Astrid Eklund
Europe & Gulf Airlines Correspondent
Astrid Eklund covers European and Gulf carrier coverage for Business Class Journal from London. She spent eight years at the FlyerTalk EuroBonus desk and three at Bloomberg's premium aviation desk before joining BCJ in 2025. She holds elite status on Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France, Emirates, and Etihad simultaneously, and reviews roughly 35 long-haul business and first class cabins per year. She is a graduate of Lund University.
airlines
Air France's new La Première suite — unveiled in 2023 and rolling out across the 777-300ER fleet through 2026 — is the most ambitious Western first class product since Lufthansa Allegris. A single private suite per aircraft side, a separate seat and bed, a personal wardrobe, two doors, a 32-inch 4K screen, Krug, three-Michelin-star catering, and the Mercedes chauffeur at CDG. We assess where it sits against Lufthansa, Emirates, Singapore, ANA, and JAL.
By Astrid Eklund · 12 May 2026
airlines
Five years after Club Suite entered service on the A350-1000, British Airways has effectively completed its long-haul refit and is staring down a 777X delivery window. We assess where the Super Diamond platform actually sits in 2026 — against Allegris, Aria, Apartment, Qsuite, and the AF/KL diaspora — and what the cabin's middle age tells us about the platform crucible behind it.
By Astrid Eklund · 12 May 2026
airlines
Emirates' Game Changer A380 retrofit — the program that stripped first class and inserted Premium Economy from 2022-2023 — has produced a fundamentally different aircraft from the 777-300ER. After flying both on identical Gulf-to-Europe and Gulf-to-Sydney sectors in spring 2026, here is the technical case for why the two-class A380 has quietly become the best Emirates business class on the network, and where it still trails Qsuite, Apartment, AF Travers and BA Club Suite.
By Astrid Eklund · 12 May 2026
airlines
Etihad's A380 Apartment is the only commercial first class cabin that gives you a separate chair and a separate bed, with a sliding door between you and the world. Three years after Etihad un-mothballed the airframe, we flew the product on AUH-JFK to answer the question the Apartment has always raised: is the routing detour worth it, and what happens when this airframe finally retires for good?
By Astrid Eklund · 12 May 2026
airlines
Allegris is Lufthansa's first all-new cabin platform in more than fifteen years, and the gamble is enormous: a single airline now offers seven distinct premium hard products across First, Business, Premium Economy, and Economy. We spent two months evaluating the Allegris A350-900 across nine sectors to determine whether the multi-suite philosophy works, whether Suite Plus is worth the upcharge, and whether retaining First Class still makes commercial sense in 2026.
By Astrid Eklund · 12 May 2026
airlines
Turkish Airlines' new Crystal Business Class on the 787-9 finally gives the carrier a direct-aisle-access, closing-door cabin that matches what BA, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM have been flying for two years — and the chef program plus IST hub geography makes the value proposition harder to ignore than most reviewers admit.
By Astrid Eklund · 12 May 2026
lounges
Emirates' flagship First Class Lounge runs the entire upper deck of Dubai International's Concourse A, with direct A380 jet-bridge boarding, a Le Clos wine cellar, a sit-down restaurant, a regularly-stocked cigar humidor, and Bvlgari shower suites. After six visits in eleven weeks, here is what works, what is still benchmark in its category, and where it now sits against Lufthansa's FCT, AF La Premiere, BA's Concorde Room, and SQ's The Private Room.
By Astrid Eklund · 12 May 2026