TRIP REPORT: Lufthansa/Austrian, Miami - Skopje

TRIP REPORT


Written by Atanas Alkov

Following on from my previous report, I started my return journey by dropping off my rental car at Miami Airport’s rental car center and taking a ride to the terminal building with the automated MIA mover. Shortly I was at Lufthansa’s check-in desks and then at concourse J waiting for my flight to Frankfurt. And it was not just any flight, but a flight on the Queen of the Skies. For me this was my 6th time setting foot on the jumbo, but only my 4th flight. The other 2 were museum visits in Speyer, Germany and Seattle, WA, USA.

Unlike the spectacular city it is serving, Miami Airport is quite mediocre, at least the part that I have had the chance to see. The vast majority of the international flights from Miami are to Latin America.




Boarding was done according to boarding groups and the flight was booked to the last seat.

The flight was continuously turbulent almost to the shore of Ireland, but it was more unpleasant than dramatic.

Just to see how it looks, I selected a special kosher meal, and it was equally not good as the regular single option pasta dinner.






I have flown on this same B747-8 with registration D-ABYO in 2014 from Hong Kong to Frankfurt and at that time the onboard IFE was ultra-modern, but today, 8 years later, it looks very outdated.


Very much to my surprise, even though it was morning rush hour in FRA, we were cleared for a straight in approach on runway 07R with zero extra mileage. FRA was busy and dynamic as always and I was able to spot a few exotic birds like the Turkmenistan Airlines Boeing 777 on the cargo ramp and the plane that is on top of my wish list, Singapore Airlines Airbus A380.


The second flight on this long journey was on a jungle jet E195 operated by Austrian Airlines. I really like this aircraft type and its 2-2 seating configuration.



My final flight was one of the last departures for the day from VIE and it was delayed 40 minutes because the plane was late from the previous sector. The fully booked A320 landed at Skopje Airport and since it was the first flight from the midnight bank of arrivals, it didn’t take long to go through passport and custom control.

As much as I want to try new airlines, flying long-haul out of Skopje is limited to Lufthansa Group, Turkiye Hava Yollari and LOT. Most of the time Lufthansa Group has best prices and that is why they were my choice for this trip.


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Comments

  1. Anonymous09:27

    To be honest. The meal doesn't look that bad at all, considering it's LH. Of course maybe the taste is a different story :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:09

    So did you fly MIA-FRA-VIE-SKP? Or am I missing something here?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:25

      Yes it's obvious from the text that was the routing.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:32

      It says "the second flight on this long journey", so not that obvious.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous11:25

    Text needs more details/explanations, not clear if the flight included Vienna stop as well, why do author finds IFE outdated? Touchscreen not responsive/slow? Poor choice of movies/shows??
    Such a short text for such a long trip, disappointing...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:46

      Instead of complaining you should be thankful that someone uses his free time to write those reports!

      Delete
  4. Anonymous21:01

    As much as I want to try new airlines, flying long-haul out of Skopje is limited to Lufthansa Group, Turkiye Hava Yollari and LOT

    Air Serbia is also offering long haul from SKP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous08:39

      To Miami?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:08

      First part of the trip report was to New York.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous11:01

    Desde Europa Miami

    ReplyDelete

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