After seven years of anticipation, Lufthansa has finally introduced its new Allegris cabin concept. This new design offers a completely reimagined travel experience across all classes, featuring redesigned seats and cabins. I had the opportunity to fly on one of the first flights from Munich to Vancouver on this nearly brand-new aircraft, which had only entered service with the airline the week prior.
Given the woefully outdated state of the German flag carrier’s business class cabin until now, any improvement is bound to be substantial. Needless to say, with the high level of excitement surrounding this new product, my lofty expectations were only building in the days leading up to my flight.
I’m happy to report that Lufthansa’s new Allegris business class seats are some of the best in the entire industry; however, they are not all equal and a few minor omissions in the hard product still remain.
Booking Lufthansa Allegris Business Class
| Business Class | Aircraft | Route | Flight Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| LH 476 | Airbus A350-900 | Munich to Vancouver | 9 Hours 30 Minutes |
Booking Lufthansa business class is a relatively straightforward process, as it’s one of the most common Air Canada Aeroplan redemptions for those looking to cross the Atlantic thanks to the carrier’s enormous North American and European network. On top of that, Lufthansa is also rather generous when it comes to award availability, especially last-minute. Chances are good you’ll find award availability if you’re diligent about checking for award space within one month of travel.
If you’re looking to specifically travel on a flight equipped with the new Allegris business class cabin, you’ll need to be aware of several factors that can complicate your endeavors. Firstly, at the time of writing, only two A350-900 aircraft are currently operating with the Allegris cabin, with an additional five to be added to the fleet before the end of 2024. Currently, these two aircraft are operating exclusively on routes to and from Munich.
Lastly, Lufthansa doesn’t firm up the exact aircraft that will be operating a particular route until about 3 to 4 weeks prior to departure, which can obviously make it tricky to pin down the exact flight you want. Later this year, you can find the Allegris product on routes to Chicago, San Francisco, and Shanghai.
It’s also important to note that Lufthansa currently has many Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s in their fleet that do not have the new Allegris cabins. Therefore, you cannot rely on just looking at the aircraft type to determine what product is installed; you’ll need to confirm the seat map for the exact date of travel.
Air Canada has not updated their seat maps to include the new Allegris cabins, so you must check directly on the Lufthansa website or app prior to making an Aeroplan redemption. The search results page on Lufthansa’s website will specifically state if a flight is scheduled to operate with the new Allegris cabin.
Until additional A350s and 787s equipped with Allegris cabins are added to the fleet and retrofits are completed, your best bet to guarantee yourself a seat on one of Lufthansa’s new cabins is by booking about three weeks prior to departure and checking your specific flight to confirm which cabin is equipped on your desired travel date.
With all of that in mind, I was able to secure a seat on a confirmed Allegris-equipped flight about 3 weeks prior to departure and paid 70,000 Aeroplan points + $197 in taxes and fees for a simple one-segment itinerary.
In Canada, there are numerous ways to earn Aeroplan points for flights such as this, especially through welcome bonuses from one of the many co-branded Aeroplan cards available. Moreover, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.
For example, cards like the American Express Platinum Card and American Express Business Platinum Card consistently offer generous welcome bonuses, allowing you to quickly accumulate a significant number of Aeroplan points.
The American Express Platinum card earns Membership Rewards and offers cardholders a variety of benefits including an annual $200 travel credit, complimentary airport lounge access, an annual $200 dining credit, and instant elite status with many hotel loyalty programs.
In 2024, we awarded this card as the Best Credit Card for Airport Lounge Access.
100,000 Membership Rewards
$10,000
$1,401+
$799
Yes
–
Ground Experience
As one of Lufthansa’s primary hubs, Munich Franz Josef Strauss International Airport features several lounges for business class passengers. Those traveling to a non-Schengen destination are directed to use the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge located after passport control.
I’ve found Lufthansa business class lounges to be remarkably consistent across all locations, and this one was no exception. It offers a blend of cafeteria-style seating near the buffet, along with more relaxed recliners and armchairs situated around the lounge’s perimeter. The lounge was quite busy during my visit, with dozens of flights to North America departing in the mid-to-late afternoon.
Food on offer was a salad bar which included a whole host of salad toppings and dressings. Hot food included a couple of soups, pasta, and a traditional German meatloaf.
Plenty of beverages were available, including soda, juice, coffee, tea, beer, and wine.
And of course, the crown jewel of any Lufthansa lounge is the candy station, offering a variety of sweet and savory snacks.
Overall, don’t expect a lot from a Lufthansa Business Class lounge, their primary benefit is usually just a quiet place to sit and have a few snacks prior to your flight. You’ll also find extra amenities such as showers, lockers, and business services available at most locations.
