The Boeing 787-9 smells different than older jets. It’s cleaner, sharper. I spent nine hours and twenty-five minutes flying Austin (AUS) to Frankfurt on Lufthansa to find out if the hype matched the hardware. It was my second ride in their new Allegris cabin. First was an A350. This time? The Dreamliner. And crucially, I experienced the newly launched “FOX” soft product. That means new meals. New amenities. New everything except the plane.
So how is Lufthansa’s new business class really performing?
It’s solid. Hella competitive, actually. But let’s stop here. It’s not going to win an Oscar. It won’t blow your mind. The food situation is messy. It depends entirely where you depart from. I’ll get to that. First, the seat.
Choosing the right seat on the Lufthansa Dreamliner
Lufthansa throws a lot of choices at you. Maybe too many.
There are twenty-eight business class seats. Nine rows. The configuration alternates between a 1-2-1 layout and a weird 1-1-1 setup. Lufthansa sells this as freedom. I see it as a pricing trap. Want a window with a sliding door? You pay more. Want two seats next to each other? Good luck. Except for the front row pair, there are zero adjacent seats for couples or friends traveling together. You get split up. Or you pay a premium for the front.
I grabbed a window “privacy” seat. The sliding door actually works. It gives you a bubble.
The cabin looks spiffy. Clean lines. Modern lighting. I prefer these widebodies without First Class. Why? Lavatory access is better. Service feels more personal because there aren’t ten people above you demanding champagne every minute.
My seat was spacious. Lounging felt good. Bed mode worked fine. The tech stack is strong. You get USB-A. USB-C. An AC outlet. Wireless charging. A crisp monitor. Bluetooth audio connects easily. No hunting for adapters here.
But then you touch the upholstery.
Hard. Extremely hard. Lufthansa claims you can adjust the firmness via a button. I pressed it. Nothing changed. Maybe a millimeter. Thank goodness they include a mattress pad. Without it? That spine would be sore by Frankfurt.
Also. No individual air vents. On the A350, they had seat cooling. I checked every panel on the 787. Nothing. Maybe it’s there? I missed it? Doubtful.
Entertainment and the Wi-Fi bait-and-switch
The entertainment system doesn’t fight you. It’s intuitive. Touch response is snappy. There’s a good map view. An external nose camera if you like watching your own wake. Movie selection? Standard but sufficient. I didn’t binge, but I watched.
Wi-Fi is provided by Panasonic. It exists. It works.
It is not fast. And there’s a glitch in the matrix regarding price.
The website advertised the flight package for 25 Euros. I went to pay. The portal demanded 29 Euros. It’s a classic bait-and-switch. Even if accidental. It’s sloppy. Don’t make me hunt for the real price at 35,000 feet. Lufthansa plans to install Starlink later. When that happens? This paragraph becomes irrelevant. For now? Save your data.
Upgraded amenities and soft product changes
Here’s where the “FOX” product actually shines.
Gone are the stiff, hotel-generic pillows. The new kit feels like an investment. They handed out:
* A thicker, plush pillow.
* A weighted blanket that doesn’t bunch up.
* A memory-foam mattress pad (essential, given the seat firmness issue).
* Slippers. Actual slippers, not paper socks. Useful for the midnight toilet trek.
Then there was the 10th Anniversary Amenity Kit. Wait. It was the 100th Anniversary kit. Lufthansa celebrates everything. Inside: basics from BABOR. Solid skincare. Nothing experimental, but high quality.
They also handed out loungewear. Specifically, van Laack tops. Soft fabric. Comfortable. No bottoms. Just a shirt. It’s nice, sure. But First Class gets the pants. Why? Probably cost control. Still. It beats jeans on a long haul flight.
Before landing? A box of branded chocolates. A small gesture. It lands well.
“The amenities are no longer an afterthought.”
Kudos there. Lufthansa finally listened. The previous kit felt like an afterthought. This feels like part of the brand.
Why the Lufthansa catering was a major miss in Austin
Now we get to the rough patch. The food.
Three days prior to this Austin flight, I flew Lufthana across the Atlantic from Frankfurt. That flight? The food was amazing. New menus. Plating that looked like a restaurant in Berlin. Huge upgrade.
From Austin? It was a disaster.
