KLM frequent flyer card, so that obviously influenced some of my bookings... If you will be flying more in the future, you might want to keep that in mind too (ie. which frequent flyer program works best for you).
posted by ckemp at 12:37 AM on March 24, 2006

Go for Lufthansa. And I am not saying this because I am German. I had to fly to the US on business on two occasions recently. One flight was with Lufthansa, one was Air France.
Lufthansa: Better seats, more legroom. Better everything.
So if there is no significant difference in price or travel time, go for Lufthansa.
posted by ollsen at 12:39 AM on March 24, 2006

Personally, I remember Air France having better food. I fly Lufthansa a lot, and it really does seem to serve pig swill... last time me and my 11 year old son were flying across the atlantic we took one look at the lunch and both decided to just go without.

Be you own judge Airline Meals is a web site that posts airline food reviews wwith photos.

Also - check to see who offers better traveller/free-miles options. Lufthansa is pretty weak.
posted by zaelic at 2:41 AM on March 24, 2006

Air France, Air France, Air France, Air France. I've flown Air France almost exclusively for international travel over the past 5 years, and as an American expat who lives in Europe and likes to travel, I do a considerable amount of internatioanl flying. I have never had a poor experience with Air France - the planes have all been modern and nice (I always end up on a plane where each passenger has his own individual video screen), the food is excellent and the service is extremely friendly, both on the ground and in the air. Air France gives all passengers a welcome kit that includes an eye cover for sleeping, footies for keeping your feet warm, ear plugs, a moist towelette and a few other items that are nice to have on a long flight.

I flew Lufthansa from Vienna to Rio de Janiero a couple of years ago, and was thoroughly disappointed. The plane was old and dingy. There were no individual video screens, and the TV's looked like they were from the 70's. The one I could see hardly worked (kept flashing in and out) and the 24 to 30 seats to my left had no audio during the flight. Lufthansa also has a decent kit for passengers - but it costs five euros(!). I was not impressed with the service, either. While this was my only experience flying Lufthansa, I've spoken with several other frequent international travellers who second my opinion. My last roommate here in Vienna flew frequently (his family and second house are in Berlin) and he avoids Lufthansa like the plague after several poor experiences with them.

All anecdotal, but I can't say enough good things about Air France, and I haven't heard many good things about Lufthansa from my travelling friends.
posted by syzygy at 3:05 AM on March 24, 2006

Flew Air France Paris - Cameroon and back, business class, service was crap there so don't know how bad it would be in cattle.
posted by biffa at 3:25 AM on March 24, 2006

I flew Paris-Johannesburg with Air France a couple of months ago. I found the leg room sufficient to be honest (it was an Airbus, if that makes a difference) but I only fly in an aisle seat. The food was alright, too. (I mean seriously, come on, who flys for the cuisine? As long as it's not gruel I don't care.)

What I do have an issue about is the reading light. When the seat in front reclines it cuts off two-thirds of the light. It's like they never even tested it! If you're on a red-eye flight and plan to read, bring your own mini reading lamp. Also, drink lots of water. I'm sure I don't have to tell you this but the air on long-haul flights is shite, far too dry; my sinuses were dried out for a week after my last trip.
posted by macdara at 4:05 AM on March 24, 2006

I just noticed that Lufthansa is a Star Alliance partner (thanks qvantamon), which means I can collect Aeroplan miles. And since I'll be booking it on my Aerogold Visa, that's a double bonus.

Thanks everyone!
posted by howling fantods at 4:46 AM on March 24, 2006