Recently we had the chance to visit California. We travelled from Munich to Los Angeles by Lufthansa on the largest passenger airplane on an Airbus A380. Backwards we travelled by United on a Boeing Dreamliner from Los Angeles to London.

The two flights were quite similar regarding flight time, it took around 12 hours to California and around 10 hours back to Europe.

Lufthansa A380:

We checked in at the airport using a machine, no problem, very smooth experience.

We had our seats on the ground deck (PS. there are few economy seats on the upper deck as well, try to grab these, e.g by checking in online as soon as possible).

Boarding was quick and efficient although seeing how many people you will travel with makes it crazy. People were queuing so long that they took half of the terminal.  Seating was 3-4-3, we were seated next to the windows.

Plane:

The plane is huge, and I mean HUGE. The ceiling is more than 2 meters away from the bottom, I could stand up even next to the window (I am 198 cm)!

Food:

We got 2 hot meals, and a Kit Kat snack during our flight. We received drinks many times.

Entertainment:

The in seat entertainment system had many films /TV shows etc, and 3 camera, where you could watch the exterior of the plane.

United Dreamliner:

Plane:

We had some issue with our ticket, so we could not check in using a machine, so we had to turn to an agent who helped us, and as the flight was fully booked we got upgraded to premium Economy class, the only difference compared to Economy that there is bigger legroom. Seating is 2-4-2.

Food:

We were quite surprised because we got hot meal twice (dinner, breakfast) during the 10 hour flight, we also got a sandwich, and a dessert separately. Drinks came regularly!

Entertainment system:

The touch screen was much more responsive (I guess it was a more recent than we had on the A380), and it had more recent films/TV Shows.

In overall, it is hard to compare the two airline / airplane as they are different. We enjoyed both planes, but we liked the Boeing a bit more as it feeled a bit more private, the A380 felt a little too big for a plane. About airlines, we felt that the service was a slightly better on United than on Lufthansa even that United is only rated for 3* while Lufthansa is a 5* one. (This is purely our personal opinion)