Thanksgiving 2023 EuroTrip: Part 3 (VCE-FRA: Marco Polo Lounge + an Economy flight)

After a long weekend in Venice with my friend (whose name is also Michael), it was time to begin the most chaotic part of my trip: the journey from Venice to Cairo via Frankfurt, London, and Abu Dhabi. 

Scott and I were unable to book my flight to Cairo as starting in Venice, so I had to get a separate ticket from Venice to Frankfurt to start off. I booked the flight as an award ticket through United, mostly because it gave free changes and cancellation. Upon check-in, there was an offer to upgrade to Business Class for €160, but I declined it. It then showed up again for €65, and I thought about it, but the offer ultimately disappeared before I made a decision. I didn’t need the extra checked bag or lounge access, so it wasn’t the most enticing offer. The main downside on this short flight was that I was stuck in boarding group 4.

Still being jetlagged, I accidentally woke up too early as per usual, but the AC Hotel in Venice didn’t have a fitness center, so I went on a jog to the other side of Venice and back before heading to the airport. I tried to get the airport bus, but the actual departure times of the bus were not consistent with the schedules I found online, so I gave up and took the regular bus instead.

Upon arrival at the airport, I made my way to the Lufthansa check-in desk, and to my amazement, they were actually able to check the bag all the way to Cairo. But there were so many legs that she actually had to attach two baggage tags to it. Spoiler: amazingly the bag did actually make it to Cairo in one piece.

After check-in, I headed to the Marco Polo lounge, which I was able to access using a Priority Pass. Venice is not the largest airport, so I wasn’t expecting the lounge to be very big. I was wrong.

Right past the front desk are a couple different types of seating:

Then on your right is the buffet area with actually a very wide selection:

Everything was already in individual portions but not overloaded with plastic, which I thought was great.

Past the buffet area was another seating area that had a much greener vibe.

And attached to this area was a nice outdoor space for plane spotting (and I assume smoking).

I served myself a small selection of sandwiches and small bites and waited for my flight to show as boarding.

I wasn’t in a very early group, so I didn’t have a ton of incentive to get to the gate early.

When it was finally time for me to board, I found smushed on board with everyone else and squished into seat 6D. 

What struck me the most is that this plane had started its day in Baku, Azerbaijan and had flown over 5 hours to Frankfurt. 5 hours in European-style slimline seats (in either economy or business) does not sound great. Nor does the 4:30 am departure, haha. Though I did notice that both the economy and business class prices from Baku to Frankfurt aren’t actually too bad, so there’s that at least I guess.

Luckily my flight was scheduled to only be about 70 minutes.

As one would expect, the service on a short flight like this in economy was minimal. We all got given a water bottle and then a piece of chocolate. They had a buy-on-board concept, but didn’t really push much of anything.

In summary, economy class in Europe is pretty much the same on every airline. As far as I can tell, the only difference between this flight and a Ryanair flight was the tiny water bottle and chocolate. I guess the advantage of Lufthansa is that I could book the ticket using United miles. The Marco Polo lounge definitely exceeded my expectations (4/5). The economy seat on this flight was perfectly fine (3/5). The “meal service” was efficient at least; having a buy-on-board option is good enough (3/5). The service was efficient (3/5), but there was no IFE, which is typical in Europe (0/5). The flight gets a 13/25, which is the same as the Club Europe flight to Venice actually, haha.

I booked the flight through United for 6,500 miles and $26.50. The only points I earned off this flight were the 130 Amex points I got for charging it to my Amex Platinum card. Interestingly, this was my fourth award flight in a row using United miles.