Lufthansa finally reveals a good Business Class seat ….. coming from 2020

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Ah, Lufthansa. If you ever need an example of how lack of competition makes an airline lazy, look at Lufthansa. With the German government regulating – and in many cases blocking – access to Lufthansa’s airports for the Middle Eastern carriers amongst others, it has been free to carry on regardless.

Lufthansa held on to a business class seat which was ‘angled, lie flat’ (ie sloping to the ground, AKA the wedgie seat) for longer than most. Grief, they even ordered an expensive pile of A380 aircraft and installed previous generation angled seats on them.

Lufthansa 747-8 new livery narrow

When even Lufthansa realised this game was up, it found a new novelty. It introduced a fully flat business class seat where the 2 x 2 x 2 seating is angled in a V shape. This means that your feet are weirdly close to the feet of the person next to you. Unless you are sitting in the middle pair, you don’t have direct aisle access and / or the certainty that your seat mate won’t climb over you.

Anyway …. those days are over. Sort of.

Lufthansa has released pictures of the new Business Class seat that will appear on its Boeing 777-9 fleet. And it looks very impressive indeed.

20 Boeing 777-9 aircraft will arrive between 2020 and 2025. Lufthansa is the launch customer for this model.

Look at what you will get:

and

We are talking:

direct aisle access for all passengers
1-2-1 or 1-1-1 seat layout
“large” monitors

It still isn’t clear what British Airways is planning for their A350 Club World seat, beyond the promise of ‘direct aisle access’, which may or may not be rolled out on the Boeing 777 fleet. If they fall behind Lufthansa then things really are bad.

Virgin Atlantic is also planning something new for the A350 although I doubt that will be much of a departure from the herringbone layout used elsewhere.

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Lufthansa and Miles & More

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

James says:

25 Nov25 November 11:42

Well OT:
Flew Sri Lankan Airways in the heringbone seats yesterday BKK-CMB. Didn’t really get on with them. I like Qatar’s version better. I just couldn’t seem to get my legs into a comfortable position, I felt kind of twisted.
Also not as much space around me I felt or good support for resting arms when in chair / lounging mode.
Are Finnair’s herringbone seats more like Qatar’s or Sri Lanka’s ??
- Ian says:
  
  25 Nov25 November 12:44
  
  Finnair’s seats feel very cramped indeed compared with Qatar. I don’t know how they get the superstructure of the seat to intrude and take up so much space. Also there is absolutely no contest when it comes to food, unless you like Finnair’s long-haul so-called business class offering of meat balls, mashed potato, cabbage and champagne served in tumblers.
  - Leo says:
    
    25 Nov25 November 17:45
    
    Actually I do! Prefer their menu to both that of CX and QR.
    - Nick says:
      
      25 Nov25 November 19:49
      
      I don’t like the food very much but absolutely love the ittala tumblers!! They’re beautiful and don’t take away any of the taste of the champagne.
Alex says:

25 Nov25 November 14:06

OT: I’m about to book my first flights with points (thanks to this very fine site!). I’d be flying one way to Vancouver from LHR in a 747, and I’ve got enough points for either a J or F redemption. On the basis of this, would you recommend booking the J seat in the top deck or F seat in the nose section? I’ve never been in a 747 before (and it looks like BA is phasing it out for an A380 on the YVR route later next year, so I may not get to try both options). Any insights appreciated!
- Rob says:
  
  25 Nov25 November 14:16
  
  Do you have status? If not, note BA charges a fat premium for 747 upper deck seats (£90? per person each way). No fee for F seat selection.
  - Alex says:
    
    26 Nov26 November 20:29
    
    I’ve got silver. Good to know, though, cheers!
- Gibbooo says:
  
  25 Nov25 November 17:31
  
  They run the 747 in the winter season. And a380 from April/May onwards for summer traffic.
  
