Lufthansa Allegris Business Class (A350-900 from Munich - Bangalore)
Flight Details:
Airline: Lufthansa, LH
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Aircraft registration: D-AIXW
Route: Munich - Bangalore
Flight numbers: LH764
Seat: 6C + 7A +2A
Watch my full YouTube video below:
Shockingly, Lufthansa might have Europe's best or the world's best business class seat.
Now, it's no secret that I think Lufthansa has among the worst business class experiences of any major airline in the world.
Not only are the seats you'll find on the majority of their fleet so outdated that it's frankly embarrassing, but it's the soft product, the food, the service, the amenities that truly put them at the bottom of my list.
After almost a decade of delays, a few lucky Lufthansa passengers are now finally getting to try their brand new custom Allegris business class seat, which promises to be a massive improvement over the existing experience, which isn't that hard to be fair. Unfortunately, my conclusion stands that Lufthansa business class is, to put it nicely, not worth it.
But at least I now have a few nice things to say. In fact, crazily enough, Lufthansa might now have the world's best business class seats for 20% of Allegris passengers.
I have not flown Lufthansa business class in over three years, long haul, which is a crazy long time for me since Lufthansa is my most flown airline distance-wise. I used to fly them all the time, but then I had a series of flights where it just got worse and worse. You might've seen my video from 2022 where I absolutely hammered Lufthansa business. As of now, the vast majority— around 95%—of Lufthansa’s long-haul fleet still features the old seat.
This review is purely about the brand-new Allegris - so what did I think?
SEAT MAP
At the time this review goes live (end of April 2025), Lufthansa only offers their new business class out of Munich.
In total on Lufthansa's A350s, there are 38 business class seats. These share only two lavatories for a lavatory ratio of one toilet to 19 passengers.
Let's try and explain the complicated and messy Lufthansa Allegris seat map.
This is where the insanity truly begins. On board, there are five entirely different types of seats…
First, we have our basic seats closer to the aisle that anyone can assign free of charge. I'm in 6C to begin, one of the free to assign seats in the forward cabin to give you a taste of the most basic Allegris seat.
If you want to select any of the other seats, you'll have to pay.
Let's start with the extra long bed seats, which are the worst value in my opinion, and a huge point of frustration for me. These seats cost between $116 and $196 to select depending on your flight length. That's one-way only, yet they offer the same setup as a free seat with the least privacy and space in the cabin besides having a slightly longer bed. The worst part is that these seats are next to a neighboring seat, meaning that if you're traveling with someone else, there is no way for you to sit next to them without paying to assign at least one seat.
Next, we have the privacy seats located close to the windows. These are the same price as the extra long bed seats.
Next, we have the extra space seats costing between $150 and $265 to select per flight.
Finally, the business suites, which there are eight of on Lufthansa's A350s costing an absurd amount which I’ll take about further down.
SEATS
The Classic Seat
When I first get on board, I sit in the only seat you can select for free, which is kind of by the windows, but also kind of not because you don't have a window view.
The conclusion on these basic seats is that I don't mind them, but they are drastically inferior to all other seats in this cabin.
They're also inferior to most business class seats being introduced in the second half of the 2020s.
I want to show you around 6C because this is what most people can expect. So this seat is perfectly fine. It's not uncomfortable or cramped either.
It's also private and I couldn't really see anyone else's face from my seat, so I was happy about that.
Of course, for me as an aviation geek, the biggest bummer is that you don't really have a window view with this odd layout.
Privacy Seat
I felt so lucky to be able to move back at 7A because it was vacant. This seat made me realize that the last seat, although lovely in the grand scheme of things, it's not really a very spacious or luxurious feeling seat. Here I suddenly feel like I have a lot more space. The amount of storage, the amount of privacy, everything is just like a completely different product from the seat right in front of me. I was mentally preparing to have to sit in 6C, but afterwards I felt much better to be able to sit in the privacy seat. Unfortunately, most people won't have that luxury since Lufthansa hopes that their flights will be full.
What makes this seat different from the basic seat? Well, first of all, windows!
Next, so much more storage and space. This seat literally takes up twice as much space as the one in front of it. This is specific to the last row where you don't have a seat behind, you have this large side console and beneath it, a massive storage bin.
The tray table is the biggest in the whole cabin and you can still easily exit while using it. All in all, I really liked this seat. In terms of value for money, if you're going to pay for a seat on Allegris, I think the privacy seat could be your best bet.
