Lufthansa economy A340-300: individual tv screens or not ?
 

After some research on the web on LH coach IFE I have found out following information

A330-300 Yes, all fitted
A340-600 Yes, al fitted
B747-400 No, we have to wait until the replacement/delivery of new ordered no. 20 B747-800

A340-300 No, on the 2 classes C/Y versions. Only overhead TV available
Yes, on the 3 classes F/C/Y versions according www.seatguru.com

but on this last A340-300 aircraft I have different information. Is this statement correct or not ? Maybe yes only on a few A340-300 aircrafts and not on all of them ? Does anybody have a direct feedback on this aircraft ?

We've flown LH's A340-300 6 times in the last 4 yrs and never had individual screens. Maybe it's just our route (IAH-FRA) but no one else we know that's flown that plane in that time has had them either.

Forgot - also flew A340-300 between MUC-ORD and no IFE either.

Well, I'm eventually going to give you a complete answer. the flights we were on were 3 classes - F/C/Y versions.

thanks dfr4848 !!

So the info on seatguru are not correct on the 3 classes version... !! let's see now if others have different statements !!

Hello Fabio!
An interesting post, because i've tried to search every possibly site on the internet of the IFE system on Lufthansa A340-300. I'm flying with Lufthansa A340-300 from Frankfult to Calgary in the fall 2009 and i'm wondering is the plane going to have personal ptv's. Nearly 10hours with out a ptv is a nightmare!

like you said, the seatguru does show that version 34P has personal ptv, but the 34V doesn't, and of course i'm flying with the version with out any ptv. Lets just hope that all A340-300 has ptv in the fall. I can't belive that Lufthansa is so behind in this progress!

Stigu

as written above from dfr4848 I am afraid that even the 3 classes version does not have pesonal tv screens in coach.
Lufthansa has ordered a total of 15 A380 and 20 B747-800 which will replaces all B744 but this process takes some years, until 2012 to be completed. At the moment, according to their information, personal tv on all A340-600 and A330-300 means about 40% of the entire intercontinental fleet.
I have the feeling that LH prefers (sooner or later)to replaces old aircrafts with new ones rather than filling the actual A340-300 and B744 versions with personal tv......
It would cost too much keeping all these aircrafts on ground just for refurbishing.

Stigu

have you tried to switch to their sister Star Alliance Air Canada A330-300 afternoon flight Frankfurt-Calgary ? You should find personal tv there ! They have LH/AC codeshared flights !

Fabio!

I think i'm going to try to switch to air canada.
Thanx for the tip

Stigu

Just ask AC first, whether or not they have personal tv in coach. I flew the same route FRA-YYC some years ago with AC but honestrly I do not remember ptv. It was september 2002 and probably it was another kind of aircraft, maybe a B767 or similar but I think A330-300 should have ptv as it is a more recent type of aircraft.

<I have the feeling LH prefers to replace old aircraft with new ones rather than filling [current ones] with personal tv...>

Think that's exactly the case.

FWIW, the IAH-FRA route now has B747-400 which we took in Nov., '08. Not surprisingly, no IFE. While we certainly miss the IFE, we've found that their cabin service and price usually "makes up" for the lack of updated entertainment. But that's always a personal choice.

dfr4848

I also flew FRA-IAH in July 2008 on B747-400 with no IFE and I agree with you. It's personal choice.
To me, not having a personal tv screen in coach is not a disaster and LH still remains my preferred airline for cabin service, professionality and safety. However it is interesting to know how they deal with their two hubs of FRA and MUC.
FRA is manly a B747-400 hub for LH, while MUC just has Airbusses.
LH has several destinations which are served either via FRA and MUC. In these cases there is the option to choose one gateway over the other and therefore those aircrafts from MUC with personal tv over the FRA B747-400 hub. After some research here is a list of LH intercont destinations where if you fly to/from MUC (A340-600/A330-300) you find IFE in coach while if you fly to/from FRA (B747-400/A340-300) you don't find:

EWR JFK BOS ORD IAD SFO LAX DEN BOM DEL HKG PEK PVG SIN

Of course for those destinations only served via FRA there is no choice... !! Howeer a few US/Canada destinations to/from FRA are operated by Airbusses with IFE: SEA MCO DTW YVR YYZ

My home airport here in Italy is connected with LH to both FRA and MUC so it is easy to choose MUC or FRA whenever it is possible.

However it would have been interesting also to know if some A340-300 may have IFE...

Fabio - hadn't thought/noticed about the aircraft differences between FRA and MUC. Interesting info.

One of our trips was to FCO through FRA and out of FIR through MUC. Both legs of Transatl. were on A340-300s. Heard some grumbling about no IFEs, but as I said, that's not the most important consideration to us. But you would think some of them would...haven't heard of any yet though.

dfr4848

I do not know the code FIR. Where is it ? I know FLR for Florence and is our closest airport !! very little airport !

In the meantime MUC has lately replaced some A340-300s with A340-600s and actually the only transatlantic flight with A340-300 (no IFE) from MUC is BOS on some days of the week but with A330-300 (with IFE) on the other days.

MUC also has some other intercont destinations with A340-300 with no IFEs, these are GRU DXB ICN NRT.

Fabio- FLR comes out FIR when you don't hit the right key!!!!

According to the Lufthansa website (Economy section): "The entire A330-300 and A340-600 fleet is already fitted with in-seat screens."

http://www.lufthansa.com/online/port...en&cid=1000390

...ummm, which is not what you were talking about (i.e., A340-300 not A340-600)! SORRY!

We just flew Lufthansa DFW-FRA-DFW on A340-300 both ways. On both legs the planes were fitted with individual videos. I was not able to determine this beforehand, so I was very pleased to find that our flights had been updated with the videos. I found seatguru not 100% accurate in its description of Lufthansa's A340-300. Guru indicated blocked windows on, I believe, rows 33 and 32, so I chose row 34 to be safe. But there were no windows blocked anywhere on the planes we flew. We really enjoyed the flights, not only for the personal videos, but for the very nice service provided in economy, including free wine. (Listen up, AA!)

crckwc1 - interesting. That must be somewhat of a recent development. I had friends that took that route about 18 mo. ago and no IFEs then. Good to know.