With literally only seconds to spare after the passport incident, we made it on our connection to Basel, a flight operated by Lufthansa CityLine. Currently, Lufthansa offers a much better soft product on these short flights than does Air France in business class.

Lufthansa CityLine is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa with hubs in Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC), from where it operates a dense domestic and European network as a member of Lufthansa Regional. (Lufthansa also has the regional versus mainline debate, but that’s a different topic…).

Our flight departed from a far remote stand, making our missed visit to the First Class Terminal and therefore loss of chauffeur to the plane all the more painful. But what’s the point of crying over spilled milk, right? We would be “home” for Christmas, which really was the worthier goal.

I figured we had taken the last bus since there were so few people on it, but it turned out there were simply so few people on the flight, probably about 12 in all. After welcoming us onboard, the captain explained our flight time to Basel would be about 30 minutes.

Seating in business class is the identical 2-2 seating in economy, but everything other seat is blocked, guaranteeing you an open seat next to you. In that way, business class can be variable depending upon the need of the specific flight. Here, there were seven rows of business class even though it was just my family of four (actually only three seats plus lap infant) and three other passengers.

Seat pitch is 31 inches and the seats have a width of 17.5 inches. There is no wi-fi or in-flight-entertainment onboard.

We took off and about three minutes after takeoff, the flight attendant sprung into action. We were offered a very decent lunch on this short hop, which included a meal from Lufthansa’s Heimat (Homeland) menu:

I’m not generally a terrine fan, but actually ate this meal and thought it was very tasty. Compare that to Air France, which now simply serves a small packaged sweet and salty snack on flight of similar length (and longer).

Full bar service was available, along with strong coffee. Dishes were ceramic. Glasses were actually glass, cups porcelain, and cutlery metal…a nice

And just like that, the flight attendant collected the meal trays and soon after that we landed in Basel.

During the pandemic, border checks occur even on these intra-Schengen flights. In Basel, you choose whether you enter Switzerland or France. We entered the French side, but then crossed over to the Switzerland side upstairs before crossing back into France for the drive to Germany. Technically, Switzerland has a small strip of land (road) connecting it to the airport and the airport sits on two countries, but it really feels more like a French airport.

Oh yes, and our bags did not arrive…but that requires a separate post.

We enjoyed our brief CRJ-900 flight on Lufthansa CityLine from FRA to BSL. I’m frankly amazed at what Lufthansa manages to offer on a 175-mile flight in business class…the service and meal was really a nice element. Most importantly, we made it home for Christmas!

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

Those snacks on AF were a covid measure. Full meals are now being served in business on all hop and AF regional flights on regional jets 🙂

Sadly, a recent AMS-CDG flight had no meal in J. I was shocked. What happened to Air France?!

I took the train from Paris to Basel in November and there were no border checks, so it’s interesting to hear that they have them for air travelers.

Imagine that, a meal on a 30 minute flight on an regional jet, but in the states, still no meal on a 3 hour mainline flight. Just sad!!!

I love those LH coffee cups. Looking forward to my next opportunity to snag one!

I am glad you made the flight, and the meal sure looks nice, but if you had missed it, the train (3 hours?) would have got you back on time wouldn’t it?

Train was about 350EUR for all of us….probably would have flown to Zurich and then taken cab!

Nice to see that there was a full meal involved. I flew the CRJ from MUC to PRG in early November and only got a mystery sandwich- didn’t mind as I had been snacking in the lounge.

What is your car rental strategy in Basle…rent a car on the Swiss or French side? Prices are higher on the Swiss side in my experience but service is miserable. Haven’t tried the Swiss side yet.

…miserable on the French side

We rent from Lörrach over the German border.

Nice! Was not aware of the usual suspects there (Avis, Sixt, Europcar). Would likely be too complicated for me when traveling with my kids (tram to Basel city and then to Lörrach… not sure if this is even shorter than the airport transfer bus to Freiburg). But in case I need a one-way car rental to another place in Germany this is probably the best option. Thanks for the info.

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