Business Suite
To give you an idea of the best seat in Allegris, I briefly moved up to 2A, one of the business class suites.
Let's just start with our bed because why not? They give you a mattress pad here, unlike in other seats, and just wait until you close your door. This is, I just got to say it, it's kind of crazy that I'm saying this about Lufthansa.
It kind of felt odd praising Lufthansa Allegris, but this was the best business class seat I've ever sat in. The wall, I'm pretty sure at least, is higher than Q Suite meaning the sense of privacy is insane.
This is all so amazing, but the price tag makes me wonder, is it worth it? Well that’s up to each individual. It is actually pretty extortionate in my opinion.
On their medium-long routes that will have Allegris, like this flight to India, they charge $750 CAD (because I booked this via Air Canada).
It's around $550–600 USD for an eight hour flight on top of your business class fare.
And not even elite members or frequent flyers get to select this for free.
At that rate, round trip, you're paying $1,200. I personally think that you're getting into the territory of thinking ‘should I just invest to fly an airline that's better than Lufthansa in pretty much every other way?’. Lufthansa's soft product is pretty lacking, let’s be honest.
But wait there may be a way around that cost…
I had initially heard that you could select any seat you want in the Allegra's cabin when online check-in opens. To my disappointment, when I got to the seat selection page, Lufthansa still wanted to charge me to assign a seat the same price as it was earlier even though all the suites were empty. Only once we got to the airport were we able to sit in this seat for free.
If you can manage to snag the premium seats for free, that is where Lufthansa Allegris can get really sweet because now we're enjoying what is basically a first class seat on many airlines for the price of business class.
SEAT FEATURES
One of the things I loved was that the tray tables are designed to allow you to exit the seat even while they're in use. They're also remarkably stable.
Each seat also has a closeable closet which houses your headphones and a water bottle. I don't know why the headphone cable is giving up on life and hanging out of every single seat upon boarding, but who cares? Certainly not Lufthansa's cleaning crew. I love a light at the seat and Lufthansa Allegra's does have one as well as the same tablet you'll find in first class.
This controls all types of stuff in your seat. More on that shortly. Speaking of tech, all seats have charging ports as well as USB-C as you can USB-C.
The seats closer to the aisle don't really have storage besides the surfaces to the side where your lack of windows offers great views of nothing. It would have been so nice to at least align these seats so that us poor folks who don't want to spend even more on top of our already expensive tickets can get a view outside, but I guess that wasn't possible.
As we pushed back, the crew said ‘sorry to announce that the internet is not working, but we're making this announcement for you so you don't feel disappointed’. Well, I imagine a lot of people are disappointed right now because they're telling us as we're pushing back. A bit too late to have a backup plan, right? What I didn't realize until later is that this also means the in-flight map isn't working, the safety video isn't working, so the crew have to do that manually, and even most of the seat controls aren't working.
Let's look at the entertainment and seat controls. Your tablet is supposed to control a lot of things, including your seat temperature, a feature that actually worked on my flight.
So does the firmness adjustment, another great feature. Sadly, most of the other seat controls on the tablet do not work. You simply can't press them and the crew tells me it doesn't work yet.
If the temperature controls don't work, which thankfully they did for me, at least you have this individual air vent installed at every seat. You also have a few lighting controls on the tablet, and then we have our entertainment. The selection is fine, at least of movies, while the TV shows are a bit more limited.
Given how much data an A350 can handle, it's sad to see its potential be underutilized. The best part of this system is probably the Bluetooth connectivity, whether you want to use your device as a remote or connect Bluetooth headphones. The regular headphones are greasy and are definitely not cleaned often.
FOOD
As I settle in for takeoff one of the flight attendants comes by with a tray of drinks. I happen to notice she isn't smiling or saying a word to any passengers as she does it. Sure enough, she comes up to me and holds the tray with drinks out toward me without a word or any expression on her face.
I smile and go, “hi, can I ask what this is?” And I point at one of the colored drinks, an Avionic she tells me
‘What's that?’, I ask.
“A cocktail.”
“With what?,” I ask again.
“Tonic water,” she says and proceeds to just stare at me blankly.
So I say, I'll just have the regular water, thank you. What a welcome moment.
After that stellar start, I didn't get a menu until I asked, so I had no idea what the drink options were. But eventually I’m able to share what the menu looks like:
So my meal is here, all served on one tray, including the dessert.
