Decisions, decisions: Choosing the best Lufthansa Allegris business-class seat

Quick take: Lufthansa’s new Allegris business-class seats are game changers for the airline, but your experience may vary significantly based on the seat you select.

Pros

• An incredible array of seat options, including ultraprivate suites.
• Decent seasonal menus with dishes you can order ahead of time.
• Excellent tech, including full-size tablets to control seat functions and entertainment.

Cons

• Five different seat types, and having to pay for most of them, are likely to put off some travelers.
• It can be difficult to keep track of which routes this product is available on.
• Award availability exists, but it is spotty and can involve some high taxes and fees.

Lufthansa originally announced the concept for its new Allegris business class back in 2017, but did not start flying jets with the new seats aboard until 2024. Talk about having passengers shivering with “an … tici … pation.”

TPG was aboard the first Lufthansa flight featuring Allegris business class in May of 2024, and since then, the airline has been steadily rolling out the new product to its long-haul fleet.

We snagged an award ticket on a flight from the airline’s hub in Munich to San Diego last month so we could see how the product is holding up and how passengers can make the most of their experience in the new seats … of which there are five types.

Here’s everything you need to know about Lufthansa’s Allegris business class and how to book it using points and miles.

How much does it cost to book Lufthansa business class?

The cost of a Lufthansa business-class ticket will depend on a lot of factors, including your origin, destination and dates of travel.

Allegris first- and business-class seats can currently be found only on some of the airline’s Airbus A350-900s, though it plans to introduce them aboard its Boeing 747-8s and some 787-9s as well.

At the time of publication, the airline is flying Allegris-equipped jets from its base at Munich Airport (MUC) to the following airports:

• Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru (BLR)
• Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
• O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
• Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
• San Diego International Airport (SAN)
• San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
• Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)

Flyers can expect to see additional destinations like Cape Town and Tokyo come online in late October. 

We flew from Munich to San Diego and found tickets on the route starting at around $4,088 round-trip originating in Europe and $7,257 if originating in the U.S.

Lufthansa is a Star Alliance member airline, though, so in addition to redeeming miles from its own Miles & More program, you can also redeem other currencies like United MileagePlus miles and Air Canada Aeroplan points for award tickets. 

Aeroplan is a transfer partner of:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One
• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 with a 5,000-point bonus for transferring 60,000 points)

United MileagePlus is a transfer partner of Bilt and Chase. 

On this route, you would need 90,000 Aeroplan points plus around $5.60-$200 each way, depending on your direction, or 88,000 United Airlines miles plus slightly lower taxes. 

In order to ensure that you are on a plane with the new Allegris seats on board, you will need to double-check the seat map of the aircraft operating the flight. It should have a staggered seat map with single seats on the sides of the cabin. If it instead has seats in a 2-2-2 configuration, those are the airline’s older seats. 

Once you book your ticket, the only seats you will be able to select for free are the handful of “Classic” seats. Otherwise, expect to pay anywhere from $185-$650 for one of the specialty seats (which we’ll get to below!).

Checking in to and boarding Lufthansa business class

Lufthansa business-class passengers can enjoy the following priority services at the airport.

I arrived at the Munich airport just over two hours before my flight and found no lines at the dedicated business-class check-in counters. I checked my bag and breezed through security in about five minutes flat, then made my way to the Lufthansa business-class lounge closest to my gate, which required a short underground train ride.

An hour before my flight, I made my way to the gate so I could be among the first to board. 

Lufthansa Allegris business-class cabin

Lufthansa Allegris business class aboard the Airbus A350-900 is a bit hard to wrap your head around until you are on board.

That’s because there are several seat types. In fact, you can count between five and seven types of seats, depending on your criteria. We clocked five seat types.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the cabin and its specifications.

Lufthansa Allegris business class has a total of 38 seats spread across two sections, and the layout varies between a 1-2-1 and a 1-1-1 configuration because of the different seat types available. 

The front section has 20 seats, and the back section behind the galley and two lavatories contains the remaining 18.

The cabin looks pretty sharp thanks to the predominantly blue, white and silver color palette — clean-looking and elegant.

Lufthansa Allegris business class: 5 seat types

Now for the fun (or confusing, depending on how you look at it) part. There are five, yes five, different seat types in Lufthansa Allegris business class, and you can expect to pay for seat assignments in most of them. 

