Lufthansa Hosts an “Amazing Race”. The Foodie Plays.

Who doesn't prefer the food in Business class?

This morning I participated in a contest offered by Lufthansa. In honor of today's inaugural A380 flight (FRA-JFK), the “Catch the Crew” contest was a mini-Amazing Race/scavenger hunt through the streets of SoHo in Manhattan, NYC. The objective was to locate 10 out of 23 “crew members” dressed in Lufthansa gear and to collect corresponding “passport” stamps. Once ten stamps were collected, a clue was given to the final prize location. The prize? Totally worth playing for: a pair of round trip Business Class (including a leg on a new A380) tickets to ANY Lufthansa destination in Europe. The contest’s terms and conditions give the Grand Prize a whopping value of $20,206.00 USD. As of the publishing of this Inflight Dish post, details of the contest are still available online at http://lha380.com/catchthecrew/

This was a Twitter-based social media contest. Beginning over the weekend, Twitter handle Lufthansa_USA started tweeting cryptic clues to the locations of the first four “crew members.” By this point, I had already decided to commit. If I won (and I was convinced I would win) I’d use the tickets to fly to Istanbul with a friend to celebrate my birthday in May.

My genius plan was to compete by bike. Speed can be an important factor in a race. However, my bicycle had been in storage for so long I had to call my building’s Super at home on a Sunday evening for the door code. The contest began at 11:00AM. I want to mention that in New York City, a torrential downpour began around 10:00AM without any signs of letting up. I finally broke out that poncho I’ve packed in my-roll aboard for the last three years. It was that bad.

I headed to the southern-most clue location first, at White and Lafayette. I was a few minutes early, but snagged my “passport” from the Lufthansa rep and headed for the second location. It was still pouring, and (slightly out of character) I found myself breaking every possible traffic law on the way.

No one was going to get between me and my free round trip business class tickets.

All “crew members” were stationed within a shaded airplane-shaped area of the provided maps, so even without specific clues they were easy to spot. I had collected 10 water-logged stamps within a half hour. I was in the lead, but I totally failed when it came to the final clue. It’s completely obvious in retrospect:

“The name of the plane will lead you to the end of the game. Head for the west wing.”

The correct answer was 380 West Broadway. I was clearly over-thinking it as I rode in frantic circles for 15 minutes before I came up with the solution. I was too late, arriving in fourth place. I was covered in New York “mud”, soaked to the bone and had a nosebleed. Funny how there aren’t any “winner’s circle” photos of me in the Lufthansa twitpic feed. 

Lufthansa insisted (no, really they did) on giving me a prize for coming in fourth. This is my prize:

It’s an airplane shaped USB memory stick, if you were wondering...

Doesn’t look much like a champagne-fueled flight to Istanbul, does it? On the bright side, I got a great workout AND I don’t have to pay taxes on a prize valued at $20K.