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Lufthansa’s San Francisco-Frankfurt-Bangalore route is the shuttle of choice for techies going from Silicon Valley to the heart of India’s outsourcing industry. The ‘Bangalore Express’ is favored over competing options like Cathay and Singapore for its slick, short connection, and is known as a networking fest of the tech industry.
I became aware of it in a 2012 Businessweek article, The Bangalore Express, a Networker’s Paradise, and went back to a 2007 San Jose Mercury News article, Networking at 35,000 feet. FlyerTalkers characteristically threw cold water on the networking, focusing on Lufthansa’s angled seats.
I can vouch for the expense of that and the surprisingly few international Bangalore options so I will only be on the 3 am Bangalore – Frankfurt stretch when presumably everyone is so exhausted that the only hope at networking may be a fish bowl for leaving business cards.
I’ve only flown Lufthansa once, earlier this year Frankfurt-New York JFK in economy and had a good, unremarkable experience. I am looking forward to see what I can make of an 8-hour layover in Frankfurt to partly compensate for a business schedule that will not permit any sightseeing in Bangalore. Not having a chance to go up to UNESCO-listed Hampi is disappointment that staying at the first Ritz-Carlton in India will not allay.
Readers, have you been on the Bangalore Express? Is it journalistic hype or something special?
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[…] am a consumer rather than connoisseur of airplane cabins. When I posted I’ll Be Flying the Lufthansa ‘Bangalore Express’ I heard this is Lufthansa’s top-end business class seat, the only non-angled lay flat. No […]
Next week, I am headed to BLR from SFO. Opted for the fastest route / better times (at least on the days I’m flying): CX via HKG. Also staying at the Ritz… and never call it Frisco. “Ess Eff” or San Francisco
@Joey – Emirates will fly the A380 DXB-SFO-DXB from Dec 1st. Cheers.
http://www.emirates.com/english/flying/our_fleet/emirates_a380/emirates_schedule/emirates_flight_schedule.aspx
In addition to the 21 hour flight, LH is a partner of United, which has a major hub in SFO. I’ve never flown the BLR express since I live in NYC but I have flown the JFK-DXB-BLR route on Emirates, JFK-DOH-BLR route on Qatar, and JFK-LHR-MCT-BLR on Virgin Atlantic/Oman Air (only did this once to fly Oman Air Business). My colleagues and I prefer Emirates due to the bar at the back, which is a great way to network with other folks (though coming from NYC, the industries tend to be more diverse.) I see LH still has the shortest… Read more »
@Joey – haha, yes the laptop back back like those Swiss Army ones with about 10 extra pounds of metal and useless straps.
I stopped reading that article at the word “Frisco”. I’ve flown on LH from SFO to FRA a few times it’s just a regular flight, maybe FRA -BLR is more homogenous…
@Nick – thanks for the linguistic tip on how to identify someone who knows SFO. What is the correct shorthand?
Welcome to Bangalore, Stefan! Hope you have a good trip. But you can’t come all the way to Bangalore and not have a meet up with fellow travel hacking fans and followers! If your schedule permits it, please plan for it. I’ll be happy to catch up with you.
@Rags – thank you for the invite. I usually build in a little buffer time to enjoy a destination even if just a few hours, this will be really tight due to business commitments however it might work, I will email you and hope it does work.