Lufthansa A340-600 Landing at Frankfurt

When I found out that Lufthansa would retire the A340-600 by the end of the year, I mourned. Realizing that I had enough points to do the business class thing like I did last year (on the 747-400 and A380), I determined to fly on the elegant bird one more time. Unlike the previous times, I'd have a seat further up front where I could take good video. They have one to two daily flights into Dulles, and I assumed that I'd fly down there and take it to Frankfurt. But those all required 75k points. I then realized that flight 401 out of JFK used the A346 for only 60k points. With about $60 of fees on top of that, I booked it. For the return ride, I found a 747-8 flight into Boston for 60k points plus about $200 in fees. So for $260 out of pocket or $1,500 if you monetize the points, I had round-trip business class that would normally cost $4-6k. The downside of that strategy involves the short notice, which gave me little time to plan. I also had to figure out where to go in Europe. I wanted to go to Portugal next, but summer would make that unbearable. I've done so much of the central, eastern, and northern areas of Europe in the last four years that I had to think more creatively. I had gone to Italy when my mother took my sister and me on a cruise in 2009 (my first time in Europe altogether). We started in Rome and the cruise took us to Genoa before circling around the western Mediterranean. So it occurred to me that I could make a decent trip out of northern Italy without coming close to where I had gone before. It would also keep the heat relatively at bay, as the Apennines shelter the Po Valley from the winds that come up from Africa. Hence, I decided on northern Italy. The last time I flew out of and into JFK (in November with the Korean Air flights to Japan), I said I'd prefer to never use JFK again. I had to eat my words there to take advantage of this opportunity. It just takes so long to get there, driving up to Princeton Junction, taking the train into Manhattan, the LIRR to Jamaica, and then the Air Train. I arrived at JFK around 12:30 and found mounting delays due to the storms. The aircraft landed but ended up parked on the taxiway for an hour and a half since the other plane occupying the gate could not leave (I felt bad for those people). I wanted to take these photos of it pulling up to the gate before the catering trucks obstructed the views. I went first to the Air France Lounge with Priority Pass for a free lunch. I also took a shower there (fortuitously, as the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge turned out not to have a shower). Once the A346 parked at the gate, I went back for the photos. Then I went to the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge that my ticket entitled me to, and had a little more to eat (it didn't impress me much compared to its counterparts in Frankfurt & Munich). Once we could finally board over an hour late, the weather had not fully abated. We began to taxi but found out the weather might mean rerouting over the Atlantic (similar to what happened when I took British Airways out of JFK) and we might need more fuel. Mercifully, we had a green light and wasted no time. However, the delays had pushed us back 2.5 hours at that point. Once in the air, I had a great experience. The Rolls Royce Trent 556 (x4) roared out of Kennedy! I had originally chosen seat 3A, but switched to 7K for a better view of the engines. That also meant that I had nobody next to me. The attentive crew did a wonderful job and served great food. I moved the seat to fully-flat and did my best to sleep. I probably slept three hours. We landed in sunny Frankfurt and I naturally requested a cockpit visit. The pilot said he will retire when the aircraft retires (hopefully they won't also turn him into soda cans). The first officer has not decided which other type to switch to (A350, 787, or A330). I thanked them profusely for the job they did and such a wonderful experience!