Discover Airlines Business Class

Your boarding situation is known as ground boarding, and is a common occurrence at some airports, including Frankfurt. Your airline and seat category are irrelevant. If you had a mobility impairment that made climbing stairs problematic, you could have notified the gate crew for a work around that they have for such passengers. Business class passengers dont normally get pre boarding. That is reserved for families with young children and passengers with disabilities. BC pax and those in highest loyalty tiers are usually the first passengers called for the regular boarding calls.

To add to Cjean's helpful post, this article, written by a frequent traveler with priority access, explains the multiple good reasons for "remote stands" such as you'd experienced.

https://gadallon.substack.com/p/remote-stands-bus-boarding-and-last

The wrap-up at the end?

Bottom line: Europe’s gate-less, bus-full airport experience may feel
like a throwback to the 1960s, but it’s a modern solution to modern
congestion. It’s quantitatively effective, if qualitatively
questionable. Meanwhile, the U.S. will likely stick to its gate-heavy
ways until passenger volumes or gate shortages force a change.

So next time you’re squeezed onto a bus in Frankfurt, remember: you're
not suffering, you're experiencing operational excellence—at least
that’s what I tell myself as I lose feeling in my left arm.

Well Ok then, makes sense to me. As Cjean said, that you needed to ground board had nothing to do with your status or the airline, and in the end you got to your destination, comfy seat or not, right? Hope you had a great time in Germany or wherever you were traveling.

1) We’ve done this several times now in Frankfurt. Lisbon and Zurich come to mind, too. If you have a problem climbing less than a flight of stairs you should notify your airline ahead of time.

2) I see Discover being described as a “budget” airline. That kind of says it all.

I might add, we live in Bend, Oregon. You walk from the terminal to your aircraft on the tarmac which could be quite a jaunt and then up a ramp to enter no matter what your class.

It's unfortunate that your seat was uncomfortable and on such a long flight.

Just last month, my husband and I flew on Delta from JFK to CDG (not a budget airline or a small airport) and had to ground board, as did all cabins. Yes, we were on a packed bus and climbed the stairs outdoors on the tarmac to enter our plane. I didn't think I was herded or forced to do anything, but I was in high spirits to begin my trip to Paris. If either one of us had had mobility issues, that would have been another story. We've also had to ground board using Vueling in Granada and Barcelona to Orly where we were met with a bus. Vueling is a budget airlines with no frills, but it got us from Point A to Point B just fine.
I do know that American Airlines began pre-boarding for business and first-class passengers in May, so at least one airline does.
Here's hoping that your next flight at least has more comfortable seats.

Icelandair does a great deal of ground boarding at Keflavik.

But at least they let Business Class (Saga) board the bus first. (LOL) That means the coach passengers boarding the bus after you get to enter the aircraft first since it always seems that the side you board the bus on is the same side you deboard the bus.

Some of their remote stands have both stairs and an elevator.

And one I never understood. Last April we flew Discover from Frankfurt to Philly. We were bused to - surprise, enter a different gate area with jetway. Huh??? The first gate was somewhere at the end of C going into D and did not have a jetway, unfortunately I did not note where we then went to. I do know that our incoming transfer from Pargue was running way late, and had our flight out been timely we would not have made it.

It surprises me more at Frankfurt if I have a jetway boarding or deplaning. I think it's only happened once in the past 5 years of my United flights. Most of my Frankfurt arrivals and departures are by packed, elongated buses.