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Sure, spas and fine dining in a first-class lounge are great perks, but German airline Lufthansa literally goes the extra mile: by letting passengers leave their lounges at Frankfurt and Munich airports to take a Porsche 911 or Panamera for a spin on the Autobahn during their layover.
Lufthansa has quietly run this deal since 2013—initially only publicizing it to the airline’s most elite fliers—but now the “Porsche First Class Excitement” experience applies to first-class fliers on Swiss and Austrian Airlines, too. It's an ace in the hole for travelers looking to pass the time between flights at two of the world’s busiest (but admittedly, blandest) airports. You pay €99 ($117) for three hours or 150 kilometers (93 miles)—whichever limit you hit first—and the partnership with rental car company Avis includes taxes, fuel, and insurance (covering theft and the collision damage waiver). Without the first class hook-up, the cars can only be rented with advance reservation from €282 ($330) for a full day.
You don't even have to think about where you'd like to drive: Four recommended routes from Frankfurt and Munich airports are programmed into the GPS, and may have you zipping through a UNESCO-protected nature park and the vineyards of the Rheingau region, or by Nymphenburg Palace and lower Bavaria. Reading this at the airport right now? Just ask a Lufthansa lounge assistant to call Avis and immediately set up the rental.
Admittedly, traveling in Lufthansa's first class is notoriously pricey—round-trips from New York City to Europe start at $6,000 per person—and it's one of the most challenging award seats to book with points. As such, taking a Porsche 911 for a spin on the Autobahn is quite the victory lap after flying one of the world’s best premium tickets.
Some passengers carefully plan their flights around the Porsche rental, and even choose itineraries with layovers long enough to make any other flier cringe—like Amol Koldekar, an Atlanta-based frequent flier and blogger at Travel Codex, who tacked on an extra eight hours in Frankfurt on a Lisbon-to-Chicago trip to take advantage of the Porsche perk. “I drove it like I stole it,” he says of his turn on the Autobahn. “It’s a cool opportunity to drive a fast car on the Autobahn, and I got up to 132 mph."
To top off the experience, take Koldhekar’s tip to heart: “Instead of returning the car to the rental center, drive right up to Lufthansa’s first class terminal and have one of the lounge personal assistants return it for you," he says. "It’s the ‘proper’ way to arrive, rather than walking in the ground floor entrance, and saves time so that you can still sample some of the 130 varieties of whisky at the lounge bar.”