Did I really SAVE money booking Lufthansa business class?
Here's an intersting view, did I SAVE money by flying Lufthansa European Business class from Manchester to Munich?
This is my surprising answer...
We were booking our flights about 8 weeks in advance. They were direct flights during the Oktoberfest, so I thought maybe a little busier than other times of the year. Maybe that meant busier with weekend travellers wanting the cheapest flight possible? In fact I did notice a few weeks later that economy went up a lot in price.
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The business class return cost around £77 more for 2 people than economy
We wanted to fly after work on the Friday and return late Sunday - minimum time off for the weekend away.
For this reason we chose the direct evening flights both ways.
On my price enquiry the offer was £533.54 for 2 seats in economy, £610.74 for the same in Business Saver. So the upgrade was going to cost £77.24. How can I think that's saved me some cash?
What's included as extras in European Business class and is it worth it - comfort or finance?
Lufthansa's Business Class cabin
The first upgrade I'll mention is the seats as that's probably what you think of first with 'Business Class'.
On European Business class, and this is common across all carriers, there's no fancy seating.
What you do get with Lufthansa, and this is not always the same with other carriers, is the center seat is unoccupied.
So seats B and E in a typical 3-3 seating of an A320 are empty.
We were on the right of the aircraft so had seats D (aisle) and F (window), with E 'reserved'. The cabin is curtained off and the overhead units are reserved for Business Class, so you do get some extra space. But unless you are looking at this instead of extra legroom (£25 each person per leg this flight) it's hard to say this was a saving. And although we had the same legroom as standard seats on the way out the empty middle seat did make it feel a lot more spacious.
So although this was very comfy, it still didn't save anything (although in all honesty I'd have paid the £100 for the extra space seats normally).
A light meal / snack and drinks are included in business class.
A light meal and drinks were provided on the flight in both directions.
No matter how much we've eaten in the airport before we fly 'someone' always manages a tea (or wine) and a snack (usually chocolate).
So the snack probably saved us around a tenner on each flight. Still a bit to go to actually make a saving.
However, fasttrack was actually not really in use that day as the queues have returned to minimal and we no longer pay for this service and we've never paid for it on the return journey.
The ticket included entrance to the Aspire Lounge in Terminal 1 before the flight
We always book lounges where possible flying out, although had never used one before on the return flight.
We use the Aspire Lounge in T1 Manchester when possible and by luck this is the lounge that Lufthansa include in their ticket.
So that's 2 X £39.99 saved (that was the going price through the airport's website for when we were travelling), although Purple Parking were only asking £70.38 total.
What if we hadn't wanted to use the lounge? Flying around 18:00 we'd have probably gone to an airport restaurant, followed by a coffee bar then fight for a seat. Even a simple meal, with a wine, is going to set you back at least £22 per person, followed by a hot drink back on the concourse for £6 and a bottle of water. So £60+ in reality
Entrance to the Lufthansa lounge was also included in Munich
The dedicated Lufthansa Business Class lounge in Munich was included in the ticket.
Normally we wouldn't pay for a lounge on the return leg, expecting to be through the airport a lot quicker.
But with a flight around 10pm, checkin around 7pm and leaving the hotel to get the train about 5pm, we were due a meal before the flight.
We could have rushed a meal at Karlsplatz before we got the train or had a meal in the airport, but as per the Manchester that would easily have been £50 to £70. Whereas we rested in the lounge and ate the food and drink leisurely. Definitely a saving here.
I really did find that on this instance business class cost me less than economy!
The extra cost for Business Class was £77.24.
We certainly saved almost that just by getting the included access to the Aspire Lounge, and when you add in the meal in Munich on the return journey we easily saved, in my opinion, £150.
Had we been buying the security fasttrack and the extra legroom seats on the plane, that would have been an extra £112 saved.
With all of those extras an economy ticket could easily have set me back a total of around £795 or at least £680 compared to just the airport restaurants, whereas the busines class ticket was a fixed £610.74.
So in some strange way, flying business class cost me less than economy! Maybe I was lucky with flights, dates or something, but looking around different timings for these flights it happened every time around when we were flying. But that could be because economny was filling faster than business.
We were booking our flights about 8 weeks in advance. They were direct flights during the Oktoberfest, so I thought maybe a little busier than other times of the year. Maybe that meant busier with weekend travellers wanting the cheapest flight possible? In fact I did notice a few weeks later that economy went up a lot in price.
Table of contents
Flights
The business class return cost around £77 more for 2 people than economy
On my price enquiry the offer was £533.54 for 2 seats in economy, £610.74 for the same in Business Saver. So the upgrade was going to cost £77.24. How can I think that's saved me some cash?
What's included as extras in European Business class and is it worth it - comfort or finance?
Seats
Lufthansa's Business Class cabin
We were on the right of the aircraft so had seats D (aisle) and F (window), with E 'reserved'. The cabin is curtained off and the overhead units are reserved for Business Class, so you do get some extra space. But unless you are looking at this instead of extra legroom (£25 each person per leg this flight) it's hard to say this was a saving. And although we had the same legroom as standard seats on the way out the empty middle seat did make it feel a lot more spacious.
So although this was very comfy, it still didn't save anything (although in all honesty I'd have paid the £100 for the extra space seats normally).
On board snacks
A light meal / snack and drinks are included in business class.
So the snack probably saved us around a tenner on each flight. Still a bit to go to actually make a saving.
Fasttrack
Departing Manchester security fastrack was included. I'll admit that on previous flights since covid, the security queues have been a little bit too long in Manchester so where possible we had paid for this service. That would have cost us a total of £12, so that was certainly saved.However, fasttrack was actually not really in use that day as the queues have returned to minimal and we no longer pay for this service and we've never paid for it on the return journey.
Manchester Lounge
The ticket included entrance to the Aspire Lounge in Terminal 1 before the flight
What if we hadn't wanted to use the lounge? Flying around 18:00 we'd have probably gone to an airport restaurant, followed by a coffee bar then fight for a seat. Even a simple meal, with a wine, is going to set you back at least £22 per person, followed by a hot drink back on the concourse for £6 and a bottle of water. So £60+ in reality
Munich Lounge
Entrance to the Lufthansa lounge was also included in Munich
We could have rushed a meal at Karlsplatz before we got the train or had a meal in the airport, but as per the Manchester that would easily have been £50 to £70. Whereas we rested in the lounge and ate the food and drink leisurely. Definitely a saving here.
Conclusion
I really did find that on this instance business class cost me less than economy!
With all of those extras an economy ticket could easily have set me back a total of around £795 or at least £680 compared to just the airport restaurants, whereas the busines class ticket was a fixed £610.74.
So in some strange way, flying business class cost me less than economy! Maybe I was lucky with flights, dates or something, but looking around different timings for these flights it happened every time around when we were flying. But that could be because economny was filling faster than business.