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A Lufthansa First Class amenity giveaway

A Lufthansa First Class amenity giveaway

a man taking a selfie

I’m somewhere over the North Atlantic Ocean right now in hour 16 or so of my 24 hours in Lufthansa First Class adventure. The short version is that coming home from Vancouver via Frankfurt seemed like a good idea at the time, especially in first class, so I booked the flights. I’m not entirely sure I was either right or wrong but I do know that it has meant two flights in LH F – an A343 and a 744 – and that means two sets of amenities. I’m only one guy and as much as I love me some airline PJs I figure I should share the wealth. So here goes.

#Laviator fun in my PJs
#Laviator fun in my PJs. You get a clean set if you win; I’m keeping this pair.

I’ve got a fresh, unopened set of PJs, slippers and a Rimowa amenity kit to give away. The kit is the gents version and the PJs are male large. If you want ’em just leave a comment below about your most ridiculous routing to get home. Or anything else you want to write. US shipping addresses only, please. I’ll pick a winner from all entries received by noon EST on Tuesday and ship out a care package.

Also, huge props to one of my readers who saw me in the FCT at Frankfurt this morning and came over to say hi. That was pretty cool.

More photos from my trip (and more will be uploaded after I get home) on my Facebook page here.

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Seth Miller

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I'm Seth, also known as the Wandering Aramean. I was bit by the travel bug 30 years ago and there's no sign of a cure. I fly ~200,000 miles annually; these are my stories. You can connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

163 Comments

  3. I’m new to this game, but I’m saving up for flights to Chile in around new year’s eve 2014. It’d be nice to have a set of PJ’s for the flight since LAN doens’t provide them in business!

  5. How nice of you! Would love the kit for my husband. We haven’t flown first class internationally so he would enjoy a little taste of it, I’m sure. Thank you!

  10. Moving back to North America, with stops along the way:
    BCN-BOD-CDG-DUB-LHR-HAM-ZRH-VIE-JFK-YYZ

  11. earlier in the month, i flew ktm-ist-fra-jfk, which isn’t crazy on its own, but i barely made each of my connections b/c of a chain of delayed flights!

  12. It isn’t all that crazy, but back from Africa flying OUA-IST-ORD-DFW.

    As an NRSA, that’s when the craziness happens: MSP-DEN-SAT-HOU-DAL

  13. No crazy routings for me. I don’t mileage run,, so I usually take direct routes as much as possible.

  14. Had to take a bus from Cincinnati to Binghamton due to a winter weather cancellation on Northwest.

  15. Flew GVA-FRA-DEN-IAH to get home from Geneva to get a chance to fly on the top deck of a 747 from FRA-DEN instead of taking the non-stop FRA-IAH or GVA-EWR-IAH

  18. I did (because of my twins birth) KUL-TPE-LAX-MIA-MAR and back. My wife had to “hold them” inside her for an extra week since it was Xmas and I couldn’t find tickets -nor a better route-.

  22. My most ridiculous trip – tll to mso, but instead tll-fra-ist(got the hotel based on your tip!) – muc-sfo-den-mso! Thanks for the excellent website!

  25. July 2011. I was desperately trying to make my way to EZE for a huge conference as part of my new job. The flight was cancelled twice because of the sudden Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption! Finally getting on the AA flight from JFK, third try, almost 10 hours later and 14 minutes left on the approach, we were diverted to Santiago because of volcanic ash. Two days later I finally made it to EZE with 12 checked bags because argentine customs wouldn’t at us ship them which held me up at the airport another 12 hours. I was relived the flight home was a piece of cake, but getting here was an certainly an odyssey!

  26. No crazy routings for me yes…. worst is still just LHR>ORD>HNL.
    I think I’ll have some crazier routing in the next couple of years.

  27. Nothing too crazy, but did do an intentional layover in Seattle to stay at Hyatt Olive 8 (great staff and breakfast) and have dinner at the Pink Door.

