Day 1 of my trip to the Penguins. The travel days to the US are typically not too thrilling. Leaving home, airport, another airport, immigration, rental car, hotel… Something like this. At least this 25th February 2020 had some promising stages, including my debut in flying Air New Zealand. There were two flights scheduled for this day, from Frankfurt via Heathrow to Los Angeles.
Date |
Flight |
from |
to |
Tu 25.02.2020 |
NZ 4202 |
Frankfurt FRA |
London LHR (T5) |
Tu 25.02.2020 |
NZ 1 |
London LHR (T5) |
Los Angeles LAX |
No Germans on the ice this trip!
First bad news before heading to Los Angeles was already on the evening before the trip: the Penguins confirmed that they traded Dominik Kahun – I was really looking forward to see the German forward again – but they just moved him to the Buffalo Sabres. Bad luck. Even worse is that the second German I was aiming to see on the ice, Korbinian Holzer, just left the Anaheim Ducks and joined the Nashville Predators. Thus, the only German left is Los Angeles assistance coach Marco Sturm, who also played for my home town team Cologne. Thank you, Dominik, for your time at the Pens!

Early morning drive to Frankfurt Airport
Flying from Frankfurt Airport is typically a rail ride from Cologne. The high-speed train is very reliable and efficient and takes just less than an hour. However, there was still carnival season in Cologne, so I did not really dare to see the human party remains at the main station. From my home, the drive to Frankfurt Airport is less than two hours, even though the weather was terrible. I finally found a parking slot in the by far too narrow Frankfurt Airport parking garage and went for the check-in at the airport.


Senator Lounge & Heathrow
Instead of using my preferred Air Canada Lounge, I gave the Lufthansa Senator Lounge a try, majorly to take some pictures for a lounge review. While I have been asked not to take pictures in a nearly-empty lounge at my last visit, it was really crowded this time – but I could get a seat in the working area and do some stuff for the website as well as preparing a New Year’s trip later this year.


The flight to Heathrow was slightly delayed, but overall very fine. The only odd thing was a girl right behind me, who felt to have terrible aviophobia during take off, but then made jokes with her sibling about crashing planes during arrival. Lufthansa is just a wonderful airline, I guess. Maybe it was just the input of her mother who felt to cheer loudly after a smooth landing in quite easy weather conditions.



Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge
I directly headed to the B Gates, where the flight to Los Angeles was expected to depart. Though the Lufthansa Senator Lounge at Heathrow is not on Flyctory.com yet, I have been there so often that I felt to try out something new. After the amazing First Class Lounge experience in Singapore, I was looking forward to the SilverKris Lounge – finally a really nice some one hour stay.






Air New Zealand!
I could have taken a Lufthansa First Class ticket on award miles for this trip – but I felt that having my debut on Air New Zealand just was the better option, even this was more than 1,000 Euro for a Premium Economy ticket. Boarding was a complete mess as the ground staff and sent me to different places for check-in so that I finally boarded Premium Economy very late and could not take cabin pictures. At least most bulkhead seats were free and I could work quite some time in the plane. Nice service, good food, especially the pre-landing Refreshment.





Welcome to L.A.
It was the third trip I had into Los Angeles Airport from Europe. The first two ones were somehow messy – during my wedding trip at the end of 2013 as well as visiting the Weird Al Yankovic Hollywood Bowl shows in 2016 meant long queues at the immigration, traffic jam to the rental car facilities and even more traffic jam to the hotel. I now have a Global Entry – and the airport changed the traffic concept. Wow, everything went sooo smooth – and one hour after touchdown, I was already driving towards Anaheim. Cool! The lights you see in the sky on the last picture are planes by the way – perfect organisation made in L.A.!



Good Night, Mickey!
I knew that my hotel is not too far from Disneyland – but I was quite surprised that DoubleTree Anaheim Convention Center is actually a walk away from Downtown Disney. Maybe I will make use of it the next days… But for today… Good night, Mickey 🙂

