As I had several hours of transit time between my flight from Vienna to Frankfurt and my onward flight to Tokyo, I visited Lufthansa’s non-Schengen business class lounge. While I also briefly visited the neighboring Senator Lounge once the Business Lounge closed, I won’t be reviewing it since the two lounges were nearly identical during my visit.
One thing I will note right off the bat is that while the lounge itself was not bad, one of the receptionists was rude beyond belief. More on that further in the review, though.
Location, Opening Hours & Access
Immediately after arrival, I cleared immigration, finding myself in the non-Schengen part of Frankfurt’s terminal 1. From there, thanks to plentiful signs, getting to the lounge which is located near gate Z50 was easy. In case you are departing from Frankfurt instead of just transitting there, you need to clear security and immigration before finding the lounge.
While the lounge is typically open longer, during my visit, it closed at 2PM. Now, it seems to be open from 6AM until 9:30PM every day. Since the opening hours can change frequently with the ongoing pandemic, make sure to check Lufthansa’s website for the latest information before your visit.
The lounge welcomes Lufthansa and other Star Alliance business class passengers. Status holders are sent to the neighboring Senator Lounge which shares reception with the Business Lounge. Otherwise ineligible passengers traveling on Lufthansa can also purchase access at the reception.
At the time of my visit, passengers entering the lounge had to present a vaccination certificate at a counter in front of the lounge before being allowed to proceed to the reception. While on that topic, I would also like to briefly mention an unpleasant experience I had while entering the lounge.
Since there was a sign saying something along the lines of “please scan your boarding pass here” and a scanner facing the guest, without much thinking, I scanned my boarding pass as soon as I got to the counter. At that point, the man behind the reception counter started holding his head and rather loudly saying “oh my god! what are you doing?” Explaining to him that I just followed the instructions they have displayed, he asked “yes, but did I allow you to do so?”
Not being in the mood for further argument, I mentioned to him that perhaps they should remove the sign or he could at least learn to be a bit more courteous and proceeded into the lounge.
The same staff came into the lounge just past 1:30PM and started saying “the lounge is closing, the lounge is closing,” and approaching passengers who didn’t look like they were getting on their feet. Just like the situation at the reception, I found that to be extremely rude considering that the lounge wasn’t meant to close for another 30 minutes.
Lounge Tour
Just past the reception desk, there was an escalator leading into the lounge itself.
On the left side of the escalator, there were two coffee tables, each with a pair of sofa chairs. There were also a service counter, some luggage lockers, and restrooms and showers in this area.
Proceeding straight ahead from the escalator, there was the lounge’s dining area. In addition to the buffet counter and island with food and drinks, there was a variety of seating.
That included a couple of groups of tables for two surrounded by a bench on one side and having a chair on the other and a few freestanding counters with stools. The area also included a few sofa chairs with coffee tables between them.
Further down, there were some more sofa chairs facing three TVs. The opposite side of the wall holding the TVs featured flight information displays and a magazine rack. Due to COVID-19, there were no newspapers or magazines in the rack, though.
In addition to the main dining and seating area described above, the lounge also included a couple of smaller areas.
One of those was a relaxation/sleeping area with a few lounging chairs separated by coffee tables. There was another similar area. That one had cloud-themed walls, presumably to make it a more relaxing environment. In a similar fashion, there was a seating area with sofa chairs some of which were placed against a forest-themed backdrop.
In the back of the lounge, behind the buffet area, there was another seating area. Being fairly narrow and long, it was equipped with multiple rows of sofa chairs, some separated by a fairly high partition for better privacy.
On the side of this area closer to the central part of the lounge, there was also a nice wooden table with even nicer prints of a winglet of Lufthansa’s aircraft hanging on the wall. At some point during my stay, a group of friends traveling together was using the table to play some card games.
On the other side, there was a not-so-comfortably-looking bench along the interior wall.
The long and narrow area above as well as part of the main seating area of the lounge offered some views of the apron. They were quite limited and through striped windows, though.
Lastly, the lounge also had a work area. This included four phone booths and quite a few seats along multiple counters. It’s worth noting that the phone booths didn’t have doors. Each of the seats in the work area had access to a power outlet.
Food and Drinks
Just like in the Austrian Airlines business class lounge in Vienna, there were some Vivil candies near the lounge’s entrance. The actual food and drinks could be found, as usual, spread across a couple of counters in the dining area.
Starting with cold soft drinks, there were large bottles of water and tonic, juices, as well as a soda machine. The latter included Coke, Coke Zero, Fanta, Sprite, and sparkling water. While there seemed to be a few more options, they were unavailable at the time of my visit.
Hot drinks included a variety of coffee drinks from a machine and a selection of Eilles tea bags.
Alcoholic drinks included Beck’s and Franziskaner Weissbier beer on tap as well as in bottles, a limited selection of wines, and over twenty different types of liquor.
For those wanting a bite to eat, there were some ham, salami, and cheese cold cuts. There were also pretzels and sausages – both of which I tried and enjoyed.
More filling warm options included Thai curry and vegetable stew with rice.
Finally, there were some snacks and two types of desserts including nut bundt cake and vanilla curd. The snacks were available from jars placed along the length of one of the counters and included nuts, gummies, and chocolates among other things.
Lufthansa Business Lounge (Non-Schengen) Frankfurt Summary
Overall, the Lufthansa Business Lounge in Frankfurt airport’s non-Schengen area was alright.
There was a variety of seating to suit most people’s preferences and there were enough seats too. The latter might not be the case when air travel demand is not suppressed by a pandemic. One thing I would have liked to see in the lounge (and something that was available in the Senator Lounge next door) were some desks instead of just counters in the work area.
While the food options were fairly limited, there certainly was enough to keep one filled until a connecting flight. The drink selection was OK too.
The only real but significant complaint I have about the lounge is the attitude of the rude lounge staff member. It certainly was the case of “one bad apple” completely changing the overall experience.