  29. LAX-IAD-JFK-FRA-SIN. Didn’t really have any crazy routing but I really would like to get my hands on the Rimowa amenity kit. 🙂

  30. NW once had a promotion for a free ticket if you flew 8 segments within a certain period of time. All I recall is flying YYZ-DTW-ORD-LAX one way.

  32. I think it was LAS – PHX – DEN – PIT. The LAS-PHX was cancelled and my wife and I were put onto a direct LAS-PIT.

  34. Coming home from JFK, I need to take the q10 then transfers on to at least 2 subways lines (bc the trains always run wonky on the weekends)

  39. Milwaukee to Chicago to Dallas to Orlando to Miami. Just to get home for Thanksgiving in 2006 bc of snow and sold out flights. It took an entire day but it was worth it.

  40. Flying from the Seychelles to BWI via Abu Dhabi, Dublin, Frankfurt and Toronto.. Because LH F flights lined up, paired with an EY C seat to DUB.

  41. Booked LHR-CDG-ORD-DTW-LAX-SAN and SAN-ATL-YUL-CDG-LHR on DL/AF so I could use SWUs on all segments at ticketing to upgrade from Premium Voyageur to Affaires/Business. Flew the outbound as booked, which was a really exhausting experience. Fortunately upgrade space opened on the return so I could fly SAN-LAX-CDG-LHR.

  42. I had the same idea this weekend and flying LH F for my first time and will just miss you in the FCT by a few days after taking SQ25 as a positioning flight tonight. Here’s to hoping that my 747-8 to ORD is stocked with rimowa kits.

  48. Not crazy to me because I got to spend all 24 hours of my B-Day in Planes or airports, but crazy to family, friends and co-workers was my millage run in 1st on AA this summer: DCA-DFW-LAX-ORD-NRT-DFW-LAX-DCA

  50. LVI-JNB-IST-VIE-IAD – a little out of the way, but a couple of nice business class flights on Turkish & Austrian.

  52. Vancouver to Sao Paulo:
    Vancouver – Hong Kong – Johannesburg in Cathay First Class
    Johannesburg – Sao Paulo in South African business class

  56. I had long journey from NAD-AKL-SYD-MEL-AUH-CDG-TLL-FRA-ZRH-DXB in January. I was rerouted to do canceled flight. I would really really like to get Lufthansa Rimowa amenity kit.

  57. Nothing too crazy…once did LAX-ATL-SLC-JFK but that is tame compared to many of your readers!

  59. Had to to jnb , lived in cpt.

    Took

    Cpt to ist then to JNb

    It was ridiculous but still shorter than taking train or bus

  60. Also once hwantd to fly to NY in Easter

    The only space I could find was cpt – jnb – hong kong – ny

    With stop over in hong kong for only 2 hours .

    Cpt jnb 2 hours
    Jnb hong kong 14 hours

    Hong kong to Ny 16 hours

  61. Most ridiculous routing I’ve done was a domestic trip, ONT-SLC-MSP-RDU. Nice thing was all the upgrades cleared and I was earning miles (Even if they were skypesos)

  62. I convinced my husband to take a southwest flight to Ohio to visit in laws. It was only an hour or so flight from MD or 6 hour car ride. The weather couldn’t be more perfect yet somehow they managed to delay the flight for 40 mins then an hour then another hour then another hour. This kept going on and we finally got home around 8 hours later. We could have been back home, had dinner and be in our pajamas. Ugh total backfire. Fail!

  63. Currently in the air on the DFW-SJC leg of a SAN-ORD-MCO-DFW-SJC-ORD-MKE-ORD-SAN pseuso MR. Going home from San Jose to San Diego through Chicago and Milwaukee.

  65. My most insane route home was actually on my bday several years ago after a long deployment overseas; Afghanistan, Italy, Romania, Kyrgyzstan, and Germany were all stops for me. My only birthday where I was up to enjoy (or not so much) all 24 hours of it!

  66. Not a mileage runner – so never have had enough miles to go First and get amenities kits or PJs 😉 – but I did take 5 flights to go PDX-TLV since that was the only award booking I could snag! Amazingly every flight/connection was great. It was coming home with just 1 connection that went totally awry and delayed us a day!

