Lufthansa (pictured) is particularly invested in offering business travellers more choice. The German carrier in May introduced its new Allegris business class cabins on Airbus A350 flights to Toronto and Vancouver with, surprisingly, five different seat options.
“We designed the cabin in the best way for the company and also for the customer,” says Kai Peters, head of customer experience design at Lufthansa. “The layout [of the Allegris business cabin] makes it possible to fit maximum capacity and at the same time create spaces for different customer needs,” he adds.
Naturally, there’s also a commercial element. Beyond the ‘classic’ Allegris business class seat, the four additional seat types come with ‘added comforts’ – such as an extra-long bed (up to 2.2 metres), privacy seat (closest to the window), extra space seat and the business class suite (with a sliding door, personal wardrobe and minibar) – and each incurs an additional charge for an advanced seat reservation.
However, Peters insists the classic seat is still “a very good seat among our competitors” and all seating options include the same functionalities: wireless charging, a two-metre-long flat bed and individual seat cooling and heating.
Speaking to BTN Europe, Peters said the carrier will unveil its pricing structure and privileges for members of its Miles & More loyalty programme “in late summer” once the “introductory phase” of the Allegris rollout is complete.
He said travellers can use miles to pay for advanced seat reservation – “business travellers are usually frequent travellers and have [membership of] the mileage programme” – while those with top-tier Senator and HON Circle status will be granted access to certain seat types at no additional cost. “So, there are options. You don’t have to pay,” says Peters. “You can use other functionalities or logic to access these seats.”
This may in fact be the only way travel managers will be able to keep a handle on spend, even if a cabin ‘upsell’ using personal miles means a unified experience across the travelling cohort cannot not be guaranteed. It may also necessitate changes to travel policy.
Lufthansa, which first unveiled details of the €2.5 billion long-haul upgrade last year, plans to extend the Allegris rollout this summer to destinations such as Chicago, Montreal, San Francisco and Shanghai, alternating on different routes.
From June, the carrier expects to receive one newly refitted Airbus A350 every month for the duration of 2024. This will then increase to two aircraft per month in 2025, with the introduction of newly fitted Boeing 789 aircraft. The latter will feature three Allegris cabins (business, premium economy and economy), while the Airbus A350 also includes the new First Class Suite Plus which, due to manufacturing delays, will be rolled out in late 2024.
Despite reporting a Q1 operating loss with plans to “reduce operating costs [and] stop new projects”, Peters says all plans related to the Allegris rollout are going ahead “with full force”.
Investment in the Allegris product has also been confirmed for sister airline Swiss, which will feature the new cabins on retrofitted Airbus A330s and Boeing 777-300s as well as on new Airbus A350 aircraft from late 2025. The carrier said the new A350s will include a “substantially larger” premium economy cabin than those on its existing long-haul aircraft types, with 38 seats instead of 24.