Lufthansa is in the process of rolling out its new long haul cabin concept, known as Allegris. This includes a new business class product (being installed on newly delivered Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s), as well as a new first class product (being installed on newly delivered Airbus A350s).
Lufthansa’s rollout of its new premium cabins has been rather challenging, to put it mildly. The airline announced these products in 2017, and the first plane started flying with new cabins around seven years later. Specifically, Lufthansa Allegris business class debuted as of May 2024, on newly delivered aircraft. So far there are five jets featuring the new cabins, and they’re now consistently flying certain routes.
Anyway, there’s a potentially exciting update, as Lufthansa is expected to soon launch its new Allegris first class, so let’s talk about what we know…
In this post:
New Lufthansa first class faced production delays
Lufthansa’s entire Allegris concept was already delayed considerably due to supply chain issues. Both Airbus A350-900s and Boeing 787-9s were ready to go into service, but due to issues with the interiors (in terms of getting them installed and certified), many of these planes were in storage.
So far, Lufthansa has puts five new A350s into service, featuring Allegris cabins. The catch is that the portion of the cabin where first class will be located is currently empty. Or more specifically, you’ll just find a row of economy seats in this section, but they aren’t used for passengers (these needed to be installed to get the aircraft certified).
Flying around a plane with a partially empty cabin isn’t ideal, but I suppose it’s better than just keeping these planes grounded.
New Lufthansa first class launch timeline
When should we expect Lufthansa to actually introduce its new first class? Potentially pretty soon — the expectation is that the sixth newly delivered Airbus A350-900 will come with the new Allegris first class installed.
Lufthansa is currently taking delivery of around one A350 every month, and Lufthansa has taken delivery of five new A350s so far. The sixth A350 has the registration code D-AIXW, and it should be joining Lufthansa’s fleet in the coming weeks. It remains to be seen exactly when this will be introduced, but my expectation is that it’ll be some time early in the fourth quarter of 2024, pending any additional delays (which certainly can’t be ruled out).
Once the new Allegris first class enters service, the first five newly delivered A350s will progressively be retrofitted with those cabins.
Lufthansa won’t initially sell new first class seats
So, once Lufthansa takes delivery of its first A350 with Allegris first class, which are the plans for the plane? Frankfurtflyer reports that Lufthansa won’t initially be selling first class on this jet. Instead, the airline will initially seat some business class passengers in the cabin:
- The goal is to get several A350s with Allegris first class into service before formally selling first class, to account for the possibility of aircraft swaps
- Initially it might be possible to reserve the first class seats if you have a high status tier (like Miles & More HON Circle), or it’s possible that Lufthansa sells the seats for an extra fee
We’ll see how this plays out, but in the short term there might be some opportunities to fly in this cabin without actually paying for first class. This general strategy isn’t unlike how Lufthansa hasn’t yet been charging for Allegris business class seat assignments, even though that’s part of the long term plan.
Why I’m skeptical about Lufthansa’s Allegris first class
As before, I’m a bit skeptical about Lufthansa’s new first class product. While the window seats look perfectly nice, the double suite in the center makes no sense whatsoever.
Sure, the concept of having a space for two people to fly together sounds great, but it doesn’t look spacious at all, and offers limited flexibility in terms of one person being able to sleep while the other person stays up. There’s not even an armrest between the two seats.
Furthermore, maximizing revenue for a cabin with just two standard seats seems challenging. You want to create a first class product that customers can reliably book, but how do you do that when there are just two regular first class seats to book? And if no one books the double suite, at what point do you sell that to a single passenger?
As much as I’m happy to see Lufthansa introducing new premium products, it seems to me like the airline way over-engineered this. I mean, Lufthansa is also promoting how it has a handful of different kinds of business class seats in its Allegris cabin. Is that much choice really a good thing in terms of managing passenger expectations?
Bottom line
Lufthansa has experienced significant production delays with getting its Allegirs product into service. While the airline now has Allegris business class on five newly delivered Airbus A350s, we should soon see the first A350 with the new Allegris first class.
Current plans call for this product to be introduced in the coming weeks, as the next newly delivered jet should have the cabins installed. While the airline doesn’t initially plan to sell first class on this aircraft (until the fleet is scaled a bit), I’m curious to see what the long term strategy is…
What do you make of the introduction of Lufthansa’s new Allegris first class?
Quotes from the post:
“ Potentially pretty soon — ”
“ It remains to be seen exactly when this will be introduced, but my expectation is that it’ll be some time early in the fourth quarter of 2024, pending any additional delays (which certainly can’t be ruled out).”
Hm, I see. So what exactly was the substance of this post again?