Cabin Arrangement
The Lufthansa Allegris cabin is configured in an alternating 1-2-1 and 1-1-1 layout. The orientation, privacy, and available storage space at each seat in Lufthansa’s Allegris business class cabin vary significantly. Passengers can choose from five distinct business class seating options, catering to individual preferences or accommodating those traveling with a companion. Despite the high degree of variability and a somewhat unusual cabin layout, all seats have direct aisle access.
Here’s a basic overview of the different seating options:
- The first row of each business class cabin (rows 2 and 8) are fully enclosed Allegris suites with doors and feature a taller privacy partition, additional storage space, more legroom, and a larger entertainment screen
- Privacy seats are located closer to the window and provide some added separation from the aisle
- Extra space seats, otherwise known as a throne seat, are the single seats located in the center section of the cabin. These seats have more storage space and a larger entertainment screen
- Extra long bed seats are located in the center section of the cabin behind a throne seat. Only one of these seats is in each row
- Classic seats make up the rest of the business class cabin and are situated closest to the aisle
During the initial launch phase of Allegris, Lufthansa is not charging passengers who wish to select a preferred seat in the business class cabin. Once a pricing structure is in place, you can expect to have to pay an additional fee for any seat beyond a classic seat.
For solo travelers, the privacy seats (A and K) near the windows are an excellent choice. In my opinion, they offer the ideal balance of privacy and storage space. As I was traveling alone on this flight, I chose seat 3A, one of the privacy seats on the left side of the aircraft.
Those traveling with a companion will likely want to consider a pair of seats situated closer together (D and G) in the center section of the aircraft.
You might notice that row 1 is missing from the seat map. This is because Lufthansa will be installing first class seats in a mini-cabin at the very front of the aircraft later this year. For now, a row of economy seats is installed as a placeholder.
Seat
Enjoying a new business class experience is always exciting, but this one was particularly special. The aircraft was only a week old at the time, and the cabin interior was immaculate, with not a single scuff, ding, or frayed edge in sight.
The Allegris business class cabin features a color scheme dominated by shades of grey and deep blue, complemented by some brown and brushed metal accents. Although not the most vibrant palette, the mood lighting contributed to an overall fresh and modern atmosphere.
Furthermore, Lufthansa has chosen not to install overhead storage bins in the middle of the business class cabin, a trend increasingly seen among other airlines with their latest aircraft.
The seats located along the windows alternate between being closer to the windows or closer to the aisle. The seats located closer to the aisle are also slightly angled towards the aisle, which means you’ll be quite exposed to the activity in the cabin if you’re seated in one of them.
Privacy Seat
In my seat, one of the privacy seats, Lufthansa has excelled in creating a cozy cocoon to settle into, offering a profound sense of solitude paired with a remarkable sense of spaciousness. The spaciousness, storage options, and privacy it provides are a perfect showcase for the innovation we’ve been seeing in the design of modern business class seats for the past five years.
Usually, airlines have to sacrifice one aspect in favor of another, but Lufthansa really has nailed the trifecta of what makes for a great business class seat here. As if that weren’t enough, as I’ll cover throughout this review, the level of tech integrated into these seats is awesome.
The seat is wide and comfortable, with plenty of room in the shoulders and hips, and features an adjustable headrest. Upon boarding, passengers are provided a pillow and blanket.
Due to the staggered seating arrangement, once you’re seated, you can’t see your neighbor across the aisle, or anyone else for that matter. Despite the lack of a door, I didn’t feel one was even necessary on this seat.
Legroom and the amount of space in the footwell is among the best there is in cabins that feature a staggered seating arrangement. When seated my feet couldn’t even reach the footrest, and there was ample room for my feet when the seat was in bed mode.
Directly in front of the seat is an 18” high-resolution 4K display. While not on the level of the massive 4K entertainment screen on Starlux’s A350 business class seat, the screen was very sharp, bright, and responsive.
The tray table slides out from underneath the entertainment screen and is easily one of the largest I’ve ever seen, with enough room to accommodate both my laptop and meal tray.
To the side is a detachable touchscreen tablet that can be used to control all of the seat’s functions and the entertainment screen, along with a reading light and an adjustable air nozzle. Another set of physical buttons is located above the armrest that can also be used to adjust the recline of the seat.
A small storage compartment with a sliding door is located in the side console. Inside, you’ll find the amenity kit, wired headphones, and a bottle of water.
These new seats are equipped with every charging option you could possibly require, which includes a universal outlet, USB-C, USB-A ports, and a built-in wireless charging pad.