California with the Pittsburgh Penguins – Day by Day
Here is the overview of my daily postings on this trip report.
Flyctory.com in Frankfurt
Here are all postings related to Frankfurt:
I am always happy to chat with German artists on my blog in the Spotlight interview category. Ann Doka is ...
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After praising my favorite songs of 2020 and the favorite albums and EPs in 2020, the final posting to do ...
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I had a couple of overnights in Frankfurt during 2020, some of them motivated by rail trip connections. In October ...
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Even though architecture is a topic which so much influences our everyday life, the German Architecture Museum (Deutsches Architekturmuseum - ...
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Due to the early departure of an ECE 451 ride from Frankfurt to Milan in September 2020, I looked for ...
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Frankfurt is the banking capital in Germany and one of the key financial centers of all Europe.Thus, it may not ...
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Just ten days before she is releasing her debut album Desert Diamond, I introduced you to the promising German country music ...
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I just stayed on the smaller Court 1 after Divij Sharan's 1st round match at the bett1HULKS Indoors in Cologne ...
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When you look at European country music, you very often purely focus on British artists. However, the German country music ...
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Right before I departed in Frankfurt on day 1 of my Four Countries, Four Trains trip in summer 2020, I ...
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One thousand kilometres to the sea - or vice versa One thousand kilometres to the Alps - was the slogan a new private ...
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Also due to the current situation in aviation, I could follow my idea to invest more time in rail travel ...
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So excited to travel again and do a proper. I did my first day of the rail rides through Germany, ...
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Apart from some hiking and a number of drive-in cinemas, I did not generate any new contents for Flyctory.com on ...
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Four ice hockey matches, Rock of Ages #32 in Hollywood, two new airlines and many more impressions - this trip ...
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Time for some discussions in the German music scene - the Böhse Onkelz released their 17th studio album on 28th ...
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While I so far made an semi-annual look back in time, the "Very Important Postings", I decided something with my ...
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As an overnight stay after the Mrs Greenbird concert in Frankfurt, I decided to opt for a hotel chain, which ...
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One of the few German country/folk acts, which gained some international reputation in the past is Cologne-based Mrs. Greenbird. Before ...
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Right after I returned from a vacation trip to Tenerife, I headed from Frankfurt Airport to Das Bett (literally: The Bed), a Frankfurt ...
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After I mentioned the Air Canada Lounge at Frankfurt Airport already in my love letter posting to LATAM flight 705, ...
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My trip to Singapore and Malaysia was my debut First Class experience (apart from Domestic First in the USA). I ...
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For customers flying on Lufthansa's top notch First Class product (and HON Circle Members), the German airline offers a very ...
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The Lufthansa Lounges for Senators and Business Class customers are tending to be too crowded, especially in peak times. Thus, ...
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If you collect and something, you likely also have one or more several favourite pieces in your collection. What do ...
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Airline Postings
Here are all postings related to specific airlines and their flights:
After praising my favorite songs of 2020 and the favorite albums and EPs in 2020, the final posting to do ...
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For the transatlantic flights of my February 2020 trip to California supporting the Pittsburgh Penguins, I had a personal Star ...
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Coming back from London from the (finally cancelled) Country To Country Festival 2020 was the last trip I took before ...
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In recent times, I had three Business Class flights with Finnair's long distance flagship, the Airbus A 350. In August, ...
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In order to transfer from East Coast to Tennessee on my trip to CMA Fest 2019, I flew from Washington ...
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In an evening session with German aviation experts and frequent travelers in Frankfurt, Lufthansa today revealed their new Miles & ...
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There are not too many options to avoid budget travel when you want to fly into Tenerife North / Tenerife ...
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Flying back from Chicago to Germany after the Weird Al Yankovic Strings Attached show in Indianapolis, I decided to chose ...
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After I tested their A330 Premium Economy Class on a flight to Philadelphia before, I was really flattered to check ...
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Barra Airport is a very special place for any aviation enthusiasts: the airport located on the largest island of the ...
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After I mentioned the Air Canada Lounge at Frankfurt Airport already in my love letter posting to LATAM flight 705, ...
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Flying back from the Write Like A Girl event in London, I had the opportunity to fly Sun-Air of Scandinavia for ...
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On the return trip from Singapore and Malaysia, I had more or less a whole day around Manchester before I ...
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On my trip to Nashville in May 2019, I was lucky to receive an operational upgrade on BA 217 from ...
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While I had Lufthansa First Class services from Frankfurt to Hong Kong and from Singapore back to Frankfurt on my ...
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My trip to Singapore and Malaysia was my debut First Class experience (apart from Domestic First in the USA). I ...
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While my previous experience flying to Dubai was the great Air Belgium service on behalf of British Airways, my wife ...
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For customers flying on Lufthansa's top notch First Class product (and HON Circle Members), the German airline offers a very ...
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During my trip to Singapore and Malaysia, I chose Malysia Airlines for my return from Kuala Lumpur International to Singapore ...
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During my April/May 2019 stay in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, I used Malindo Air flight OD 808 on 3rd May ...
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The Lufthansa Lounges for Senators and Business Class customers are tending to be too crowded, especially in peak times. Thus, ...
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My first steps around O2 Arena in London during the Country 2 Country Festival 2019 were not motivated by country ...
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Flying Southern Airways Express was not my only debut aviation experience on route to Philadelphia for the NHL Stadium Series ...
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Travelling to the NHL Stadium Series match of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Philadelphia Flyers in late February 2019, I ...
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While Air Belgium is doing their very own route from Brussels-Charleroi to Hong Kong, they are currently also supporting the ...
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You have them on almost every flight. They are located in the seat in front you? The airlines try to ...
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2018, Aegean Airlines has been voted by Skytrax as the best European regional airline. This alone might be worth mentioning ...
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Not just my way to New York was very special by flying the remarkable BA 1 service from London-City to ...
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British Airways flight BA 1 has always been on my bucket list. The very special connection between London and New ...
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The route between Cologne and Rostock is a quite traditional connection from Rhineland to the Baltic Sea - which has ...
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After a long time of renovation, SWISS re-opened their Senator and Business Class Lounge at the A Gates / Schengen ...
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"Flying Rouge" becomes quite a success story for Air Canada. Just having started five years ago in 2013, the Maple ...
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If you collect and something, you likely also have one or more several favourite pieces in your collection. What do ...
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On the third day of my Six-Intercontinental-Flights Weekend trip in May 2018, I had the opportunity to fly the Spanish ...
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With Miles & More, Lufthansa Group's widely used loyality programme, introducing the concept of Mileage Pooling to their program just ...
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On my Easter trip with Sarah, we had the opportunity to test Polish LOT's Premium Class, their interpretation of Premium ...
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The Star Alliance is quite an inhomogenous club of airlines: while Lufthansa or United transport over 100 million passengers per ...
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