The first Airbus A350-900 to feature Lufthansa’s long-delayed ‘Allegris’ Business Class seat will go into service between Munich and Vancouver beginning May 1, with Toronto to follow shortly thereafter, along with Chicago and Montreal in the summer.
Considering that Lufthansa first announced the Allegris project back in 2017, this moment has been a long time coming, and while the new Business Class seats will be a big improvement on the German flag carrier’s current generation of long-haul premium seats, you’ve got to wonder whether Allegris will survive the test of time.
To make matters even more confusing, Lufthansa has adopted a staggered seating configuration which offers varying degrees of privacy and space – it might seem strange to offer a new product with little consistency, but Lufthansa is seeing it as a virtue, at least for its business.
The plan is for Lufthansa to monetize the various seating categories – five of them in total. Only the so-called Business Suite at the front of the cabin will have sliding doors, while there will also be Privacy Suites, Double Seats, and Extra Space Seats.
If you’re not prepared to pay extra for one of these special seats, then you’ll be left with the ‘Classic Seat’, although Lufthansa says that seat reservation fees will be waived in the first few months of the cabin launching.
There is also a new Premium Economy cabin debuting on Lufthansa’s latest A350, along with an upgraded Economy seat. There also even meant to be a brand new First Class seat, but despite the extended amount of time it’s taken even to get to this point, that product still isn’t ready.
As a result, Lufthansa decided to take delivery of its first Allegris A350 without First Class installed on Sunday. The plane will, therefore, be flying around at least for the summer season with an empty space at the front of the aircraft where the First Class cabin should be.