  67. Just this week: las-slc (a 5.5 hour drive!) through the following routing:
    LAS-SFO-IAH-ORD-IAD-SLC. Yay free same day changes!

  68. I once did MIA-DFW-MSP-ATL-DTW-DCA because it was only $10 more than the nonstop and got me a boatload of extra miles.

  70. Going to Disneyland in 1990 on NorthPacificAirlines (they flew as United Express in the Northwest) PSC-SEA-PDX-RDM-SFO-SNA going home was a bit easier SNA-SFO-RDM-PDX-PSC took 2 days of flying each way. I had a travel coupon good for use only on them.

  71. I should of booked this routing to get home, but never did.

    But to fly SIN-BNE i was going to go SIN-KUL-BKK-BNE just to get a LH 744 from KUL-BKK

    But went with another set of flights that ate up the segments instead. Does a flight from Brisbane to Sydney via Auckland count as crazy?

  72. My best that I can remember domestically is IAH to ORD to IAD to SFO. internationally would be JFK to PTY to MEX. staidly I didn’t do my scheduled LAX to YVR to SFO last weekend after MEL to SYD to LAX.

  73. From BKK, I took BKK-HKG-NRT-ICN-SFO-LAX-ORD-DTW. Least number of connections would have been BKK-FRA-DTW.

  74. My craziest route back home would be: SFO-LHR-MUC-ZRH-NRT-SIN-BKK-HKG-SFO all thanks to USDM and AA miles.

  75. On my first mileage run right now ORD-SFO-PDX-SFO-EWR-CLE-ORD. Tame by some standards I know. Thanks for the chance!

  76. I once routed from bkk to nrt to JFK then home to SFO. It was a looong day but the perk of using the admirals club on a day pass from my parents was Awesome!

  78. The longest trip was HNL -> LAX -> EWR -> BOM -> GOI -> DEL -> BKK -> NRT -> HNL. My only time around the globe on one itinerary!

  81. Aua ATL BOS cvg dtw lax

    Lju fra tos boo svg bgo hel LHR ams ATL lax

    Long long days in transit :p

  83. Hmm… TUL-IAH-ORD-PHL-ATH-ZRH-PHL-CLT-ORD-TUL
    lol I took the scenic route back home 🙂

  86. I’m still pretty new at this, so the strangest routing I’ve had is the one I’m on right now, sitting on the floor in the Fresno, CA airport because that’s the best (or only) way to cobble together a (sort of) desktop for my laptop and mouse. I just think the airline PJs would be so cool to give to our son who doesn’t really understand my new obsession with miles and points.

  87. No real crazy routings for me. But, getting anywhere from my local regional airport makes everything seem crazy.

  89. Routing through Asia to get to and from New Zealand. Not too crazy, especially when in Singapore first class and suites

  90. My craziest flight was a Southwest direct that routed me TPA-CMH-MDW-DTW. Then I had to go get my car and drive back down to near Toledo, Ohio. It was funny because if I would have gotten off in Columbus. I could have been home three hours earlier even with the extra two hour drive.

  91. LAX-PHX-DFW-IAD-PEK-SZX-PEK-SFO-DEN-DFW-PHX-LAX is about the craziest that i’ve managed though each way did have a nice break at a hotel for the night

    my most favorite was probably HKG-BKK-NRT and the reverse in thai first

  94. No crazy routings for me. I am a fan of non-stop or one stop only shopping!
    Just booked a DL saver award in First/Business with only one stop to TLV (no non-stop flights from MIA) and very happy. Now have to hope for no January/February snowstorms at JFK.

