According to You Have Been Upgraded the free empty middle seat in european business class is no longer guaranteed but 'according to availability'. This could be a huge downgrade of Lufthansa short haul business class when they just start filling up middle seats after an amount of rows is filled with business class. It could also means they only do this during irregular operations or in some specific airplanes that have 2-2 seating. At the moment Lufthansa does not explain what this means. Not a good sign.