While I wasn’t initially planning on taking a review trip in the immediate future, this seems like an opportunity that I can’t turn down, given that it has been around seven years in the making…
I booked Lufthansa’s new A350 business class
Lufthansa is finally launching its Allegris business class in the coming days, as the first A350-900 with the new cabins will be flying between Munich and Vancouver as of the beginning of May (on select frequencies).
Unsurprisingly, business class award availability on the new A350 is pretty awful. That’s not because there’s a sudden increase in demand, but rather because there’s a material reduction in capacity. Lufthansa’s A350 business class cabin is going from having 48 seats to having 38 seats, so that’s not good for award availability.
I’ve been keeping a close eye on availability, and to my surprise, I was able to find a business class award seat on one of the first flights to feature the Allegris cabins, so I couldn’t help but book it.
I mean, I think it’s fair to say that this is one of the most anticipated business class products in history. After all, we’ve been waiting for it to launch since 2017, when it was announced. So I figure it’s my duty to finally give this product a try, and see what it’s like.
What other products should I review on this trip?
I have to wrap up planning for this trip shortly, and I’m trying to decide where I should go after Munich. I’ve written about the airline products I’d most like to review, and am trying to decide which I should check off my list next. Admittedly when I go about planning these trips, I often go a bit overboard, and try so hard to optimize that all decent options just end up disappearing, or I just give up.
A few potential ideas come to mind:
- Should I just return from Europe to the United States in Icelandair business class, since I’ve been meaning to review that? It would help with keeping the trip short
- Should I position myself to Cairo, and then fly Kuwait Airways first class on a reasonable cash fare to either Bangkok or Manila via Kuwait City, given that it’s one of the last first class products that I’ve yet to review? But then where do I go from there? I’d love to fly Garuda Indonesia first class, Thai Airways first class, or Starlux first class, but I’m not sure any of those will get me home efficiently, or offer great value…
- Should I fly Beond Airlines business class from Zurich to Dubai, but then where do I go from there? I do see some Royal Jordanian business class award space, though I’m not sure how exciting that is to OMAAT readers
- Should I fly Air Algerie from Cairo to Montreal via Algiers, as the airline has good business class fares at the moment, for once?
Those are just a few ideas, though I’m open to just about anything interesting that’s reasonable. Let me emphasize that I’m focusing on routings where it’s possible to get award availability in a premium cabin, or where the premium fares are often not horribly priced (which often requires positioning to a market like Cairo).
I also don’t want to be gone from home for more than five or so days, while knocking out as many things as I can. So if anyone has any preferences or requests for things they’d like to read about, just let me know…
Bottom line
While we’ll mark this as “developing” for now, it looks like I’ll be packing my bags and taking a review trip shortly, as I managed to snag a Lufthansa Allegris A350 business class seat, which seems like something that I can’t in good conscience not review ASAP.
I’m just trying to decide what else I should check out on this trip, so if anyone has any ideas or requests, please let me know!
