Lufthansa, Allegris A350 takes off May 1: routes, best seats and prices
The countdown is now winding down: Lufthansa's new Allegris long-haul cabins are ready [...]
Lufthansa
The countdown is now winding down: the new Allegris cabins of Lufthansa's long-haul operations are ready to enter service.
In this article:
THE A350-900 landed a few days ago in Munich, the first one configured with the long-awaited cabins, will take off on May 1 from the German airport to the city of Vancouver. It will be the first opportunity, therefore, to test the services and the "new experience" of travel signed LH.
Allegris routes
In the following days, the rotations of the A350 christened Leipzig will also touch on Toronto. At present, these are the two destinations that will benefit from Allegris cabins in Economy, Premium Economy, Business and Fist Class.
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During the summer, as two more A350s with the new configuration join the fleet, there will be four destinations served: adding Canada's third city Montreal, and the first in the States, Chicago.
With the announcement of the first routes, the German giant, also added in the sales systems the ability to verify at the time of booking, the map of available seats that then reveals the configuration of seats, fares, and other useful information to guide you in choosing a seat.
According to Lufthansa, moreover, travelers who had already booked on these flights sWill be informed of the upgrade to the new cabin and passengers can check whether a flight is equipped with the Allegris product a maximum of three weeks before departure.
The on-board configuration
Anticipations have been met regarding the development of cabins on board: a 4-post First Classi in 1-2-1 configuration, a 38-seat Business Class, a 24-seat Premium Economy and a 201-seat Economy.
A quick look at the seat map available on the Lufthansa website, points out that First is not available to "direct" sales from the website; while Business is available in two cabins, separated by the galley on board, occupying rows 2 to 7 and 8 to 12. From row 14 to row 18 space is available to the Premium Economy In 2-3-2 configuration.
Finally, Economy occupies rows 19 to 41 in a 3-3-3 configuration, except for the last row, which provides only 2 seats on the right side.
The most interesting aspect, however, is the seating arrangement in Business both because of the variety of solutions-no seat looks the same in terms of privacy, orientation, and space-and because Lufthansa also finally provides direct aisle access for every Business passenger, thanks to the scheme 1-2-1, 1-1-1, 1-2-1, 1-1-1.
Allegris prices
Finally, by simulating a booking of the first available flights, it is possible to check not only the fares but also the possible combinations offered by LH. The simulations were carried out during last April 21 for flights all scheduled within the first ten days of May.
First, for the inaugural flight, there are no more Business seats available, as visible from this screenshot:
In fact, the May 1 Munich-Vancouver direct flight includes a seat in Economy from 653 euros, while Premium Economy is priced from about 1,800 euros.
The next day, however, Allegris Already debuts on Munich-Toronto with the significantly lower prices: Business ranges from 2,224 euros in Basic fare to 2,424 in Flex fare. Premium Economy, on the other hand, is on promotional price at 794 euros, about ten euros less than even Economy.
On May 5, however, Lufthansa's Allegris-format A350-900 returns to Munich-Vancouver with Economy at around 700 euros, while Business exceeds 3,200 euros base fare.
The most spacious and the most "private" seats
By crunching through the seat map, two useful pieces of information can be observed: in Business the so-called "throne" in the center of the aisle provided in rows 3,5,9 and 11 is reported as "Extra Space Seat", that is, with more legroom. Apparently, however, such "signaling" does not amount to an increase in the selling price.
The same applies to window-side seats that are marked as Privacy Seat (always in rows 3,5,9,11, which seem to be the most coveted at this point, if you exclude the mini-suite in row 2 with the two middle seats that can be shared with one's traveling companion).
At the time of the research, on the Lufthansa website, it was never possible to check whether the price of an Extra Space or Privacy seat was different from the others before actually purchasing the ticket.
In any case, a cross-check on Expedia-where you can choose your seat on board before finalizing your purchase-confirmed a substantial price parity for the various chairs available.
On both the LH site and Expedia, however, it was never available, the central mini-suite in row 2 which will probably have already sold out. At the moment, the three-week notice limit to know whether "our" flight will be equipped with Allegris, thus does not allow a long-term search.
By checking flights back from our "virtual trip" to Canada, however, we have unearthed an additional tidbit. On the Vancouver-Munich flight on May 9, in fact, a 10H seat also seems to be available, marked as Extra Long Bed, which should therefore grant more space for even more comfortable sleeping.
Lufthansa's latest communications about the Allegris takeoff also speak of extensive photographic and interactive documentation useful for choosing the best seat and discovering the amenities of the new cabins. In our research, however, we currently found no trace of this information.
Meanwhile, the sighed Allegris is ready to take off: good news for the German Group and the frequent flyers who have been waiting for this long-awaited "revolution" which will now necessarily have to expand to more planes, and destinations.
New Economy and Premium Economy cabins
Obviously our focus has been mainly on the business class cabin, but it is obvious that this A350 will also feature new coach class seats and will also see the debut of the new premium economy, an evolution of that seen aboard Swiss's 777s.
