On board the first Lufthansa Allegris flight — was the new cabin worth the wait?

It took the better part of a decade, but Lufthansa's new cutting-edge cabins are finally here ... mostly.

The airline's first commercial service featuring its new Allegris interior departed from Munich on Wednesday, bound for Vancouver, marking a major step for the airline as it seeks to modernize its fleet and its onboard product.

The launch of Allegris has been eagerly awaited since 2017, when Lufthansa first announced the product was under development and published conceptual renderings.

Allegris brings a new three- and four-cabin interior to Lufthansa jets. New Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 orders are set to be delivered to the airline with the cabin, while retrofits are planned for some of the airline's existing fleet. Economy, premium economy and business class were refreshed in the cabin redesign, and some aircraft will feature first-class cabins as well.

Now, Allegris begins a slow but steady rollout. Lufthansa expects to receive one new A350 outfitted with the cabin per month through 2024, with 787 deliveries to join later this year. Lufthansa will introduce the product on various routes as it receives more aircraft, with a notation on flight search results to flag when a particular flight is expected to be flown with an Allegris-equipped aircraft.

But for now, there's one thing missing: that new first class.

Allegris cabins are being put into service without the first-class cabin installed — just a few blocked-off coach seats occupy the space as a placeholder.

That's because the first-class product — a single row of suites in a 1-1-1 configuration, with the middle suite serving as a double for couples traveling together — has not been fully certified by the European aviation regulator, a Lufthansa spokesperson said. That process is expected to be completed within the next few months, and new A350 deliveries will include the product going forward. Any in-service aircraft will have the cabins added during normal line maintenance.

As for those placeholder economy seats? Those were installed to meet requirements for cabins to offer places for crewmembers to grab hold of something in the event of turbulence, but the airline did not bother to certify them for passenger use since they're temporary.

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Lufthansa's soft product — its onboard service, meal options, amenity kids, drinks and so on — is generally regarded as top tier among Western airlines. But over the past decade, its hard product — the physical spaces and seats — have fallen behind the curve.

Its existing business class sits in an antiquated 2-2-2 layout, its first-class seats lack sliding doors or taller walls that offer privacy and its economy seats are simply dated.

In 2017, Skytrax famously designated Lufthansa a five-star airline based on the new seat concepts but rescinded that in 2022 as travel resumed after the coronavirus pandemic and the seats failed to materialize. The soft product remained stellar, but the hard product was just too old to rank the airline among the world's best.

As Allegris finally takes off, it's time to ask: Was it worth the wait — and will the new interiors bring Lufthansa back to the top of the charts? After joining other media for a preview of the cabin last week, TPG was among a smaller pool of outlets to snag a seat on board the first commercial flight with the new cabin on Wednesday. Here's what we thought.

Differentiation to the max

It's usually easy to pick a seat on your flight. Choose the class of service, decide between a window or aisle seat (or middle, if applicable, though if you actually choose middle, we have some questions for you) and, if you're a frequent traveler, pick a row that isn't next to the lavatory or galley and doesn't have limited recline or a blocked window.

Flying in Allegris business class is a bit more complicated.

There are seven types of business-class seats on the plane, laid out in an alternating 1-2-1 and 1-1-1 configuration:

• Suites in the first row (double suite inside, single suites by the window)
• Extra-space seat
• Window seat
• Seat with an extra-long bed measuring more than 7 feet
• Privacy window seat with a baby bassinet
• Double seat (in the last row of business class, two neighboring seats with a smaller distance between them can be combined to form a double berth using a retractable center console)
• Regular seat

It's a bit confusing, but it offers a range of experiences and keeps things fresh.

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On the inaugural flight, first class remained empty aside from the placeholder seats, and passengers were told they could not congregate there during the flight.

The business-class cabin was split into two by a lavatory between rows 7 and 8, with a row of suites at the front of each of the two sections.

Three rows of premium economy seats at the windows — and four in the middle — sit in a 2-3-2 layout.

The seats looked modern and chic and were inset in a shell-type backing that lets the seat recline by sliding forward within the shell so that the recline does not interfere with the person sitting behind.

There's only so much that can be innovated in an economy seat, but they nevertheless looked comfortable, with adjustable headrests, adequate cushioning and a reasonable amount of legroom in their staggered 3-3-3 configuration.

They also had a few nifty features, including power outlets, bright seatback screens and a personal device holder.

On board the first Allegris flight

I'll cut to the chase: The seat is very good. I've been fortunate to fly in Lufthansa's existing first-class and business-class seats a few times, and these are significantly better. Among the reasons, in my view: personalized climate control for each seat, something that's innovative and incredibly welcome.

This inaugural flight started with a gate celebration that included drinks and snacks, plus freebies, music and speeches.

It was fairly typical for an inaugural, but for most of the passengers who were simply trying to get to Vancouver, the hubbub was a bit confusing.

Frequent announcements from the gate agent assured them that they were, indeed, at the right gate, and they were lucky enough to have better seats than they expected for the flight out.

Media — TPG included — were allowed to preboard to try and get photos of the cabin without passengers blocking the views.