I have my little amuse-bouche here. So this is pretty much one of two dishes that Lufthansa serves on all routes out of their hubs. Even on a one hour flight within Europe, actually yesterday, I got this exact meal flying from Scandinavia to Frankfurt, I got this exact dessert. I like the flavors, so that's all fine.
It tastes quite good. Tastes better than it looks.
Before delivering my main course, there's all types of weird things from the crew at this point that I feel are unnecessary to bring up because I sound whiny enough. But long story short, whether it's clearing away a lot of stuff before I finished it or not giving me a spoon with my dessert, there is a clear lack of training when it comes to Lufthansa's which is surprising because this crew seems like they've been working there for a long time.
I'm not really offered any top-ups or more of anything, but I am offered the fruit plate from the regular menu, which I accept as well as a green tea.
Now check out this fruit. Let's play guess the fruit in the tiniest fruit bowl I've seen, possibly since KLM, which also had a mango, but it's literally the palest shade of yellow I've ever seen. I really wonder who prepared this because the mango is literally rock solid and has no flavor.
It felt like they just chopped up the first mango they could find. As for the papaya? Slightly better—but only by about 10%.”
The food situation took an interesting turn when I realize Oscar got a different main course than I did. So there seems to have been a catering mix up and to cut a very long story short, there was another passenger, who had also ordered a vegetarian special meal, not vegan.
I think what ended up happening is they gave him my meal for both of the meals and they gave me whatever he was supposed to get, which was actually the same dishes on the menu. So either the crew messed up or catering messed up.
In this case, luckily, I'm not allergic to anything, but if someone had been allergic and for example, couldn't eat dairy and they served those meals and insisted it was the special meal, that is insane. I mean, for Europe, that is actually scandalous.
Before I know it, we're less than two hours from Bangalore and it is mealtime again.
This looks nice. Actually a lot nicer than the first meal, ironically. Let me dig in and give it a taste. It's a nice curry and I actually prefer this to the first meal.
TOILETS
Although there are only two lavatories, which often meant there was a wait to use them, I've got to say they were really nice.
There were some interesting amenities in there, and the best amenity of all was the foot pedal so you didn't have to touch the trash can. The toilet also has a nice cover.
Strangely, the lavatories might be the most premium feeling part of Lufthansa's new business class.
AMENITIES
Lufthansa offers a Porsche Design amenity kit for Allegris passengers. Even though it looks like one of those heat blankets inside, the contents are not bad.
This is a huge step up from the last time I flew Lufthansa, so it's nice to see a minor improvement besides the seat.
Now, could the bedding be better? Yes. Would I still sleep very well here? Yes. Obviously, temperature is important for sleep and I'll get to the temperature control shortly.
Okay. This is nice. Even 6C, although more exposed and shorter, is a comfortable sleeping surface, especially if you're a side sleeper.
CONCLUSION
The obvious problem with Allegris is consistency because there's everything from what I would say is a mediocre business class seat for 2025, a good seat and then a suite that rivals the Qatar Qsuite.
How on the same plane can you have such wildly inconsistent experiences? And it all hinges on who wants to pay more. But at the end of the day, you could tell that the first seats to be chosen were the free ones and the paid ones, especially the premium ones, don't really seem to appeal to people because you've already paid a lot for your ticket.
Do you then want to pay an additional 600 euros on top of that to get a slightly better seat?
I've been thinking a lot about this and I think this shows more than anything that Lufthansa is not a customer-centric airline. It's more of a Lufthansa-centric company.
I mean, I get what they're doing. They're trying to squeeze out as much revenue as they can but I think ultimately it creates a lot of confusion between passengers.
For example what happens if one of the better seats isn't occupied? Like, can just anyone go sit there? Is it first to ask?
And then on top of that, I think it creates a bit of resentment between people in the same cabin class. Why should there be these distinctions?
Lufthansa says they're going to try to invest more in making their business class better around the soft product and I'm really excited to see that.
Hopefully they can bring some personality and some life into a very dead, boring and sad experience. And honestly, I think in terms of European airline business classes, it doesn't get more dull than Lufthansa, even with Allegris. It's funny that Lufthansa isn't Swedish because Lufthansa is basically the IKEA of the skies, but without the fun.
So Lufthansa, you’ve got work to do, but at least these seats are a nice step on the way toward improving.