Here’s the number of each seat type and the cost to select them for my flight.

• 12 Classic seats (closer to the aisle): $0
• 10 Privacy seats (closer to the window): $185
• 4 Extra Long Bed seats (closer to the aisle but more legroom): $185
• 4 Extra Space seats (in the middle but with no neighbors): $250
• 8 Business Suites (first row of each cabin with extra room and closing doors): $650

That’s a lot to keep track of! Especially if you haven’t been on board and seen the different seat types for yourself.

But it might help to know that the Classic and Extra Long Bed seats are essentially the same; the latter just has a few extra inches of legroom. 

The Privacy seats are window seats with a long armrest and a privacy shield from the aisle.  

The Extra Space seats are middle seats with no immediate neighbors and high privacy partitions.

The Business Suites, meanwhile, are one of an ever-growing cohort of “business plus” products we’re seeing with added amenities and extras. These suites have closing privacy doors, higher shells and larger entertainment screens than the other seats in business class.

I reserved one of the Business Suites to get a sense of the full Allegris experience. I paid about $650 for my seat (it was 900 Canadian dollars since I’d booked through Aeroplan). I also found out after boarding that other passengers were being offered an upgrade option to these seats for 600 euros ($675 at the time).

How comfortable is Lufthansa Allegris business class?

My Business Suite was one of the window ones, 2K. The seat itself was the same as the others in business class, at 22 inches across with one of the armrests slightly lower than the other, and the aisle armrest could be lowered 6 inches to provide more sleeping space. 

Unlike the other seats in business class, however, it had its own closing privacy door that was 54 inches high with a 6-inch gap to the floor, and the area to exit between the armrest and the front of the door was about 19 inches, which meant plenty of room to get in and out. 

The door was unlatched after takeoff and was very easy to open and shut. Although a small touch, I also appreciated the slightly higher privacy wall my suite had compared to the other seats in the cabin, which was mainly due to a 6-inch translucent strip placed around the shell.

Its entertainment screen was also 24 inches compared to the 18-inch screens most of the other seats in the cabin had. 

What truly impressed me, though, were a large armrest along the window, which had two big storage compartments including one for water bottles, and the wide ottoman, which meant a very comfortable sleeping area and no gaps between the chair portion and the ottoman in lie-flat position like some other business-plus products have (where the ottoman is wider than the seat). There was also a large seatside compartment on a lower ledge that l could use to stow my laptop when I wasn’t working.

The wider armrest had a basic set of buttons to control the lights and both upright and lie-flat positions.

The main controls came in the form of a 10-inch tablet latched into the aisle-side seat shell. While it automatically unlatched with a loud clicking noise anytime I touched it, that did make it easier to pull out from the shell if I wanted to do so.

The tablet could control everything from the entertainment screen to the seat’s lighting and the position of its individual components, as well as the ambient temperature. 

That’s right. Although there are no individual overhead air nozzles, you could use the tablet to set the temperature of your seat through vents in the cushion. I loved this feature, as I tend to run hot, but I did find that it reset to neutral frequently, so I would have to switch it back to cool whenever I remembered.

At the very least, there was an individual air nozzle next to the tablet that I could keep on for steady airflow. One other little thing to mention: Rather than electronically dimmable windows that you find on some newer A350s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Lufthansa selected standard windows with manual shades, which feel more effective at keeping out the light — a real plus on a long daytime flight like this when you might want a dimmer cabin to get some rest. 

There was a narrow closet where the door latched at the front of my seat in which I could hang my clothes when I changed into shorts and a T-shirt to sleep, and a large compartment below this fit my big travel backpack. 

On the wide window-side armrest, I found a wireless charging surface. I had to take my iPhone out of its MagSafe cover to use it and found that it could keep my phone at a static charge but not add to it.

Behind this, there was a universal power point and both USB-A and USB-C ports, which I found more useful for keeping my devices juiced.

Just above those was a cubby with a sliding door that could hold the amenity kit and provided basic noise-canceling headphones. 

One cute component? A little hook to hang your glasses on if you wanted to remove them but not tuck them away into one of the compartments.

The seat’s bifold table pulled out from under the entertainment screen and was more than large enough to accommodate my 15-inch MacBook Pro. 