  Unfortunately the banger 747s will be around for years to come!
  - Simon J says:
    
    25 Nov25 November 20:23
    
    Lets hope they update some of the interiors
  - Alex says:
    
    26 Nov26 November 20:38
    
    Ah, I wasn’t aware it was a seasonal thing. I flew on a brand new QR A350 recently, so my first 747 flight should be a moderately stark contrast!
- Yuff says:
  
  25 Nov25 November 17:47
  
  If you have the points, and they haven’t cost too much, it’s F every time imo.
  The Concorde lounge, is worth the extra premium on its own, not taking into account the check in, and seat and privacy in F 😉
  - Alex says:
    
    26 Nov26 November 20:34
    
    Yeah, I’ve been wanting to try the Concorde lounge for a while. I’ll be travelling with a good amount of luggage as I’m moving to Vancouver for a year, so the check-in experience should be an added bonus. Thanks!
- HAM76 says:
  
  25 Nov25 November 18:15
  
  F. An upper deck seat might always change to a different seat for operational reasons or due to an aircraft change. Expecting 64K and ending up in a middle seat on the lower deck is a much steeper degradation than expecting 2K and ending up in 4E.
  - Alex says:
    
    26 Nov26 November 20:39
    
    That’s a very good point which I hadn’t considered. I think that cinches it for me, will go with F. Thanks for the input, appreciate it!
Cate says:

25 Nov25 November 18:22

OT – sorry but no bits today.

Does anyone know if IHG charge for transferring points to airlines?

OTT regarding amex platinum insurance for hire cars. MrCate has just received his first ever speeding notification. Will it affect his amex car hire insurance at all or is it business as usual? Many thanks.
- David says:
  
  25 Nov25 November 18:44
  
  Normal hotel scheme points transfers to airline miles are free. Certainly in IHG and all the major schemes that I can think of. In fact I’ve never heard of a scheme charging for it.
  - Cate says:
    
    25 Nov25 November 20:30
    
    Great news – thanks David
- Simon J says:
  
  25 Nov25 November 20:28
  
  No charge but with the conversion rate you woukd get better value keeping them with ihg.
  - Cate says:
    
    25 Nov25 November 20:35
    
    It’s a bit of a no brainer with us Simon J as we haven’t used IHG points for redemptions since we opened the accounts back in the day. I’m a bit short on hard to source flight points so it makes sense to cannibalize them. Thanks for the reminder though.
- the real harry1 says:
  
  25 Nov25 November 21:29
  
  with most car insurance policies, the T&Cs do actually require you to notify the insurer of any points – I can’t see Amex insurance would be any different, even if it is free with Plat
  
  so I’d advise to tell them about it, if only to be sure that he is still covered with rentals
  - Cate says:
    
    25 Nov25 November 22:04
    
    Yes I think I’m going to have to take it further Harry. We hire often. This so annoying…
    - Alan says:
      
      25 Nov25 November 22:13
      
      I can’t imagine it being an issue as it’s only car hire *excess* insurance. The car hire company (& their insurance company) should be taking account of this when hiring the car out – this is what the paper counterpart used to show, although it’s via an online version now – https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence. I must say I’ve not yet been asked for ‘licence check code’ though.
    - the real harry1 says:
      
      25 Nov25 November 22:31
      
      but you have to balance risk against this minor inconvenience (getting Amex to OK it)
      
      say: MrCate is 100% at fault in an accident and rental car + other car both get written off
      
      rental co say: that’ll be £60K, Amex say: you should have told us about the points because we would have declined to cover you if we’d known
      - Alan says:
        
        25 Nov25 November 22:43
        
        Of course with any policy important for you to be happy & perfectly reasonable to call but I’m just saying it doesn’t seem to be an element of excess insurance (for example see another example policy – http://www.insurance4carhire.com/media/642/daily_policy.pdf). If you have a valid licence & the car hire company was willing to hire you the car despite having penalty points then the fact that you have points on your licence doesn’t seem to be an issue.