Flight Review: trying out Lufthansa's Allegris Business Class cabin!
Flight#: LH2572
From: Munich (MUC)
To: Frankfurt (FRA)
Flight time: 45 min
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
This flight review is a bit different from all the others.
To be honest, on a regular flight I’d never have had the chance to have such a close look at the cabin in its entirety and spend time with each of the features, but this is what special media flights like this one are for, so here is my flight review of the new Lufthansa Allegris cabin.
The flight was on business class, although I have added also pictures from Premium Economy and Economy (First Class is not yet installed due to supply chain constraints).
Also, a couple of caveats:
The flight itself was but a small part of the whole experience, since the day before flying had the chance to attend the media unveiling of the new fitted cabin onboard a brand new, barely two-weeks old, Airbus A350-900 which was on the ground at Munich Airport.
The other is that I had the chance to try out one of the five different types of business class seat that Lufthansa is offering on its new Allegris cabin business class (more on this later, but, yes, there are five different types of seat, each with its own features and designed with a specific type of traveler in mind!)
Last but not least, full disclosure, I was a guest of Lufthansa at this event and they took care of all the flights.
What is Lufthansa’s Allegris Cabin?
It is basically Lufthansa’s new standard of cabin for its long-haul fleet. Allegris is, in fact, the flagship project of a major €2.5B product investment initiative through which the German airline aims to entirely revamp its inflight offering on long haul markets.
You can check this piece I published on AeroTime at the time the Allegris cabin was publicly presented for the first time in Berlin, in February 2023.
The roll out of the Allegris cabins is starting with the new A350-900s Lufthansa is receiving. The rest of the long-haul fleet, including the B747-8i aircraft!, is then going to be fitted next.
What is the most distinctive feature of the Allegris Business Class cabin?
I’d say it is the fact that it is not one business class, but five different products in one!
I say so because it is possible to book up to five different types of seats on Allegris-fitted aircraft. Yes, five! How is so?
Instead of fitting the business class cabin with one single type of seat with a mere choice between window and aisle, passengers will be given a choice of five different types of seats to better match their preferences.
So, let’s have a look at them and how they look like:
Allegris Business Class
1) Allegris standard business class seat
This is the regular “vanilla” seat. Very nice, in any case. If anything I was surprised, in the case of the window seat, by the position of the side table to the left, which means that the actual seat is closer to the aisle.
Although Lufthansa hasn’t disclosed much when it comes to marketing and pricing (possibly one of the most complex but also interesting aspects of the Allegris cabin introduction will be how the they plan to market the seats, communicate their features and manage expectations) I am assuming this type of seat is going to have the baseline fare, with the other four types of seats commanding some sort of premium based on their special characteristics.
2) Allegris business class seat with extra privacy
This is the one I flew on (my short flight report is a bit further down this article). It is essentially the same as the regular seat BUT, the monument is laid out in a way that the actual passenger space is a bit further withdrawn from the aisle and accessible through this narrow corridor that you can see on the foreground, creating, thus, a sensation of extra privacy.
3) Allegris Extra-long business class seat
This one is also quite similar to the regular seat, but, with one tweak: when in fully flat position, it is a bit longer than the regular one, stretching to 2.20m, I think. It’s hard to capture this on camera, but here’s a picture of this seat when fully stretched. Particularly indicated for very tall passengers!
4) Allegris Throne business class seat
This is a very interesting one, not least because it breaks the 1-2-1 symmetry that is common on most business class cabins. As you can see here, when located in the central space of the cabin, the “Throne” is a single business class seat taking up the space where you would normally find two seats. Also, while it is not as private as a suite, it is fully enclosed by rigid walls.
This type of seat is designed with the solo traveller in mind, for example professionals that use some of their time in the air to finish some work.
5) Allegris Business Class Suites
Lufthansa’s Allegris cabins have suites on both First and Business Class. What you see here is the business class one, which extraordinarily opulent, spacious and private for a business class product and it gets already close to what you would expect on some first class products out there.
