Lufthansa Allegris Business Class Seat Fees Revealed

Wonder if non-LH *G will get any non-classic free seat selection. At least in BA, any OWS or OWE can select seats for free.

Yeah, I think we can be judgmental of this concept because unlike BA or AFKLM there is such a massive difference in quality between the different seat subsets. This isn't a reverse herringbone situation where every seat is more or less the same. It's more comparable to United Polaris, where most of the seats are decent but 1/3 have you basically lying down in the aisle. The difference is that United has at least had the grace not to try to punish their passengers by monetizing their awful seating configuration so you have to pay extra on top of a business class or award fare to get a decent seat in the first place.

Yeah, I agree with you. Also I could be mistaken but doesn't BA allow you to use Avios instead of cash for seat assignments? It's rarely a great deal but good to have the option nonetheless.

I can see the complexity of Allegris pissing off a lot of customers and sending them elsewhere.

I'll be curious to see how this works out for LH but I think they may find that a lot of people just won't pay. Seat fees in economy are one thing because the experience is so much different if you're stuck in a middle seat in the last row for 10 hours, but in this case the worst that can happen if you don't pay is you're stuck in a classic seat, which is hardly terrible. And you may just end up in something a lot nicer!

WTF? €2900 is not CHF 3300! It’s CHF2700. Have you screwed up with the exchange rate?

I still do not understand what is "truly phenomenal" about a seat with a door to pay an extra €400 to €600 for. Do you get an upgraded meal that the other J class pax don't receive? Different amenities including PJs? If it is just more space... Really? What are you planning to do with it? Exercise? Dance? Have sex? Unpack your carryon?

Check in is going to be crazy with so many upgrades and seat changes. I would expect the first row of J to be empty for the most part before check in.

This will also get messy for those that have booked via partner awards. Are they going to require all partners display text explaining "Please go to LH.com to see our absurdly complex seat assignment fees"?

So what if you buy a ticket on Allegris but all the Classic Seats have been assigned already? Will you be forced to cough up at seat selection? If so, that's disgraceful.

For a couple travelling together, at least one will almost certainly have to pay for seat selection if they want to sit anywhere close to their partner

Everything about this seat has been a disaster, I think this turn out to be a supercharged way of creating ill-will amongst customers

Unfortunately, this happens very often, also with other retail prices. A book that sells in Germany for EUR 29 is usually CHF 39 in Switzerland. Corporates try to skim off an extra gain, because salary level is higher in Switzerland.

You have to remember - and this is not a knock on Ben - that he and other avgeek/travel bloggers are WAY more excited about this stuff than the average person, so of course there is exaggeration and you need to take these things with a grain of salt. The seat does look great but I agree that an upcharge like that for seat selection when you've already worked over thousands of dollars is outrageous.

Forked* over (Ben, please add an edit button...)

airlines that charge for business seats are trash tier.

If I don't have status and there are actually 'free seats' remaining, I might actually NOT pick a seat - not much difference between picking 6H and ending up with 10H as worst case. I might actually end up with a better seat for 'free'.

I am surprised they weren't able to justify charging extra for the classic seat too.

There is not a hope in hell I will pay an extra 150$ for a window seat. Thanks LH, but there are other options available to everywhere you fly. Greed should not be rewarded.

I bet not. This summer LH even dropped free assignment of preferred seats (up front) and exit row seats for UA*G during *check-in*.

For those who remember, a quote from one German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTd_73Slj3Q

And so the unbundling of premium cabin fares begins. Expect extra charges for boarding preference, meal service, pajamas, blankets, lounge access (some airlines already do that)...

This is how Swiss works today, but even more expensive. It's annoying and a reason to avoid the airline. You're already paying thousands for the ticket, then you can either reserve no seat or a seat you don't want and need to wait until check-in to try to see if you can select the seat you actually want. It may or may not be available at that point. With Swiss today you have a pretty decent chance of getting a better seat at check-in (but then again those lumpy uncomfortable old seats are a pain even in the throne setup) but my understanding is Allegris has fewer 'standard' seats so there may be more jockeying once check-in opens. It's simply a bad idea - who wants to have to worry all this complexity and about getting a decent seat after coughing up 5k for a ticket? This only works for people who don't care where they sit or don't know any better.

LH lost its marbles. To complex, not good enough, nobody talks benefits of enhanced soft product. Can’t wait for executive assistants to decipher the mess or corporate travel managers putting the stop on it. LH management is more interested how they look on camera than making sense in their decisions. No thanks to those seats, back to Skyteam and OW.

I think that the fact that it is impossible to sit next to your travel companion without paying fees is going to lead quite a few annoyed passengers. This whole thing is a mess really. Unfortunately it's going to be another 20 years before we get another generation of seats out of LH.

The bigger insult is that both prices include respective VAT, at 19% and 8.8% respectively.
So its almost a 20% higher charge in CHF. Sadly, par for the course, try buying clothes that ship from same dutch warehouse, only to see +50% higher prices in Switzerland just because you can.

Unless going with a companion, wise move here is to not choose a seat until check-in. Only av geeks will pay 1000 EUR out of their pocket for a R/T on that suite. Lots of premium "paid" seats will be open at check-in time.

Most of elites are corporate staff, companies pay for business class but very few allow to put a 500 EUR seat selection fee on the company as well.

This makes no sense whatsoever. Charging for the first row and, maybe, for the “thrones” would be ok, but besides that, it’s ridiculous, since the other seats are pretty ordinary and all other airlines will let you have then for free…

Like hell we can't be too judgemental. I hope everyone boycotts this BS

Please note that there seems to be a recent change that the Privacy Seats (window seats) can no longer assigned for free when booking a Business Flex fare. There are still free of charge for HON and Senator members.