  97. I am not a fan of crazy routings, but sometimes Air Canada has other plans – their “pilot was late clearing customs” and so I missed my connection actually had them reroute me through London, resulting in 2 connections and e being half a day late

  98. Coming back from South Africa will be long but interesting: CPT-JNB-FRA-IAD-DEN, at least it’ll be in business 🙂

  100. ICN-HKG-BKK-MUC-FRA-SFO-LAX in 2011
    FRA-NRT-HND-HKG-SFO-LAX in 2012
    NRT-SIN-HKG-SFO-LAX in 2013
    HKG-KUL-LHR-LAX in 2014

  101. riyadh – souda bay (crete) – raf mildenhall (uk) – LHR – LAX – DEN – DFW – SFO – HNL – GUM – HNL – NRT – SEL – Naha – Kadena AB (okinawa, japan)

  103. Meeeee I would like Rimowa amenity kit because in my intent of do a mileage run IAH PTY BOG MDE I’ve got a ear infection during the 3 days trip and doctor forbbided me to fly until I’ve recovered 🙁 so I’m depressed as hell

  104. Seth
    I do not need the Pjs or Rimowa (having far too many), but am very curious about how you decided to go on LH F.
    Did you get the FCT Duckys? That is the most important part.
    You mostly blog about the price being the key in deciding destinations and I wonder where the “value” part of flying LH F comes in to that equation.

    1. Yes, I got the ducks.

      And, every now and then it is possible to get a great deal, even on a premium product. I paid more than the bare minimum for the trip but it was still a good price for the product I got. 😉

  105. Not a crazy routing (DTW-ORD-SFO), but crazy delays one Thanksgiving. Started out at 7 AM from DTW and did not get to SFO until 6 AM because of snow and fog delays.

  111. Not so crazy but it was most direct routing available TLV-IST-YYZ-ORD. Was well worth it though to try the Turkish business class.

  114. My 2 best, most recent routings are LIM-IAH-DEN-IAD-IAH-COS and TYS-ORD-IAH-ORD-IAH-COS. I regularly fly COS-DEN-IAH-LAX/SFO. On New Years Day 1984, I managed to unintentionally fly in or out of all 3 Washington DC airports in one day. Left from DCA, got about 50 miles from ORD and they closed it down due to blizzards. Turned back, but couldn’t land at DCA due to cross winds on the runway so went to BWI. Couldn’t get to my destination that night from BWI so took a shuttle to IAD!

  115. My strange routings have all been weather-realated, but right now all I can think about is a FREE R-I-M-O-W-A. And btw, my men’s medium Lufthansa pj’s are a little snug. Time to upgrade.

  117. Most would consider any mileage run where you end up where you started pretty crazy…currently stuck in Ord overnight thanks to a mr gone awry…ric-ewr-pdx-Ord-ric

  124. SIN-NRT-LAX-ORD. Not necessarily a ridiculous route but it made for a very long day of flying for me and my wife at the conclusion of our honeymoon!

  125. Wrong way around the world PHX-TLV-CDG–LYS-SIN-TPE-NRT-SFO-PHX. Europe to Asia over a weekend, which was of course successfully burned up in the air.

  126. A nice segment run on a Saturday…..EUG-PDX-SEA-GEG-PDX-SEA-PDX-EUG. Totally illegal I’m sure, but AS customer service really can be helpful and understanding! Only 13 hours…..

  128. No crazy routing from me either… most crazy was to fly from Munich to Ljubljana through Zurich…

  129. Why US doesn’t route through PHX going west from CVG I have no idea. But I strayed from DL once to save a couple hundred bucks and ended up with LAX-CLT-PHL-CVG. That was a long day.

  130. Nothing too crazy. I really try to avoid those, but if it saved me a lot of money I probably would put up with some crazy stuff!

  133. Craziest routing home would have to be after Star MegaDO 3 where I flew DEN-PHX-SAN-PHX-IAD-PHL-PVD, all in the same day.

  134. Heading home to EWR from TLV. Had existing flights on Monday BCN – SAW – TLV. Booked IST – LHR – JFK round-trip and re-booked SAW – TLV on the right date. JFK – EWR will be spent on a train…

  135. Actually, not a routing I booked but AA had a sked change on my flight back from PVG next February. I had originally booked a rather straight forward PVG-LAX-JFK-YYZ, the LAX-JFK routing to sample the new A321 in business (upgraded with an eVIP). AA cancelled the nonstop PVG-LAX and rebooked me on the PVG-ORD nonstop. But instead of putting me on an ORD-YYZ flight from there, rebooked me back to LAX, then onto a LAX-JFK red-eye and finally JFK-YYZ the following morning. So AA has actually ensured I would gain in excess of 3K more EQMs than even my original itinerary provided for by rebooking me: PVG-ORD-LAX-JFK-YYZ!

