After we arrived in Frankfurt on a ‘five star’ short haul business class, it was time to check out the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge. I’ve put ‘five stars’ between brackets, because Lufthansa is officially a five star airline according to rating website Skytrax. Our flight from Brussels to Frankfurt was not very five star, so the question is: does the lounge do better?

Review by Nico.
More by Nico.
Nico visited this lounge before the pandemic.

Accessing the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge

Frankfurt is Lufthansa’s biggest hub. So they don’t just have one lounge here. There are five business class lounges, two first class lounges (and a separate first class terminal), three ‘senator lounges’ for frequent flyers, and a ‘Welcome Lounge‘.

The Welcome Lounge is according to the Lufthansa website a dedicated lounge for sleeping. People can only access it when they arrive in Frankfurt from a long haul flight. All other lounges have quite straightforward access conditions, you can check it here.

I will review the lounge near gate B20, as it was the closest to our departure gate.

First impressions

The lounge is one floor higher than the gate area, and access to the lounge is checked before you can even enter the staircase. It’s the first time I see that access is checked right here, in the terminal. There was a line of people waiting to have their boarding passes checked.

When it was my turn, I tried to friendly greet the lounge agent and I showed my boarding pass. She didn’t reply at all, and just pointed to the stairs. Speaking of a friendly welcome…

On top of the stairs, there is the actual entrance of the lounge.

There is an actual reception desk as soon as you enter the lounge. I have no clue why they don’t just use this desk to verify if someone has access to the lounge. According to the Lufthansa website, this is a ‘service desk’, to help people with questions about their next flight for example.

The lounge has a lot of windows and daylight, though no view. You just see a sort of corridor when looking through the windows.

Seating

The lounge has four types of seating: couches, lounge chairs, bar chairs and restaurant style seating. My favorite seat would be the lounge chairs closest to the windows, as they offer the most privacy. Clearly I’m not the only one with this preference: all the lounge chairs were taken.

It is a very big lounge with a lot of daylight, but I don’t know if I am a fan of the design. To me, it looks a lot like a cafeteria in an office building. The lounge atmosphere is pretty consistent with my short haul flight from Brussels to Frankfurt: it’s not wrong, but it lacks a feeling of luxury.

Certainly in a big space like this, I feel like Lufthansa could’ve done more to make this a pleasant place to be. I’d suggest Lufthansa to go and take a look at the lounge of Brussels Airlines.

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Food and drinks

The buffet was very solid. There were cold and warm options, sweets, fruit, salads, you name it. A nice touch is their little candy store in the corner of the buffet.

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There also was a nice variety of drinks.

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Extra features

The lounge has a separate room with some beds, but in this area I feel like Lufthansa isn’t even trying. The nursery room in high school was a nice place to nap compared to this. They’ve just put three very basic beds in one room. There is no divider between the beds, so don’t count on any privacy while sleeping. The room has no door, so it doesn’t get dark or quiet.

Lufthansa does have a separate Welcome Lounge dedicated for people who want to sleep. But that lounge is at the other side of the airport, and you can only access it if you are arriving in Frankfurt on selected flights. So when it comes to bedding in the business class lounge, it is in my opinion better to have no bedding than to offer this.

There were also ‘phone cells’, if you need a discreet place to talk.

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Bottom line

This lounge certainly won’t win any award. The design lacks cosiness or a sense of luxury and the bedding is downright awful. Food and drinks are ok, but nothing to get really excited about.

I would advise Lufthansa Business Class passengers to use the Air Canada lounge in Frankfurt. It is more quiet and more comfortable. This is a compliment for Air Canada, but a blame for Lufthansa,

I mean c’mon: is this the best you can do for a business class lounge in your most important hub?