Lufthansa’s new Allegris Business and First Class aren’t flying to New York yet (Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago and Shanghai got them first), but a glimpse of the new cabins’ sleek design can be seen in the premium lounge the airline opened last week at Newark Liberty International Airport. The €10 million lounge is part of a €2.5 billion investment the Lufthansa Group is making through next year to improve its customers’ overall global experience. And it’s part of an even bigger investment in fleet modernization of €3 billion a year through 2032.

Part of the investment in an improved customer experience is earmarked for lounges, starting with the ability to gain access: The good news for passengers who are sometimes displaced from other airport lounges is that the redesign has increased the previous size by 25% to 6,370 square feet (approx. 600 m²), with space for 165 guests. Passengers who will gain access include Lufthansa First Class, Business Class, HON Circle, the airline’s highest elite tier, and Senator; First and Business Class passengers on the other Lufthansa Group airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines, will also have access. The same applies to Star Alliance Gold members flying on a Lufthansa Group flight that day.

What they find here, in addition to the light wood paneling and soft leather sofas and chairs in taupe, grey and dark brown, is a space divided by function. About a third of the lounge is dedicated to business purposes and has communal tables and wireless charging and printing facilities. The remaining space is intended for individual, couple or group seating. Two multifunctional, soundproof rooms can be used either as a room for meetings, private phone calls or for children to play without disturbing the other guests.

Near the casual bistro, there is a dining area with bar tables and a rotating menu of dishes, often made with local ingredients, such as Jersey cornbread with candied tomato jam, a tasting board of goat cheese, Jersey Taylor ham, aged cheddar and smoked turkey with a choice of breads and sides such as spicy honey basil pesto or sandwiches with trumpet mushrooms, ham, crisp lettuce and tomato chutney on sourdough bread. The small, private dining room, reserved for first-class passengers and HON members, serves more elaborate dishes like scallops with shaved fennel, horseradish and Meyer lemon cream, pork tenderloin in brown sugar with whipped parsnips and cayenne carrots, pumpkin risotto and basil pesto with parmesan chips and aged cheddar and butterscotch panna cotta, as well as premium wines and champagne. (There are also banquette seating in the dark blue leather used for Allegri’s in-flight furnishings.) In the center of the lounge, the horseshoe-shaped Skyline Bar offers classic cocktails, others designed specifically for the lounge, and bar stool seating designed to encourage travelers to mingle with one another before their flight.

This lounge is the first in the US to feature this new layout and design – the lounge at Berlin Brandenburg Airport already has it. However, there are apparently plans to open new lounges of a similar nature at New York’s JFK and Washington DC’s Dulles International Airport. No timelines have been announced yet, but perhaps they will coincide with the arrival of Allegris in those cities; one aircraft will be equipped with the product every month, and next year it will be two per month. So this luxury service will eventually arrive here too.