Flight Review: Lufthansa Allegris Business Class A350-900

We recently had the opportunity to experience Lufthansa’s brand-new Allegris Business Class on the A350-900, flying from Chicago (ORD) to Munich (MUC), a long-anticipated glimpse into Lufthansa’s reimagined premium experience for 2025.

You can find all routes currently operated by the Lufthansa Allegris cabin here.

Check-in and Boarding

When flying with Lufthansa, you’ll need to go to Terminal 1 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. The check-in counters usually open about 3 hours before your flight, and if you’re flying Business Class, there’s a special lane just for you, which makes the process a lot smoother. Once the counters opened, we were able to check in pretty quickly, literally took us only about five minutes to get everything sorted.

Fast Track security was unfortunately not available for our flight so clearing security took us around 30 minutes.

However, boarding was quite a mess and honestly one of the most chaotic experiences we’ve had in the US. For some reason, there weren’t any dedicated pre-boarding lanes set up before the official start of boarding. That meant everyone just lined up randomly wherever they could, regardless of their class or ticket type, which made the lines pretty disorganized. The staff on the ground took some time to get everything under control, so we ended up waiting in line for about 30 minutes before we could finally board the plane. It definitely wasn’t the smoothest process, but we made it onboard in the end.

Flight

The late evening flight lasted around eight hours, touching down in Munich shortly after noon.

The Cabin and Seats

The Lufthansa Allegris cabin has a mixed 1-2-1 / 1-1-1 layout, as can be seen in the overview below.

Below, you can see three pictures showing different seat layouts. One picture features a “privacy seat” placed directly next to the windows, another shows the standard double seats, and the last one displays one of the two fully enclosed single suites.

What immediately caught our attention was the fact that, for some reason, only the very first row of the entire Business Class cabin has these fully enclosed suites with doors. There are two single suites and one double suite in that front row. The layout itself is almost the same as the other seats; the main difference is that a plastic cover is pulled down from the top of the seat to the bottom of the cabin, which allows the addition of a door to create a fully enclosed space.

We couldn’t help but wonder why the airline doesn’t extend this feature to every seat, especially since having private suites is now considered pretty standard in the industry these days.

It seems like with this layout, the airline is able to ask passengers for extra money if they want to reserve one of these suites instead of a regular seat. So, basically, only the front row offers that extra level of privacy and luxury, which might be an incentive for some people to pay more for that exclusive experience.

We were seated in one of the outer “normal” seats, which can be reserved without any extra fee. That means you’re sitting right next to the galley.

Starting with the good stuff:

The seat itself, especially when in the upright position, is really comfortable and feels like a huge upgrade compared to Lufthansa’s old Business Class seats. There’s plenty of space to keep your personal belongings within reach, whether that’s right beside you or tucked away in one of the closets. There’s also a small reading light available, along with the usual overhead light for your seat.

One of the nice touches was all the options to charge your electronic devices. Not only do you get the usual power outlets, but there are also some USB and USB-C ports, plus a wireless charging pad where you can just place your phone. In this department, Lufthansa’s Allegris Business Class seats are definitely ahead of the game.

Another cool feature is the ability to cool down the area around your seat. However, this seems to only work for about 15 minutes. After that, the environment keeps changing between cold and hot, which is a bit odd, but it’s still a fun gimmick.

The footrest is sizable enough for your feet to move around comfortably, and the seat in the lie-flat position is large enough for everyone to stretch out fully. Overall, the seat offers a really comfortable and well-thought-out experience during the day in the upright position.

One thing that really annoyed us is that when the seat is in the upright position and the seatbelt sign is on, you’re required to fasten the seatbelt covering the top of your body. As you can see in the picture, this design is actually pretty poorly thought out, it looks like no one tested it before. The belt sits very close to your neck and is quite tight, which makes it really uncomfortable to wear. It definitely takes away from the overall comfort of the seat, especially during those times when you need to keep the seatbelt on for a while.

Now, let’s talk about the one thing we truly regretted during this overnight flight.

As you can see in the photos below, once in the lie-flat position, you’re completely exposed to the rest of the cabin. With no doors or privacy screens and a fairly wide opening to access the seat, a design that’s convenient in theory but not ideal in this case, the setup feels surprisingly open and lacking in privacy.

Another downside of that wide gap is comfort while sleeping. When trying to settle into a good position, our legs often slipped off the seat or hung awkwardly over the padding. We managed a few short naps, but kept waking up, sometimes from legs sliding off the bed, other times from accidental bumps against knees or feet.

This issue likely doesn’t affect the privacy seats, as their narrower entrances create a more enclosed, protected feel. But for the standard seats, the open design makes it difficult to truly relax or sleep comfortably without feeling exposed or constantly readjusting.

Food & Drinks

We decided not to go for the 3-4 course menu after takeoff since it was already well past 11 pm when dinner service started, and we just wanted to sleep straight away. We’ve always wondered why airlines don’t offer a quick “late evening” snack instead, followed by a proper, multi-course breakfast in the morning (around midday when we arrive at the destination). After all, about 95% of the people on board tend to go straight to sleep right after departure.

That said, breakfast was both delicious and beautifully presented, a great way to start the morning on a positive note.

Amenities

Honestly, the amenity kit on this flight was pretty disappointing. It was just a cheap-looking plastic bag with the usual basic amenities inside, which made us wonder if Porsche is really keen on having their branding on something like this. The pillow and blanket, on the other hand, were the standard Lufthansa ones, and in our opinion, those are actually quite comfortable. We weren’t offered slippers or pyjamas, so nothing special there.

The surprise was the lavatory, it was slightly larger than usual and had a warmer colour scheme, which was a nice touch. However, the amenities provided there were pretty minimal, consistent with the low-key vibe of the amenity kit and not very extensive. Overall, nothing too luxurious or extravagant, but functional enough.

 

Entertainment

When it comes to entertainment, the improvement over Lufthansa’s old Business Class is really impressive. Every seat is equipped with a high-quality entertainment screen, along with a decent-sized tablet. We’re not entirely sure what the tablet’s main purpose is besides controlling your seat, maybe it’s nice to watch TV or read some articles while lying flat.

Still, it’s a pretty cool little gadget to have.

Noise-cancelling headphones were standard, which was great. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi wasn’t complimentary for Business Class passengers (except for free messaging), so you had to pay if you wanted to stay truly connected during the flight.

Service

This flight honestly aligns with our previous experiences with Lufthansa. While their service is usually top-notch, there are times, like this one, when it’s not quite up to the usual standard.

For example, no additional water bottles were offered during the night. When I asked for one while going to the bathroom, the first response I got was a very noticeable eye roll, which wasn’t very nice.

After breakfast was served, not once did any of the cabin crew come down our aisle to ask if we wanted anything else, more drinks or coffee, for instance. It seemed that because a well-known person was seated in the solo suite in the front row, that part of the cabin was somehow “the place to be” for the staff responsible for our section, and we didn’t really get the same level of attention.

Bottom Line

You can’t deny it, the Lufthansa Allegris cabin is a massive improvement over the old Lufthansa Business Class layout. It’s really well-designed, especially for daytime flights, and the numerous features and gadgets are quite impressive.

However, for night flights, we might prefer to avoid it in the future because of some design flaws. The need to pay at least €400 to reserve a seat that doesn’t have those issues is a bit of a downside.

It was nice to get a taste of this new product, but unfortunately, the service didn’t quite live up to the expectations and didn’t help make the journey truly pleasant.