What’s more, some of these suites are “paired”, so if a couple travels together they can bring down the walls and treat this as, more or less a single space.
I assume the suites (and to a lesser degree, the Trone) will command a significant premium over the regular business class seats!
The view from inside a “paired” Allegris business class suite
Allegris First Class
So, if that suite is still a business class product, how does Lufthansa’s new First Class look like?
We could not see for real this time, because supply chain constraints have meant that the First Class cabins are not yet ready to be installed. However, Lufthansa didn’t want to wait and has launched Allegris anyway, just that the forward section of the aircraft, where First is going to be, has been fitted with some placeholder seats.
If you wish to see how First looks like, check out these pics from the 2023 presentation in Berlin.
Allegris Premium Economy and Economy Class
The Allegris refit extends also to Premium Economy and Economy Class.
You can check how the cabins look like in the following pictures, starting with Premium Economy:
And, next, economy class:
Other novelties Lufthansa presented:
The Lufthansa experience revamp is not limited to the hardware, the German flag carrier has also worked to upgrade other “soft” elements of the experience, including investments to upgrade business class lounges at key airports and launching some new foods and drink options.
In addition to investing in upgrading the inflight culinary experience with a new onboard menu, Lufthansa takes special pride in its new bread recipe.
If you have ever been to Germany you would have noticed how central bread is to German food culture. So, Lufthansa has chosen to celebrate this cultural-culinary heritage by developing its own recipe for inflight bread. While the details remain secret, it has been specially devised so that bread remains moist, soft and tasty even after a few hours in the air.
I tasted it and it really lives up to the expectations, at least when it comes to taste and texture (I tasted it on the ground).
But that’s not all, because Lufthansa has also come up with its own signature drink and cockatail, in partnership with Ziegler Distilleries, the aptly named “Avionics”!
Lufthansa has also launched a line of high quality city guides as part of a move to offer original, high quality content and entertainment to its passengers.
The Flight (MUC-FRA)
It was quite a short flight, 45 minutes, barely enough to get a feel of this new Allegris product, but here is a visual chronicle of how it was like to fly Munich to Frankfurt of seat 6A on the first A350-900 fitted with the new Allegris Class.
Mine was one of the “extra privacy” seats, in which you are somehow cocooned, with the seat laying at an angle with respect to the aisle.
You can see here what’s the view from the seat.
And here is the fully flat position (the window blinds are down to avoid the reflection of the sun).
In this seat, all the compartments and storage space are found on your right. Note also the personal iPad-like device, which is an additional console to control both the IFE system and the electronics of the seat.
In additon to the two major storage spaces on the upper right side (including the one with the retractable lid), there is also some additional space underneath. The seat is, of course, fitted also with sockets to recharge electronic devices. Note also the rather simple (and elegant) controls for the seat position.
Here the horizontal view, complete with IFE screen (obviously not much time to check IFE in such a short flight!). You can also pair your device with the aircraft’s IFE system or go online through Lufthansa’s FlyNet internet system.
Last but not least, here’s the general view of part of the Allegris cabin during the flight.
And the A350-900s amazingly big windows (also remarkable how quiet this aircraft is!)
And this is how this brand new Lufthansa A350-900 sounds like on take-off: extremely quiet and smooth!
Touch down Frankfurt!
Our Take
Lufthansa’s new Allegris product is truly amazing and the fact that it comes in so many flavours makes it extra interesting for the traveller!
When and where will you be able to enjoy Lufthansa’s Allegris cabin?
Lufthansa will start rolling out Allegris on its Munich-based A350 fleet. Canadian destinations feature prominently among the first batch, with Vancouver being the first one and then Toronto and Montreal.
The reason for this, as Lufthansa’s CEO explained during the product’s presentation is that the sort of rotations on those routes allow for some time on the ground in Germany to evaluate how the new cabin is performing and, if needed, tweak things.
China (Shanghai) will follow soon, as well as Chicago and San Francisco.
For more on Lufthansa’s Allegris class, check out also this piece I wrote for AeroTime.