Edelweiss is getting a new business class. And for an airline built largely around taking people on vacation, it’s fairly simple.
The Swiss leisure airline unveiled the new cabins for its Airbus A350 fleet on Wednesday, September 16. There’s a standard business class seat, plus a small number of larger suites at the front. The first aircraft gets the new cabin in December, with the rest following by summer 2027.
That’s not particularly notable on its own. But Edelweiss is part of Lufthansa Group and serves as the leisure counterpart to SWISS. Discover Airlines plays the same role alongside Lufthansa and unveiled a similarly straightforward business class earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa and SWISS have spent years developing Allegris and SWISS Senses (the respective terms for their new cabins), with five different business class seats offering different amounts of privacy, space, and bed length.
Yet somehow, Lufthansa Group’s leisure airlines have ended up with business class that’s much less confusing. And depending on what matters in a seat, the standard product might be more appealing, too.
Edelweiss Doesn’t Make the Seat Complicated
Edelweiss’s new A350 cabin is a massive upgrade from what the airline offers today.
Every business class seat will have direct aisle access, convert into a fully flat bed, and have a substantial shell separating it from the aisle. Roughly half are arranged as pairs for two people flying together.
The front-row Business Suites add roughly 4-foot-high closing doors, 32-inch screens, more storage and space around the feet, plus a mattress topper. That’s about as complicated as the cabin gets.
The pricing structure is also straight and to the point. Edelweiss’s fare conditions say advance seat selection is free in business class, with the Business Suite specifically listed as the exception that costs extra.
Discover Keeps the Choices Limited, Too
Discover Airlines announced its new Ocean Blue cabins in January. Its first retrofitted Airbus A330 is scheduled to enter service in April 2027.
Its business class follows much the same formula. Standard lie-flat seats have direct aisle access and substantial privacy shells. The cabin has just two front-row Business Class Suites, which add roughly 4-foot-high doors, 32-inch screens, and additional space and storage.
Standard business class seat selection is included with most Discover business fares, although its cheapest Business Light fare can charge for advance selection. Discover hasn’t published what selecting one of the future suites will cost.
The details differ slightly, but both leisure airlines arrive at roughly the same place. The standard seat already delivers the basics expected from a modern business class, while a small number of suites offer a little something extra.
Lufthansa and SWISS, on the other hand, have gone in a very different direction.
Lufthansa and SWISS Turn One Cabin Into Five Choices
Lufthansa’s Allegris has five business class seat types. There’s the Classic Seat, Privacy Seat, Extra Space Seat, Extra Long Bed Seat, and Business Suite.
SWISS Senses follows essentially the same playbook with five categories of its own.
The idea behind that is personalization. A longer bed, more room, more privacy, or a suite can be selected depending on what matters most. But that also means buying a business class ticket isn’t necessarily the end of the purchasing decision.
On my last Lufthansa Allegris award (that happened to be booked with Aeroplan points), the Classic Seat was the only option available without an additional charge. Lufthansa wanted 210 Canadian dollars, or about $153 at the time, for a Privacy Seat or Extra Long Bed Seat. The Extra Space Seat cost about $185.
The Business Suite was about $545 just to select the seat.
And those fees are per person. For two or more people flying together, choosing something other than the Classic Seat can very quickly become a significant additional expense.
Those prices were specific to that flight, but they illustrate the tradeoff. The free Classic Seat is also the least private option, with considerably more exposure to the aisle. SWISS has a similarly exposed Classic Seat in its Senses cabin.
That’s where Edelweiss and Discover start to look a lot more appealing. Their standard seats already have substantial shells wrapping around them. More privacy isn’t something reserved for another category of business class seat.
There’s an aesthetic argument, too. Edelweiss and Discover arguably look more cohesive, with essentially one design language running through business class. Allegris and SWISS Senses mix several visibly different seats because each is meant to do something different.
Put the four cabins next to each other without airline names attached, and it might be difficult to pick out which belong to the leisure airlines.
Somehow, the Leisure Airlines Are Simpler
That doesn’t make Edelweiss or Discover categorically better.
Lufthansa and SWISS offer more choice, and their best business class seats can provide more space and privacy. Both also offer international first class, something Edelweiss and Discover don’t have.
But business class is where the contrast within Lufthansa Group becomes hard to miss.
Edelweiss and Discover are rolling out attractive cabins with suites, direct aisle access, free Starlink, and relatively simple seat choices. Lufthansa and SWISS have turned the business class seat itself into a menu, where more privacy, room, or bed length can mean paying again after the ticket is booked.
It’s an odd state of affairs. Leisure airlines cater heavily to vacation trips, exactly where it would be easy to imagine more aggressive upselling.
Instead, Edelweiss and Discover may have landed on something the group’s full-service carriers haven’t. Business class that looks premium without requiring much explanation or another round of nickel-and-diming.
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