On the long 10 minute trek from the United GFL to B17, our LH escort apologized for their facilities at ORD. She said that LH had wanted to have their own lounge here but dealing with the City of Chicago was very difficult.... took them three years just to get approval to redesign their check in area. Guess they weren't greasing the right palms. She also amusingly referred to our flight as the "garbage flight" as it was the last flight of the day to Europe, and as such they usually got a lot of misconnects from any and all earlier flights from any airline.
Lufthansa 433
ORD-FRA
747-400 New First
10:15P-1:30P (sked)
11:00P-1:30P (actual)
August 31, 2013
Departed 4/8
Seats 83CH
We were the first to board and happily retreated to our upper deck oasis, where we were warmly greeted by our FAs. And settled into our usual 83C and H. Some pics of the cabin from an earlier report.
Happy wife. Happy life. 
A pre-departure glass of the Alfred Gratien Cuvée Paradis Brut. OK, it's not Krug but I enjoy it. We don't fly LH for the food and drinks.
The first thing I noticed tonight was the lack of a Hot Spot logo at the front of the cabin.
Indeed No WiFi tonight. Our FA said inbound crew said it wasn't working but with no Hot Spot logo at the front of the cabin, I'm doubt that this one was even WiFi equipped. Strange because even our old First 744 last month had WiFi.
We pushed back at 11:00P and after a short taxi at a quiet O'Hare, were wheels up at 11:13P. Captain announced that in spite of the 45 departure delay, strong tailwinds mean just over 7 hours tonight and he estimated an on time arrival at FRA.
The good news tonight is that only two other pax (81C and 82C), the flight was charter-like as we had the entire back of the cabin and lav to ourselves. The bad news is that this was not one of LH's better crews. Setting up for dinner seemed to take forever as did getting my next glass of champagne. Indeed, it was a full 35 minutes after wheels up before we had our first drink. The only rose petals we saw tonight. No rose for the rose holder.
Our amuse bouche, summer fruit salad... same as last DEN-FRA last month.
Normally, menus are presented while we are at the gate. Tonight, we didn't get our menus until after the first drink. Even Mrs. SFO asked "where are the menus?" Finally, after the amuse bouche...
As presumably with all US-Germany flights, the menu was from celebrity chef Toni Robertson of the Mandarin Oriental in NY. Same July-August starters as our last flight. I was looking forward to the duck that was on last month's DEN-FRA menu but apparently this flight was one of four shorter late night flights (including JFK, IAD and BOS), more supper than dinner, with "different" main selections, including two vegetarian dishes and cod. We both hate cod. Ugh.
The set-up.
Caviar to start, naturally. And yet another service faux pas tonight as when I asked for some vodka with the caviar, our FA came back with a regular cocktail glass with a shot of warm vodka. Yeah, I guess it's one of those nights.
And a trio of delicious starters.
The Tuna Carpaccio was great.
As was the Teriyaki Beef Brochette with sesame seeds
And a refreshing Seasonal Salad with shaved parmesan
I had the beef last month and, although delicious, didn't feel like I wanted anything quite as heavy. So I opted for the Sesame Soba Noodles with cashew nuts, mixed Asian vegetable and ponzu sauce. It was actually delicious although it could have been a tad spicier. Would have even been better if LH thought to load and offer chopsticks. 
And for dessert, the green tea cake was delicious.
And after dinner bon-bons
Other than the shot of warm vodka, I stayed with the Alfred Gratien the entire evening, polishing off the entire bottle.
After a movie, time to sleep. With my bed covered with books, papers and other stuff, I moved over to the bed in 84H and slept for a couple of hours. Then worked on editing pics and watched most of a funny Bollywood movie including the usual eye candy.
With that tailwind, very impressive ground speeds.
As I was still stuffed from dinner/supper, I passed on breakfast even though the full array was offered.
We touched down at 1:25P and pulled into Z19 pretty much on time with just over two hours until our FRA-LIN flight. Time to enter Germany, walk thru baggage claim, exit the terminal and turn left for the 5 minute walk to heaven.