Let’s walk through the service timeline, because time is also part of the problem.
Start with the welcome drink. I took the signature Avionic. Served with packaged nuts. Bland. When I left Frankfurt, they served them in a cloth bag. Classy. Here? Plastic crunch. Minor difference, but it sets a tone.
Then the meal.
Amuse-bouche first: carrot, yuzu, edamame sesame ginger. Good start. Crisp. Bright flavors.
Appetizers? I chose beef tenderloin with horsered cream, honey soy, pickled veggies. They also auto-added a tomato-cucumber tartare. The tartare was nice. The beef? Okay. The bread basket arrived with a cauliflower-miso dip. Decent.
Then came the main. The failure point.
I ordered the seafood stew. Ingredients promised: shrimp, monkfish, mussels tomato zucchini, Yukon potato.
Reality: A sad plate. Tiny portion. The shrimp was chewy. The fish? Overcooked. There was no stew. Just bits of seafood swimming in water. Presentation? Zero. It looked like it had been in the kitchen for four hours before rolling out.
Admittedly. Asking an airline to nail bouillabaisse is a tall order. Maybe pull it off the menu.
Dessert? Chocolate mousse with strawberry. Edible. Standard.
Then breakfast. Or what they called breakfast.
Lufthansa uses pre-order cards now. You fill them out before sleeping. Efficient idea. Terrible execution.
I picked the spinach egg cake.
What arrived was powdered scrambled eggs mixed with wilted spinach. Gray. Moisture-less. Tasted like egg paste. Why do we do this to travelers?
Worse, the system auto-serve a fruit plate and a cold pork platter with every order.
Why pork? Two major religions don’t eat it. Many vegans don’t eat it. I don’t eat it (I like pigs. They’re my friends). But they assumed I wanted it. I had to refuse it. That creates waste. Just ask.
If this is what Lufthansa serves from an outstation in the US? Expect more of the same. Fly out of Germany. Your luck improves dramatically. This isn’t just bad luck. This is a supply chain or training issue.
The slow pace of Lufthansa FOX service
Service speed. It killed this trip.
The “FOX” philosophy says the crew takes more care with food preparation. That sounds nice in theory. In practice, on an overnight flight, it’s excruciating.
They actually locked the lavatories behind business class during the main service to force staff into the galleys. I get the safety logic. It doesn’t solve the speed problem.
Here’s my clock:
- First drink served: 60 minutes after takeoff.
- Appetizers: 1 hour, 45 minutes after takeoff.
- Main course: 2 hours, 15 minutes after takeoff.
- Dessert: 2 hours, 35 minutes after takeoff.
Twenty-five minutes to plate dessert. Is that care? Or is it disorganization?
This was an overnight flight. I wanted to sleep. Everyone else did too.
The crew worked hard. I watched them. They were rushing, but the workflow is broken. Is it the 787 galley? Is it understaffing? Or are they just still learning the FOX ropes?
I was lucky. My flight had extra buffer time. Fly this route from the US Northeast to Europe? You might get 90 minutes between sipping your first drink and biting into your starter. Good luck sleeping through that.
Breakfast wasn’t better.
Cabin lights came up at 1 hour 30 minutes to landing. Breakfast was served 55 minutes before landing.
Slow. Aggressively slow.
More care is great if the care includes timely execution. Doubling service times doesn’t add value. It adds hunger pangs and irritability.
Should you fly Lufthansa Allegris business class?
Allegris makes Lufthansa competitive. Truly. It catches up to peers. The seats are good. The tech is there. The amenities are upgraded. The privacy door? Nice.
But Lufthansa is playing catch-up. They acted like they invented the wheel when launching this product. They didn’t. Everyone else built better wheels five years ago. Lufthansa just finally upgraded from square tires to round ones.
If you book this flight, do it knowing the limits.
Expect the seats to be hard. Use that mattress pad. Download movies because Wi-Fi is glitchy. Avoid the seafood main from Austin. Check if your departure airport matches your destination quality.
Is it good enough? Yes. It’ll get you to Frankfurt in a bed-like chair with nice skincare and warm socks. Just don’t expect the meal service to match the engineering of the Boeing 787 itself. There is still work to do. A lot of work.
Maybe next time. Maybe from Germany. 🛫
