A Huge Thanks to Oliver2002 and Jacob_M of Flyertalk.com for sharing these “in person” images of the new Lufthansa Business Class Seats. They had the opportunity to attend the ITB show in Berlin and have been kind enough to forward their images. I think these pictures will give you a better “real-life” impression of the new seats. I for one like them, and look forward to trying them on for myself!!
@Felixstowe – Well said! 100% agree!!
Lufthansa took their time developing this product to ensure it met the expectations of their passengers, whilst also fulfilling the requirements of their crew and service personel (all of which have been regularly consulted with throughout development).
The new Lufthansa C/CL seat certainly doesn’t compete with the likes of Singapore’s in terms of seat width or aisle access, nor does it try to. The density of a product such as Singapore’s makes it completely insufficient for Lufthansa. The airline and their designers have, however, taken the chosen layout and painstakingly developed features and details which no other airline would have the foresight / insight to offer (such as the beautifully simple seat control interface).
As someone who has actually flown on this seat (during the test flights in 2010) I can promise you all that this seat needs to be seen to be believed. The detailing and quality is unparalleled!
As for the proximity of your feet with your neighbour; their is a screen in that separates you from them – not a problem I can assure you! Plus, your upper bodies are much further apart than a normal seat which actually increases the sense of privacy!
For all those looking and hoping for radical C/CL products I would say this; the time has come when Airlines need to be more intelligent when developing their cabin interiors, in order to find the right mix of efficiency and comfort. The world cannot afford for Emirites to be flying 100 A380’s around when intelligent design could have done just as good a job with 50!
Lufthansa seem to (as usual) have found their own, well considered (albeit with some compromises) route. And I wouldn’t mind betting that history will prove it is the right one!
I don’t get the complaints about the new(-ish) United Business product. On the old seats with almost lie flat seats it was far harder to get out because the seat in front came into your personal space (or more importantly the person between you and the aisle) so you had to contort to get out.
Those look great! I see a lot of similarities to United’s new C, but for some reason it just looks better when the Germans do it.
Why angled in? So gay
@Mike -Two reasons I think. One, creating the narrow angle near the feet, increases the separation at the shoulders, so you will have a feeling of more space around your shoulders, upper body etc. Another reason is that it will make it easier for the window pax to get to the aisle, or from aisle to their seat, since they won’t have to hurdle their neighbor nearly as much, plus it narrows near the feet to make it even easier. If you look at something like United’s business, you literally have to leap, or hop a bit to clear your neighbor’s seat.
The footwell divider is critical.
Which route will LH deploy the new 747-8?
@MIke S – That is the best kept secret so far. My money would be on a US-FRA route, only because the 747 is a Boeing product. Thats the only semi-rationale reason I can come up with. Otherwise perhaps something towards Asia. There will be other 747-8 added this year so I suspect they’ll rotate them a bit just to show them off around the world.