The Airlines Keeping First Class Alive Air France
Editor’s note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Eventually, 19 of its Boeing 777-300ERs will be fitted with the luxurious product.
Lufthansa’s new Allegris First Class leans heavily on privacy and, as the airline’s Chief Customer Officer Heiko Reitz put it, “individuality.” Everything about the new suites from seat position to temperature and airflow are at the passenger’s finger tips.
“We wanted to create a retreat above the clouds,” Reitz said at a recent preview of the product. “This setting is not a seat, this setting here is a living room — an area where you feel comfortable, where you feel cozy.”
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Long-haul first class with a glass of Champagne in hand is the slowly dying dream of many travelers, with carriers like American Airlines, Qatar Airways and United Airlines sounding the death knell for international top-tier experiences on their planes.
Always looking to maximize profits, such airlines have come to believe that improved business class seats are the way forward, rendering the posh, private echelons at the pointy end of the plane redundant.
International “first class will not exist … at American Airlines for the simple reason that our customers aren’t buying it,” American’s former Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja told CNN in 2022.
Not everyone agrees. Read more about it here.