  136. To go visit family in China, I routed my fiancé and I ORD-IAD-FRA-ZRH-PVG so I could try LH and LX business class. Needless to say she was not thrilled with me by the middle of the 30+ hrs of travel time.

  137. How about: SYD>LAX>CLT !>MSP. Across the USA and half way back. It was a UA award trip – I take what I can get.

  139. LHR LAX NRT HKG LHR is the best I can do. I did have a side trip to SAL from LAX plus the whole thing was done in 10 days

  142. LAX-LAS-RNO

    Sitting in LAS waiting to go to RNO over memorial day weekend really makes you take a long, hard look at your travel plans.

  146. Not long after BA announced their draconian award level change, I wanted to use 150K for a F class award (became upwards of 400K after the new level came into effect). Outbound wasn’t too bad – BOS-LHR-SIN-SYD-ROK, the return – not so much… ROK-BNE-SYD-PER-SIN-LHR-BOS

  147. This was a coworker – a client once wanted a meeting at their HQ in Germany, but would only pay for economy. The cheapest routing they found (full fare, fortunately) was JFK-BOS-AMS-XXX. On the way back, he had a mini-vacation and went XXX-FRA-IST (2 days)-CDG (2 days)-JFK

    For me, nothing too wild and crazy. Probably the silliest one was AMS-IAH-ORD so I could try out the UA 787. Literally flew right over Chicago on the way down to Houston, and then back. I’ve also (for business) done ORD-MHK-DFW-SEA-DEN-ORD.

  149. Way back when I started my career as a management consultant a living in Chicago and working at a client in Tucson. I had to get to Bangalore for my my cousin’s wedding. My routing:
    TUS-DFW-ORD-JFK-LHR-(DEL)-BOM-MAA-BLR

    Routing: TUS-DFW-ORD (on AA), then run home to pick up bags, then ORD-JFK (AA), connect to AI JFK-MAA through service which ran JFK-LHR-(DEL stop over) BOM-(plane change) – MAA overnight in airport for the 6:00AM MAA-BLR.

    This was all in Y, and I obviously would not do that again. Now as a 10 year 1K and a UA MM know the system a little better, but those were the days!

  151. I’ve never really had a crazy routing. The worst it got was having to fly back from ORD-PHL instead of EWR when my flight got canceled due to snow.

  152. I don’t have a crazy routing, but I was flying to my father on Long Island from FLL once and these horrible storms closed all the airports in the NYC area and they cancelled tons of NYC flights. I was diverted to Charlotte. Having had lived in the DC area, I had them put me on a plane to Washington National, got on the Metro to Union Station, hopped on an Amtrak to NYC, then LIRR to Long Island. So that’s:

    Car to FLL
    FLL – CLT
    CLT – DCA
    Union Station – NYC (train)
    NYC to local LIRR station (train)
    Cab to father’s house

  153. Seth said ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’.

    My wife said no more kids after our son was born. We had one more after that. Flying crazy routings all over the world is something we (I) like to do in the planning stages. When we’re actually doing it, we may have regrets. A few days later, after the pain is gone, we’re ready to do it all over again. 😉

  154. Wasn’t really crazy, but it was certainly tiring: After a budget two-week safari through Kenya and Tanzania (pitching our own tents, pit toilets, help with cooking and dishes, large 20+-person vehicle) we flew NBO-ZRH-PHL-PHX-SBP without a stopover (10,379 miles.) Felt pretty thrashed for several days thereafter.

  155. I would love to win your PJ’s and Amenity kit for my boyfriend. This collection means more than a purchased gift from a department store. Thanks for your generosity!

  159. Nothing too crazy but i do enjoy routings in Africa that make you go halfway across the continent to connect and return you to a city that’s a few 100 kms away from your starting point…

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