Of course, this was a bit difficult given that we only had a few minutes and were all in each other's way, but we still had the chance to check out each cabin.

I had been assigned to seat 9K, one of the "privacy" window seats on the right side of the plane.

The seat was wide and comfortable, even by business-class standards. A large side table lay at my right (under which lay the foot compartment for the aisle-adjacent seat behind me), and there was a sliding cabinet that housed a water bottle, a hard-wired set of headphones and an amenity kit and had plenty of room to store my own headphones or iPad.

Along with the amenity kit, a pillow and a blanket were waiting on the seat. There also was a special souvenir for the first Allegris flight: a laptop sleeve/folio containing a notebook and a special edition of Lufthansa's in-house travel guide to our destination.

The amenity kit, meanwhile, came in a hard case — something that I find always feels a bit more special and premium than the soft-sided versions — and a special edition tote bag for the Allegris flight. The kit held all the usual items, like a toothbrush with toothpaste, an eye mask and earplugs, moisturizer and covers for the headphones, in case you want an extra bit of cleanliness.

There were also three power ports — a regular universal outlet, a USB-A port and a USB-C port — and a headphone jack in case you preferred to use your own rather than the ones provided. The table also contained a wireless charger that you could set your phone on to charge.

Also on the right, a bit further back, were a few of my favorite features. There was a tablet that you could use to control the seat, lights, climate settings and inflight entertainment screen. At first, this seemed a bit extraneous since the main screen is touch-controlled, but I realized a bit later during the flight that it's actually in the perfect spot to control things while your seat is in the lie-flat bed position, whether you want to watch a movie before falling asleep or you decide you're too hot or cold.

Speaking of, there was an air vent with a switch to control it just past the screen. Hallelujah! Like many European carriers, Lufthansa's cabins have generally lacked individual air nozzles. As someone who tends to fly hot, I've always hated that and usually have trouble sleeping on flights, even in a lie-flat seat, because it's too hot and stuffy for me.

But that's not the case with this product. Just like some late-model luxury cars, the seat itself holds a temperature control system that's controllable from the inflight entertainment system. Simply move the slider toward heat or cooling, and a fan gently circulates warm or cool air through pores and vents in the seat. Whether you're sitting up for takeoff or lying down for a rest, this feature is available and quite effective.

Facing forward, one will find the large and bright seatback screen. Along with a selection of movies and shows, you'll find the seat controls — you can even adjust the cushion firmness — along with the flight map and a few live camera angles from outside the plane. Notably, every seat can view those cameras, regardless of the cabin you're in.

Finally, there's the massive tray table, which slides out from in front of you and is long enough to fully reach a seated passenger — or to hold dishware during a meal, with room left over for a laptop or tablet.

The soft product

There's been talk of an upgraded soft product to go with the new Allegris seats.

It's not in place yet, but Lufthansa's service in business class remains excellent. If anything, the quality of the cabins matches the soft product for the first time in recent memory.

A choice of welcome drinks was offered on board, along with a bag of mixed nuts. I went with the Avionic, a new aperitif the airline designed with the Ziegler distillery in Freudenberg, Germany. It's an herbal bitter similar to Aperol that's mixed with tonic water and served on ice with a slice of lemon.

It was so good that I had a second one after takeoff, during the first drink service.

The timing was a little weird for this meal. The flight departed at 3:45 p.m. and was scheduled to land in Vancouver at 4:55 p.m., so it was late for lunch but early for dinner. Nevertheless, a late lunch (or early dinner) would do the trick.

An amuse-bouche of olives and Parmesan started the meal off, and I opted for the vegetarian appetizer, which the menu described as a "variation of carrot with quinoa and coriander."

It was stellar and creative, a dish with carrots prepared five different ways, including pureed, shredded in a salad and chopped and mixed with quinoa. It was served with fresh bread and a salad.

For my main, I opted for the veal steak with white asparagus and parsley potatoes in a hollandaise sauce. The overly white dish may not have been the most visually appealing — especially without the service tray — but it was nevertheless delicious.

Finally, for dessert, I went with the salted caramel tart and an espresso.

Inaugural celebrations aside, the flight was fairly uneventful. I had several more coffees, worked and took a 30-minute nap.

About 90 minutes before landing, the flight attendants offered a light dinner. I chose the tortellini, which was a solid choice. The chocolate mouse dessert was delicious as well.

We landed in Vancouver on time, and after the crew and airline employees took a quick photo at the front business-class cabin, we headed to customs.

Bottom line

The Allegris cabin is a sharp improvement for Lufthansa. Despite some confusion about the way it differentiates the seats in business class, it seems that it would be difficult — if not impossible — to find a bad seat. (Do note, though, that the "regular" business-class seats — the window seats that are adjacent to the aisle — are fairly exposed, as is the case in any cabin with a similar staggered configuration.)

With the entire aerospace industry continuing to struggle with supply chain and delivery constraints, the rollout of the new cabin will be slower than ideal.

Nevertheless, Lufthansa may have a chance at earning back that fifth star.