Looking at how well LX sells FC they would be unreasonable to cut down from currently 8 to 4 seats.
I have not been on any LX flight lately that wasn't sold out in FC (with the exception of NRT in June but even that flight now sees higher bookings in FC).
And those seats are often sold (out) in F and not A. It's actually the only way I manage to get a seat in FC these days. And most of the time I need to be super flexible with my dates as FC is usually sold out weeks in advance. Hopefully the situation will improve when LH brings back more F seats but I doubt it. The demand for F seems to be stronger than before covid.

I agree, Flights are sold out in F, it doesn�t help that there are a lot fewer F seats available with LH having reduced F so severely & LX frequency is not what it was on many routes.

I am not saying that you are wrong. However, when it comes to defining the LOPA of an aircraft, the question isn't just "could we sell those seats" but "what is the most profitable use of the space". So if they think that they can sell 8 F seats, but make more profit (considering efficiencies and saving of not managing another class) by selling 16 C seats instead, it might still be the better option for them.

Absolutely correct oli. And with the current J fares ex ZRH in the ranges of 8-9k USD it's not unusual to see (full) F fares priced lower ex other European countries.

Where I work we are back in the air like before covid or even more than that. But my colleagues at UBS, CS etc struggle to even get a ticket approved to LON haha. Glad I quit that industry long time ago .

Exactly. That is so annyoing. Forcing me to leave earlier or stay longer away from home.

As much as I dislike the idea of premium C, the introduction of it on routes that currently only offer C, like many routes on LH, might work out, but doing the same to replace F, especially on LX imho is a sure way to shot themselves in the foot. I don't think people will be very happy if instead of F, only C, even when it is a premium version, is available.

LX knows its customers well, I doubt they will dare to cull their market. On some markets I'm pretty certain they don't have much sales in F (eg India, Africa, et al are certainly not the destination of choice for the pharma/bank crowd that does F as standard) but fly there with F because every wide body has F installed.

I hear that my trunk route to YUL is also very light on "sold for cash" F bookings.

This reminds me of the time I was on LX from NBO-ZRH right before Covid and the entire first class was op-ups due to an oversold business cabin, including me.

I see what you mean, but you do have more faith on LHG management than I do. I'm really not the biggest fan of the current LHG wide management mentality...
Would it make sense to have a subfleet without F for those kinds of destinations? DAR has already been removed, NBOs and MCTs return are unsure at best, which leaves JNB, BOM, DEL and potentially YUL as potential candidates for losing F. The rest of the destinations seem to be rather well booked, NYC, SFO, LAX, SIN, TYO, MIA, ORD, GRU and eventually PEK, PVG and HKG when they eventually return. I think it's more ecomonical to have a standard fleet and cabin, but that is just my uneducated guess.
Wouldn't it make much more sense to just oursource these routes with lower Business and First traffic to Edelweiss? (And maybe finally integrate WK into *A properly or just treat LX codeshare flights on WK as LX flights to enhance and streamline the interconnectivity and interoperability and pax experience. Service is already very similar and booking wise it makes virtually no difference already, except for FFP and ancilliaries.)

Moving things to WK doesn't solve the problem... haveing a subfleet with 12 or so A330s (or B789s) to serve the non-F market makes more sense. (Crew, cargo sales, JVs etc)

I find the whole Premium C/J concept curious.

Back with the first gen flat to the floor business seats, like BA's 2-4-2 Club World and the current Lufthansa product, some business seats were definitely more equal than others. Now as more and more are getting all aisle access, I don't think there's as much spread between a 'good' seat and a 'bad' seat as they're a lot more homogenous.

Why would you potentially sacrifice the revenue of an entire extra seat (or several) for a small number of premium seats, but making the overall cabin layout less dense, and less efficient? If you look at Economy Plus/Comfort on United and Delta, they have extra booking classes here. How are you going to price and sell it? The revenue management of essentially a fifth class, is going to be complex. Plus overall, I think it cheapens the 'regular' business class cabin.

They are going to 'sell' it similar to the 100€ throne seat ASR, a concept that has been around for a while...

For any C booking class then all the way down to P ?

But probably at a higher price and without the privilege for SEN/HON to get them free as you stated previously.

JNB was 8/8 each way a couple of weeks ago when I flew the route and these days LX is consistently more expensive than LH and still selling out on this route. Wouldn't put it in the same league as DEL and previously NBO/DAR.

And don't even suggest a Eurowings discover model for LX please.