Onboard the first Lufthansa 'Allegris' flight — was the new cabin worth the wait?

02.05.2024 - 14:47 / thepointsguy.com

It took the better part of a decade, but Lufthansa's new, cutting-edge cabins are finally here. Mostly.

The airline's first commercial service featuring its new "Allegris" interior departed from Munich on Wednesday, bound for Vancouver, marking a major step for the airline as it seeks to modernize its fleet and its onboard product.

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The launch of Allegris has been eagerly awaited since 2017, when Lufthansa first announced the product was under development and published conceptual renderings.

Allegris brings a new three- and four-cabin interior to Lufthansa jets. New Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 deliveries are set to be delivered to the airline with the cabin, while retrofits are planned for some of the airline's existing fleet. Economy, premium economy, and business class were refreshed in the cabin redesign and some aircraft will feature first class as well.

Now, Allegris begins a slow but steady rollout. Lufthansa expects to receive one new A350 outfitted with the cabin per month through 2024, with 787 deliveries to join later this year. Lufthansa will introduce the product on various routes as it receives more aircraft, with a notation on flight search results to flag when a particular flight is expected to be flown with an Allegris-equipped aircraft.

But for now, there's one thing missing: that new first class.

Allegris cabins are being put into service without the first class cabin installed — just a few blocked-off coach seats as a placeholder.

That's because the first class product — a single row of suites in a 1-1-1 configuration, with the middle suite serving as a double for couples traveling together — has not been fully certified by the European aviation regulator, a Lufthansa spokesperson said. That process is expected to be completed within the next few months, and new A350 deliveries will include the product going forward. Any in-service aircraft will have the cabins added during normal line maintenance.

As for those placeholder economy seats? Those were installed to meet requirements for cabins to offer places for crewmembers to grab a hold of something in the event of turbulence, but the airline did not bother to certify them for passenger use since they're temporary.

Lufthansa's soft product — its onboard service, meal options, amenity kids, drinks, and so on — is generally regarded as top tier among Western airlines. But over the past decade, its hard product — the physical spaces and seats — have fallen behind the curve.

Its existing business class sits in an antiquated 2-2-2 layout, its first-class seats lack sliding doors or taller walls that offer privacy, and its economy seats are simply dated.