Lufthansa’s Long-Delayed Allegris First Class Will Finally Debut On November 9 But You Can’t Book Tickets Yet

German flag carrier Lufthansa will finally debut its much-delayed new First Class suite on November 9, although passengers still aren’t able to buy tickets for the highly anticipated seat as the airline plans to fill the cabin with top-tier frequent flyers.

The new First Class suite is part of Lufthansa’s upgraded Allegris inflight product range, which took flight for the first time on a brand new Airbus A350 from Munich to Toronto on May 1.

At the time, however, the First Class cabin still wasn’t ready so Lufthansa had to put the multi-billion-dollar aircraft into service with an empty space at the front of the plane where the First Class suites should have been.

In development since 2017, the Allegris First Class suite has finally been installed on a single Airbus A350-900 and will start flying commercially on November 9 on flights to Bangalore and then from November 15, alternately on flights to Mumbai.

The First Class cabin consists of just three suites in a 1-1-1 configuration, with the center seat dubbed Suite Plus because it essentially offers a double seat and bed.

Each suite features ceiling-high walls and a lockable door, along with a personal wardrobe and what Lufthansa describes as a ‘huge’ inflight entertainment monitor.

Unfortunately, with just one Airbus A350-900 currently kitted out with the new suites, Lufthansa doesn’t yet plan to sell tickets to fare-paying customers for the new cabin as the risk of the aircraft being swapped out for another plane that doesn’t feature the Allegris First Class cabin is too high.

Instead, Lufthansa says it will “initially present the new, innovative product to its most loyal guests by invitation.”

“As soon as more aircraft with the new First Class are part of the fleet, targeted upgrades by passengers and later targeted bookings will be possible step by step,” the airline said in a statement.

The Allegris First Class cabin is also expected to be installed on Lufthansa’s Airbus A380 superjumbos and Boeing 747-8s, but the installation process for the latter aircraft has hit a pretty significant snag.

In late 2023, it was revealed that Lufthansa had called in its aircraft overhaul subsidiary to adapt the Allegris First Class cabin for its Boeing 747-8s because the unique footprint of the tapered cabin at the pointy end of the jumbojet means that the standard Allegris First Class suite wouldn’t quite fit.

The Allegris First Class suites have also presented some other problems, including the fact that they are heavy that Lufthansa might be forced to install heavy weights at the back of some aircraft types to counterbalance the heft of the suites at the front of the plane.

Lufthansa is yet to provide a rollout schedule for the Allegris First Class suites across its fleet.