We will be flying from Munich to London and then London back home. Our daughter would love to see London but I'm afraid this trip she will see it from the sky only. Which side of the plane should she sit to see the London Eye etc. from the window?
Also, we fly United and have chosen our seats for our international legs but they are not letting us select our seats for our Lufthansa (alliance) flight Munich to London yet. Do you know when we will be able to?
Susan:
The direction planes come into any airport is usually a result of the wind direction. Arrivals are usually coming into the wind. Heathrow has two very long (12K ft.) runways parallel to each other running east and west. Left side might be preferable coming from Munich.
When flying to Europe from the U.S., it's usually night, and you see dark out any window. But when you fly from Europe to the U.S., I like to sit on the right side of the airplane to look at Greenland. It's sometimes a really beautiful sight.
In very recent years we have flown into Heathrow from "Zurich, "Venice, and Madrid. For some reason we always sit on the right side of the plane. On each occasion we have had good views of London coming in. One time we had to circle three times befor landing. The place circled clockwise around Lindon. which meant right side was ideal. Maybe it is wind-dependent but it seems to me we have always had a good view from the right side.
The prevailing wind is out of the west. Using polar coordinates, Heathrow is about fifteen miles west and a couple or three south of Westminster Bridge. Air carriers are generally aligned very closely to the runway heading once they're within twenty miles of the threshold. It gets messy if planes don't land and take off into the wind.
Right side.
Flip a coin for cloud cover/ceiling.
The in side.
Honestly it is worth the extra fee not to be stuck out on the wing or the fuselage, especially for long flights.
Ok, thank you. We will aim for the right side of the plane for our short hop to Heathrow. Any ideas why we haven't been able to chose our seats or when/if we will?
It is a United flight home MUC to SFO but using their "partner" Lufthansa for the first leg. We have chosen our international RT seats on United but they say our Lufthansa seats are not available to chose.
I always sit on the right side too. It's the side that faces land, which is usually the only thing to see when you 're up that high. I enjoy watching Canada come into view. The coastline is so dramatic from 35,000 feet.
Maybe it's because we use frequent flyer miles, but I don't recall ever being able to choose Lufthansa seats on a flight from one European city to another. They assign our seats, and we don't know what they are until we check in. We're never really concerned, since it's such a short flight. But if you are, I would call Lufthansa and ask them if/when it will be possible to make seat selections.
I always think that landing in London is a little like the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland minus all the stars...it's a magical view!
Susan and Monte,
You may be able to select your seats on the Lufthansa site. What you need to do is:
1) Sign into the United website. 2) View your reservation 3) Right under the United confirmation number you will see a link that says, "View additional confirmation numbers". If you click on this, you should see your Lufthansa confirmation number. Write that down. 4) After this, go to the Lufthansa site and you should be able to log in with the Lufthansa confirmation number. You can then see if it will let you select seats there. I'm not sure if you can select in advance for intra-European flights. I have been able to do this for a transatlantic flight booked through United, but many European carriers don't let you book seats for short-haul flights in advance. If that is the case, you will get your assignment at check-in.
Thanks! I will give it a try!
I flew into London last summer and I also felt like I was at Disneyland on the Peter Pan ride. If possible, it would be fun for our daughter to get to experience that too, especially since she won't be leaving the airport :-(
Excellent idea David! I hadn't thought of that. If Monte gets two more jobs then we can extend our trip even longer to include London and that way we can all go. I'll tell him about your idea, I'm sure he'll love it :-)
Hey David, This is Monte!!! Don't give her ideas!!!! I'm working enough already!!!
If you have the reservation number of the Lufthansa leg, you can call Lufthansa directly and get seat assignments....any time.
I usually book my flight using my FF miles from United and they have no control over Lufthansa seats, so a simple phone call and it's done.
Last trip I took I paid for seats, booked a trip though Expedia. No choice for any seat assignment on their site, so I called Lufthansa customer service and in a few minutes had all my seats --Den to Frankfort, Frankfort to Florence... and the return.