As I mentioned in a previous post about a month ago, Lufthansa has been releasing First Class award availability on A350s for a while. Looking at Feb-Mar 2025 flights to Canada, and was surprised to see any let alone on A350s. Unless the aircraft type will change.
I see the new business class available in early March from Mexico City to Munich so hopefully can try it out later in the year
Just like a super comfy single ÖBB-Nightjet sleeper cabin. Bravo dear Lufthansa.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
This is an extremely upgraded version of Indian railways bed-seats. If you can get one to yourself, which is 90% available even if you have to negotiate with other passengers, it's the way I love to travel there by rail on long haul. Since many married, or otherwise couples are "close" enough to deal with the awkwardness, for the benefit of being able to be close and intimate, I still see it as a benefit...
This is an extremely upgraded version of Indian railways bed-seats. If you can get one to yourself, which is 90% available even if you have to negotiate with other passengers, it's the way I love to travel there by rail on long haul. Since many married, or otherwise couples are "close" enough to deal with the awkwardness, for the benefit of being able to be close and intimate, I still see it as a benefit for these passengers. The greatest pitfall I can see is, who gets assigned to clean up the "messes", change bedding between flights, and health concerns therefrom.
Surely someone at LH would have realized this is a problem. I find it baffling that this didnt come up early on in their planning process and get addressed then.
Why only one row of First? If 12 or more were previously willing to pay the premium, why remove two thirds of your revenue? The First cabin used to feel like an exclusive club. Now it's like Lufthansa is embarassed so hides them away - and only 4 seats.
Lufthansa aircraft today have a capacity of 8, not 12 or more in First Class. Do your research before commenting!
Only way of salvaging this is to sell the middle seat at, say, a 30% markup to anyone who wants it, and allow up to 1 additional passenger at no extra charge. Put it in range for a wealthy traveler who wants the whole thing, and maybe incentivize a couple to buy up from business class.
Let HON Circle choose it for free at T-48 if unoccupied, Senators at check-in.
Great, looking forward to it in 2035.
They can always upgrade two strangers flying J to the F middle suite :)
Even if I'm traveling with my spouse why would a pick the middle seat where we can't watch our own TVs and one of us has to climb over the other to get out? We'd want the 2 single seats surely? Seems very strange unless the pricing makes it make sense...
Bottom line why would you wanna mingle with your spouse when you have other interesting things to do :)
Lufthansa has the world first class in the world, after Cathay.
Assuming you mean “worst”, surely BA deserves a special mention?
After all, Virgin’s business on A350 is nicer than BA’s first on 777 lol.
You had me until you mentioned Cathay...
I'm sure you've covered this somewhere. Eventually all A350s and 789s will have the product? Or just new deliveries and some retrofits?
If I had to guess, I think the double suite will still be sold as a single seat. Then they could impose these restrictions:
- If you’re a couple booking two F tickets, you can select the double suite as well as one of the window seats. Presumably you can use the double suite to share a meal or share a double bed if desired.
- If you’re a single traveler, you’ll only...
If I had to guess, I think the double suite will still be sold as a single seat. Then they could impose these restrictions:
- If you’re a couple booking two F tickets, you can select the double suite as well as one of the window seats. Presumably you can use the double suite to share a meal or share a double bed if desired.
- If you’re a single traveler, you’ll only be able to select one of the window seats. Unless they’re both booked, in which case you can select the double suite.
It would make no sense otherwise. Looking at the interior diagram, the double suite takes up the same space as two center J class seats. So why anyone would pay a hefty premium for an arguably less convenient space arrangement would be beyond me. Two J seats allows each person to control their own space while still being in very close proximity.
Open to hear other thoughts!!
Actually, I think the double First class seat has it‘s niche.
First, it might give two persons access to first class at a heavily discounted rate. Likely you can bring one passenger from economy.
Second, LH frequently has partner sales. If someone books the partner sale in F, then with this specific fare, only the double seat might be available.
Of course, it will be tough to match demand. There is no demand smoothing.
if you think that with 3.5 seats in F there will be any kind of discounts you are day dreaming. F prices are going to go up up up...and just forget about upgrades and such.
You just wrote about "discounts" and "sales" in a cabin where the majority of available capacity is being significantly DECREASED. Think about that for a minute.
With LH, "soon" could be anywhere from 6 months to a year...
And yeah, that middle seat set-up just seems like a bad misfire. The window seats look all right, though. Who knows why they just didn't go for one of 1-2-1 or 2 rows of 1-1-1...
The new LH Allegris C and F class is not challenging, it's a disaster imho.......sever different seats in C, not able to be selected without additional fee, 3 and a half seat in F......whats the sense for that????
The suspense of what’s going to happen with the double suite is killing me…