Lufthansa decided against installing overhead air vents above each seat. Instead, passengers can manage their own personal climate directly from their seat. In addition to the adjustable air nozzle located on the side console, the airline has introduced for the first time in any passenger aircraft: personalized heated and cooled seating!
This feature operates in a similar manner to the way I’ve seen it implemented in vehicles. When heating is selected, coils in the backrest warm up. For cooling, fans built into the seat gently blow cool air to provide some additional ventilation in the seat.
I found this feature to be quite effective, and it should go a long way in resolving the issue for those who often find aircraft cabins either too hot or too cold for their liking. You can control this feature either through the main display or on the tablet. Other adjustments to the seat include changing the firmness of the seat cushion as well as multiple settings and presets for the seat recline.
Bed
As this flight was a Westbound daytime flight, I didn’t really feel the need to try to get much sleep. Nonetheless, I did move the seat into lie-flat mode and closed my eyes for an hour or so.
Turndown service is not provided, and mattress pads are not available. The airline only provides a mattress pad and pajamas on select flights over 10 and a half hours. However, Lufthansa claims that their new Allegris seats make mattress pads unnecessary due to the seat’s advanced technology. This technology includes several adjustable “firmness zones” and a “shoulder-sink-in” feature designed for side sleepers, offering comfort comparable to that of high-quality mattresses.
I can’t say I noticed any of these features, but I did find the bed to be extremely comfortable. The footwell is spacious and one of the armrests of the seat can be lowered to allow for more room around your shoulders.
The pillow and blanket provided were of average quality for business class. They weren’t the best I’ve had, but they weren’t the worst either; both felt reasonably substantial, but nothing special.
It’s my understanding that because each of the five types of seats in the Allegris business class cabin are so different, the size of the footwell can vary quite substantially. Keep this in mind when selecting your seat.
Allegris Suite
An increasing trend we’ve been seeing in the design of new business class concepts is the idea of a business class “plus” product. Lufthansa has a total of eight suites spread across the bulkhead row of each business class cabin. These seats are the most premium in the business class cabin and could easily be mistaken for first class.
The suites feature enhancements like additional privacy from a taller partition and a closing door, more legroom, a wardrobe, a mini-bar, and a larger 27” 4K entertainment screen.
Extra Space Seat
The extra space seats are situated in the center section of the cabin. Essentially, this seat occupies the same amount of space as two standard business class seats. This configuration provides additional shelving and counter space on both sides of the seat to store your belongings. This seat also has the same larger 27” 4K screen found in the suite.
The rest of the seats are either classic seats or the extra long bed seat, which offers a 2.2-meter bed. Both of these seats in my opinion would be the least desirable seat due to the way they are angled and exposed to the cabin.
Nevertheless, I don’t believe any other airline comes close to matching the variety Lufthansa offers in regard to seat preferences, so kudos to them for at least attempting something different.
Amenity Kit
To celebrate the launch of Allegris, Lufthansa is currently providing a limited-edition amenity kit that comes in a hard-shell case and includes a special reusable tote bag. The kit also includes essential travel items such as a toothbrush with toothpaste, a mint, socks, an eye mask, headphone covers, earplugs, and products from L’Occitane.
Other items, such as mouthwash, disinfecting wipes, hair combs, and more were available in every business class bathroom.
Dining
Shortly after boarding, the attendant looking after my section came by to deliver the menu for the flight and offer a pre-departure beverage. This first encounter with the flight attendant was exceptionally pleasant, and she remained delightful throughout the entire flight. Perhaps the crew was just as thrilled as the passengers to finally be flying on the new airplane?
Lufthansa offers both a dinner service and a light meal prior to arrival. Additionally, a cold Express Meal is available at any point during the flight for those who prefer to prioritize sleep or work.
Dinner
Lufthansa allows long-haul business class passengers on flights originating in Germany to pre-order their meal up to 24 hours prior to departure.
By pre-ordering your meal, you ensure receiving your preferred choice from the menu and are offered a wider selection compared to choosing on board. When you pre-order, you can select from six options, including seasonal dishes, whereas onboard you’re limited to three menu choices. Lufthansa sends a reminder email a few days before the flight, and there’s no extra charge for pre-ordering.
Do note that while there are multiple choices for the appetizer course, only the main dish course can be pre-ordered.
The choices available for my flight were the following:
The meal service began with an amuse-bouche of olives, cheese, and some sundried tomato. I wish I knew what kind of cheese this was because it was delicious. During this time, the flight attendant confirmed my pre-ordered meal, so only my choice of appetizer was required.
I selected the beef filet as my main course, so for a bit of variety, I opted for a seafood appetizer and chose the smoked char with potato salad. This was accompanied by a green salad and some bread.