When it was time to sleep, I turned down the seat using a provided mattress pad, duvet and pillow. It was just over 78 inches in length, which was plenty long for me, and thanks to that extra-wide ottoman, I could turn from side to side without crunching my feet or knees.

The business-class cabin had just two lavatories situated between its two sections to share among all the passengers, but since the cabin was only about half occupied, there was never a wait.

Flight attendants kept it immaculate during the flight, and touches like faux-wood paneling, touchless toilets and sinks, and L’Occitane Verveine products gave it an upscale feeling. 

Amenities in Lufthansa Allegris business class

Lufthansa Allegris business-class passengers receive a colorful full-size pillow and blanket, plus a mattress pad to use when they are ready to sleep.

I also found a pair of basic noise-canceling headphones waiting in the seat-side cubby for me.

The amenity kit was a cute pouch from Porsche Design with the following:

• Wooden toothbrush and toothpaste
• Eye mask
• Earplugs
• Socks
• Breath mints
• Disposable headphone covers
• Refreshing towel
• L’Occitane Verveine cooling hand gel
• L’Occitane lip balm

Basically, it held all the expected inclusions, and the German-made Porsche kit was a nice touch. Unfortunately, the airline did not offer pajamas on my flight.

As mentioned above, most of the seat controls were in the form of the seat-side table, which you could also use to connect your personal headphones to the entertainment system via Bluetooth. 

My entertainment screen was mounted on the bulkhead and measured 24 inches across, which was larger than most of the other seats’ systems. You could pair your own device to it to watch personalized content, but there was also a library of current-release movies like “Anora” and “The Brutalist,” as well as TV shows like “30 Rock,” “Ghosts” and “Yellowstone.”

I found it easier to use the touchscreen on the main monitor rather than the tablet due to a lag, but even so, the system was very easy to use.

There were also several Wi-Fi packages available:

• Messaging full-flight (up to 150Kbps): 6 euros ($7)
• Premium for two consecutive hours (up to 4Mbps): 16 euros ($18)
• Premium full-flight (up to 4Mbps): 27 euros ($31)

As it was a daytime flight and I needed to be online, I selected the premium full-flight option. It worked well for large chunks of time, mainly when we were over land, but I wouldn’t count on it for major lifts since the highest speed I clocked was 1.1Mbps.

How was the food in Lufthansa Allegris business class?

Lufthansa long-haul business-class passengers can preselect their main meal up to 24 hours in advance of their flight. I received an email informing me of my choices about a week before departure, and though I attempted to select one of the options, I somehow encountered an error, so I just waited to order on board.

While passengers were still boarding, flight attendants came through the cabin offering small bags of nuts and a choice of predeparture beverages including water, orange juice, Sekt (sparkling wine) and the airline’s signature Avionic cocktail (described as having notes of peach, citrus and meadow herbs).

About 20 minutes after takeoff, they came back through taking orders for aperitifs and handing out ramekins with olives, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese.

The beverage choices included:

• Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut Champagne
• Schloss Vollrads riesling from Germany’s Rheingau region
• Escudo Rojo chardonnay from Chile
• Monte Zovo Valpolicella
• Roqueta red wine from Spain
• Chateau d’Arcins red wine from Bordeaux, France

As for beer, you could have:

• Beck’s lager
• Erdinger Weissbier
• Erdinger alcohol-free beer
• Tegernseer Hell pale ale
• Warsteiner Fresh nonalcoholic beer

Then there was a selection of coffee and tea and assorted juices, still and sparkling mineral water, Coca-Cola products, and various spirits including Bacardi rum, Bombay Sapphire gin, Grey Goose vodka, Jack Daniel’s bourbon and Dewar’s 12-year Scotch whisky.

Business Suite passengers were handed special small menus with additional choices including:

• Pommery Monopole Champagne
• Piper-Heidsieck Blue Top Champagne
• BRLO pale ale
• Hendrick’s gin
• Gin Sui
• Fever-Tree Mediterranean tonic water (compared to just generic tonic water)
• Grape and elderberry spritzes

I had the Heidsieck Champagne, which was crisp and refreshing — a good way to whet the appetite before meal service.

