I was early at the airport (5.45) to collect my electronic ticket, check in, buy a newspaper and a cheap pair of spectacles at the Tax Free Shop (I had forgotten mine at home, I guess I was not well awake), get a free orange juice and cup of coffee at the Diners Club lounge. Boarding started on time at 6.40. The plane was an A321-100, reg. D-AIRU, and the flight was LH4441, etd 7.10. I had an aisle seat, 25D, because of my late booking, but the seat was perfect: probably the seat with the most legroom (just before it there was a column with a very small seat for a f/a).
Announcements were in four languages, three (German, English, French) by the stewardess, and three (German, English, Dutch) by tye first officer, who was indeed Dutch as one could tell from his accent. Quite a difference with unilingual BA. Take-off was delayed by approximately 15 minutes by ATC. Flight was smooth and the weather perfect. The meal was a choice between an excellent fresh ham sandwich (which I selected) or a cheese croissant. I also had a cup of coffee and a tomato juice. The crew was friendly and efficient. Landing at 8.20, the plane was parked far, far away from the terminal, to which we were bussed. This added some 10 minutes to the duration of the flight, hence a 25 minutes late arrival at terminal 2.
Return by LH5918 was announced in the OAG as an AVRO but was announced on my ticket as a Canadair RJ 700, operated by LH Cityline (hence the flight number starting with a 5). This plane (D-ACPF) was a real piece of s....
A few minutes after the passengers started boarding the bus (yes, a bus again!), boarding was abruptly interrupted. Five minutes later, passengers were invited to go back to the gate, wher it was annouced that the plane had technical problems. Ten minutes later, the problems could not be solved, and 15 minutes later we would get another plane, but at least 75 minutes late! It gave me some opportunity to spot longer at FRA, but after a long day of work I was in a hurry to get home.
Among other nice little things I saw a Thai B744 in Star Alliance colours, an Air China B744, two SunExpress B738s with winglets (TC-SUH and SUK), a Hapag-Lloyd B738 with winglets in TUI colours (strikingly similar to OO-VAC), a Germania Fokker 100 in nice bright green colours, a LH Cityline Avro RJ85 registered D-AVRO (yes, Chris!), an EgyptAir B735 (never seen one before: they usually come to Europe with larger planes), an Air Mauritius A340. Don't ask me for the logs, I was writing a report on my computer.
Finally we were bussed to the Canadair CRJ700 D-ACPS, in which we boarded 1 hr 30 min late.
Yes, you got it: it's the LH Cityline plane in Star Alliance colours! A first for me. I was in seat 18A. seating is a little cramped with four seats abreast, 70 in total, but all leather. the flight went further without incidents. Bilingual announcement only (German/English), with a tape recorder for some bits in French and Dutch. Nice cheese or chicken sandwich (I chose cheese), with drinks at will (I had a german beer, 33 cl Warsteiner in a glass bottle, not a can).
Arrival at BRU with the same 90 min delay. Much too late for me after such a long day.
Altogether a sh...y day.
What's to feed for SN 
You can fly almost everywhere out of FRA 
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Do you call that competition, André 
But then again, the whole IV concept was one big joke as from day 1... 