The beef filet came paired with green beans and potatoes au gratin. The beef was well prepared and the peppercorn jus had a nice kick to it. The potatoes however stole the show and were extremely decadent.
The meal wrapped up with a salted caramel tart and something intriguingly listed on the menu as orange and chocolate soil. I still have no idea what either of these items were, but the entire dish was total perfection.
Pre-Arrival Meal
Ninety minutes prior to landing, a light meal was offered. I chose the smoked duck breast, served with a German pretzel and a chocolate mousse dessert. On these relatively short trans-Atlantic flights there are only about 5 hours between meals, so this light dish was an ideal serving amount and everything tasted great.
Overall, there is nothing special or unique about the meal service when flying on an Allegris-equipped flight, it’s more or less the same meal and service you would receive on any other Lufthansa business class flight. I thought the quality of both meals to be excellent, which I find tends to be the case when flying from the airlines’ hub airport rather than on the return journey.
Entertainment
Entertainment Console
The tech onboard Lufthansa’s new Allegris seats are superb. Each seat is equipped with either an 18” or 27” 4K entertainment screen and a detachable 10” tablet. The interface was well laid out and easy to navigate with no perceptible lag.
Entertainment offerings encompassed movies, TV shows, music, audiobooks, podcasts, games, and periodicals. The library of movies was vast and included many new and classic Hollywood releases along with a large selection of international and foreign language programming.
If you get bored of that, you can explore the interactive map of the flight.
Or one of my favorite features, the onboard cameras. Lufthnasa’s new A350s have 5 cameras installed (tail, nose, left, right, and birds-eye).
You can use the detachable tablet to control the main display and all seat functions. Additionally, the tablet can be used as a standalone device to watch movies or view the aircraft’s cameras. In some of my previous reviews, I’ve mentioned that detachable tablets, like those found in Emirates’ A380 business class, came off as a bit gimmicky. However, they have started to grow on me, and I found the one on Lufthansa to be quite convenient to use.
One confusing drawback to this setup is that the system is limited to using only one screen at a time. This means you can’t have the interactive map displayed on the tablet while a movie is playing on the main display. This seems like a strange limitation to have in place, and hopefully, this is something Lufthansa can address with an update to the software.
A set of noise-canceling AKG headphones was provided to all business class passengers, the quality of which looked somewhat dubious to me. I did not use these headphones because I always travel with my own pair.
Speaking of my own pair of headphones, Bluetooth audio connectivity is available for all Allegris passengers, including those in premium economy and economy. This technology allows passengers to pair their own wireless headphones to the entertainment system. This is one of my favorite features of newer aircraft as it helps reduce additional clutter by eliminating the need for another cable.
Wi-Fi
Lufthansa has Wi-Fi available across nearly their entire fleet of aircraft. Naturally, I expected it to be available on this flight as well, but I was mistaken.
I was able to connect to the local network and load the onboard web portal but received an internet unavailable message for the entire duration of the flight. I asked one of the crew members about the status of the internet, but they couldn’t provide any specific details, only confirming that it was indeed unavailable for the flight.
Lufthansa offers three internet packages on its long-haul international routes. There are no free internet packages, even for Lufthansa Miles & More status members.
Conclusion
Lufthansa has created potentially two of the best business class seats in current use with the Allegris suite and privacy seat. However, the classic seat, while still a significant upgrade to the outgoing business class product, appears rather average in my opinion. Setting aside that point, the design and technology incorporated into the Allegris seat set a new industry standard. Lufthansa is the first airline to put the passenger completely in control of their own comfort with fully adjustable seats and climate zones.
The variety of seat options does raise some concerns for me. In an era where nearly every company is upselling customers to premium products, Lufthansa is following suit by becoming one of the first airlines to charge extra for certain business class seats within the same cabin.
This is the first time an airline has installed so many different seating options in business class, so I’m curious if other airlines will follow suit or if this concept is destined to fail. While the airline asserts that the variety of seats is only intended to offer customers more travel options, I remain skeptical about how this will actually play out.
We don’t know exactly what the pricing structure will look like yet, but I’m not sure I would personally be comfortable redeeming points or miles for this product knowing that purchasing an upcharge to a better seat is almost a requirement.
Yet, all of this isn’t much of a surprise, as we’ve been seeing the unbundling of airline tickets for about a decade now. There are so many fees and extra costs associated with flying nowadays, perhaps this is just the next evolution in this practice.
In the end, the experience flying on Lufthansa’s new Allegris product is largely going to come down to whether you’re willing to stomach the upcharge to one of the good seats. Speaking from firsthand experience in those seats, Lufthansa’s Allegris is now without question the best business class seat operating between North America and Europe.
Jeff Jamieson
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