About 30 minutes after drinks were served, the main meal service commenced. Some passengers opted for the express, single-tray service, but figuring it was a long flight and there would be plenty of time to rest and work after, I had the full affair.

It began with a choice of starters including: 

• Prawn confit with papaya and sweet potato salad, roasted green asparagus and soy mayonnaise
• Marinated veal saddle with bok choy, pineapple jelly, carrot tartare and sesame mayonnaise
• Burrata with tomato, basil and arugula
• “German bread culture” selections including a traditional white bread, mini-baguettes and pumpkin-seed bread

I had the prawn confit, which was light and tasty and paired nicely with the riesling. There was also a small side salad with vinaigrette.

The choice of main dishes included:

• Salmon with roasted baby potatoes and Szechuan butter
• Dumpling with truffle filling with spicy spinach with riesling cream sauce
• White asparagus with fillet of veal, parsley potatoes and hollandaise

The preorder dishes were also listed and included:

• Pork shoulder with mashed potatoes, horseradish, gravy, carrot and kale with bacon
• Prawns with pumpkin curry sauce, broccoli and sweet potato
• Vegetarian paella with zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli and olives

Ordinarily, I would not order veal, but it sounded like the best option available to me, and it was the prime of white asparagus season in Germany, so I figured why not? I asked for the hollandaise sauce on the side, and it mostly was, though it was also easy to scrape off what I didn’t want. The veal was juicy and the asparagus, though a little more cooked than it might have been on the ground, still provided a nice touch of seasonality. 

For dessert, there was a choice of cheeses, a financier with apricot and nut-butter crunch, and fresh fruit. I chose the financier, which was light and sweet, as well as the fresh fruit.

After the meal, I slept for about four hours, and when I woke up, a flight attendant came by to offer me a midflight snack of quiche, sausage with olive and fig, charcuterie and cheese, and tomato and artichoke with olives.

As a Business Suite passenger, I could also choose from a special snack menu that included:

• Keogh’s shamrock and sour cream potato chips
• Mr. Filbert’s French rosemary almonds
• Comte cheese crackers
• Chocolate bites with nuts and fruit
• Chocolate almonds
• Vegan fruit jellies

I pocketed a variety of them for layover snacks, but waited till the next meal service to eat again. That occurred about 90 minutes before landing, and the menu choices included:

• Smoked char with lettuce, curried cream cheese and red radish
• Massaman vegetable curry with jasmine rice and cashews
• Mango mousse with kiwi compote

I asked for the curry since I wanted something savory and light, and then had a bite of the mango mousse, which was a nice mix of sweet and tart.

After the meal, I zipped back into the lavatory to change, and before I knew it, we were descending into San Diego. 

Would you recommend Lufthansa Allegris business class?

Lufthansa’s Allegris business class is a huge step forward for the airline, whose older business class was becoming uncompetitive.

The new seats are stylish, comfortable and spacious, and the technology is among the best currently available. Although the preponderance of seat types means that folks can customize their flight experience, it’s hard to conceive of the differences between them until you actually board the plane and see them in real life. 

That said, even the standard seats that are free to select are a fine choice if you don’t have the budget for one of the more premium options. The Business Suite definitely felt like a product unto itself thanks to its roomy footprint and closing door as well as the little extra touches like the larger entertainment monitor and additional snack and beverage choices.

That said, I might just opt for the Privacy seats nearer the windows next time as they afford a lot of seclusion and are under a third of the price. 

The service on my flight was also exemplary. The flight attendants and cabin manager were very personable with passengers, showing folks the differences among the seats (since many were unoccupied), explaining the various functions, and then passing through the cabin frequently during the flight to offer folks snacks and drinks. Upon hearing I was interested in wine, they even brought me the menu from first class just because I was curious to take a look. All in all, they made a nice flight experience that much better.

For now, it might be a little hard for the average traveler to sort out which flights have the new Allegris cabins on board, let alone find award availability and then pick from one of the five seat options. But the experience feels both premium and worthwhile, so if you do find that award availability or a decently priced ticket that suits your needs, this is another great way to fly between the U.S. and Europe in business class. 

Related reading:

• The best airline credit cards
• Premium economy vs. business class: Are the differences worth an upgrade?
• Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights
• What are airline alliances, and who’s in them?
• On board the first Lufthansa Allegris flight