We’re back in Los Angeles after a lovely trip in SWISS business class…for me at least. My wife had a different reaction to the flight.
Family Trip In SWISS Business Class, ZRH-LAX
While the thought of flying home in Lufthansa First Class to “right my wrong” on the way did cross my mind, we decided a better expenditure was to fly home nonstop in SWISS business.
When it comes to award travel, I can almost always accurately gauge whether award space will open up on a particular flight. Our return date was flexible, but I took a look at flight loads (just fare buckets, not actual loads) and decided that nonstop space in SWISS business would open on Thursday.
Sure enough, on Tuesday business class seats opened for Thursday’s flight…two of them. I grabbed them immediately, booking my wife, son, and daughter (a lap infant) on one ticket. 70K Aeroplan miles for my wife and son and 2.5K miles for my daughter.
Would a last seat open for me or I would be flying home in economy class? I really wasn’t worried. I went to bed on Tuesday night fully expecting the space to be open when I woke up, and it was. We were all confirmed.
As I mentioned in my snow day post, it took two weeks for the snow to come, but boy did it snow as we made the drive to Zurich for our flight.
It was snowing so beautifully by the time we reached the airport, but I had no time to get out and snap pictures because the snow had slowed our drive down…and we had a ton of luggage. Literally.
My industrious wife Heidi goes to thrift shops in Germany and purchases sets of dishes at bargain prices. These dishes are hardly extraordinary in Germany, but she utilizes our enhanced baggage allowance to bring them home and sell them at a very nice profit to Angelenos who appreciate European crockery. I’m so proud of her. A side hustle to nursing.
But I don’t exactly delight in the fact that we travel to Europe with hand baggage only and come home with seven checked bags (not an exaggeration).
Anyway, once we got everything checked in, the snow had stopped and we had virtually no time for the lounge. We stopped briefly at the A Gates Senator Lounge to get bananas for the kids and use the restroom, before proceeding to our flight.
SWISS and seat assignments…this will be the subject of a separate post. In short, you cannot pre-assign seats with an infant ticket, so while I assigned the only window seat left on my separate ticket, the rest of my family was in limbo. At check-in, they were assigned a middle section several rows forward of me. The agent said there were no more open seats and indeed, the cabin went out full.
Almost full.
Miraculously, the seat next to me stayed at empty, so Augustine was able to take my window seat and I sat next to him. Since Augustine sat with me, Claire Marie had her own seat (for sleeping at least). In the end, it worked out splendidly, but it is annoying that seats cannot be assigned in advance, at least according to the reservation agent (I spent over one hour on hold…racking up a $21 T-Mobile bill…to reach SWISS).
Our seating positions meant Heidi and I had different flight attendants. Augustine and I enjoyed fine service from Ekaterina, Carole, and Karin. All were lovely, attentive, and gracious. Heidi found the flight attendants to be rude and indifferent on her side of the aisle (except for Karin, who worked on both sides).
For example, I noticed that Heidi’s empty cups piled up…the flight attendants did not take them away. And when Heidi tried to order a salad off the a la carte menu, the flight attendant simply said there were none left and walked away. No offer of something else to eat. No offer of a beverage. Certainly no apology. I told her to just use the call button…but that went unanswered. I joined her for a bit and we watched as the flight attendants on her side simply ignored the illuminated call light.
Food onboard SWISS is always tasty and the Balik salmon appetizer was a treat. My cod main course was fine, though my son made the better choice with his meatloaf, which was very delicious. All main course items were Switzerland inspired.
Lunch was served after takeoff, then an a la carte menu was available for the remainder of the flight. Augustine and I shared a salad and cheeseburger before landing and of course we enjoyed the Mövenpick ice cream mid-flight.
SWISS continues to lag behind other carriers in terms of seat comfort and particularly bedding: the blanket is just horrible. I didn’t sleep on the flight: only my daughter did and my jet lag has been very bad (it has for all of us). Typically I use these westbound transatlantic flights to catch up on sleep and it helps me to beat jet lag.
CONCLUSION
This is just a “first impressions” post on my SWISS flight. I’ll publish a full flight review with a lot more details about the seat, service, food, amenities, and IFE onboard. For now, know that SWISS has a great soft product, mediocre hard product, and hit-or-miss service in business class.
We hope to return this summer again. Distance makes the heart grow fond and we love Germany and Switzerland very much. I’m thankful for the premium cabin holiday in Germany, but this trip probably marks the end of our family premium travel, at least for now…
My experience with LX crews on long-haul flights is in line with Heidi’s experience.
All of my LX short-haul flights have had charming crews, but my long-haul experiences have led me now to choose LH, even if I’m flying out of ZRH and could go nonstop.
That burger actually looks really good! Unlike the one on United that you love so much, lol.
If I get a crew on long haul like Heidi did, I’m patient but when my patience runs out I place the dirty dishes on the floor in the aisle and they then tend to be cleared very quickly sometimes with a nasty remark at which point on Swiss I ask to speak with the Maitre de Cabine. That tends to improve things no end.
I flew LX in J on ZRH-YUL in late Nov. It was a fantastic flight! I was in the mini cabin just behind F, so service seemed very prompt and professional. The Balik salmon was restaurant quality, and I really enjoyed the mid flight snacks. The hard product does indeed lag a bit, but I’m not sure if there’s another J product I’d rather fly westbound. Maybe AY, but that’s pretty niche.
ZRH airport on the other hand, was a total mess. A long line for everything. Everyone is Star Gold so being a premium passenger meant nothing.
Right before the pandemic started, I was lucky to get a throne seat after I boarded and thought the whole experience was excellent. It was my first time on a overseas business class flight. First time I ever slept on a flight for 6 hours straight.
My mom had a similar, reverse hustle. She would load suitcases full of Barbie dolls/related merchandise and jeans for the German relatives to sell. This was in the early 80s.
Dollar store headphones in business are unsatisfactory. It took one noisy flight to make me remember to bring my own ANR phones.when flying Swiss
I didn’t find the headphones to be that bad.
@Matthew, regarding your picture of the meatloaf, I have never seen meatloaf that looked like that. The undercooked bacon on top does not help, but maybe it actually complements the pale and pasty looking whatever that is claimed to be meatloaf. Is Swiss’ meat vendor having an issue getting the real stuff? LOL
It was delicious. I’ll post the full menu when I publish the full report.
Surprised you didn’t talk about the lackluster amenity kits. Swiss used to have fairly nice ones! And the LX lounge in the E gates with the outdoor patio is a very nice, relaxing way to start a flight.
I’ve also had the hit-or-miss service on LX. Flew FRA-ZRH-MIA in October and it went smoothly, but it didn’t jump out and “wow” me like Qatar or La Compagnie. And same issues with advance seat assignments – GDS shows plenty of blocked seats (not assigned/taken) and annoyingly limited options during online check-in. Seems most of the ZRH crews take a bit of German in them and do their jobs, do them in an acceptable fashion; while the GVA crews tend to be a lot more friendly and go above & beyond a fake RBF smile.
At least the Swiss wine selections are always top-notch and never disappointing.
Amenity kit was also horrible.
I found the Swiss seats surprisingly comfortable, like an airbag? Like you, the staff were either great or weird. I remember being the only passenger without an entree meal tray, when they came offering bread there wasn’t even a feigned apology that the basics hadn’t been done. That said, not all staff were like that
I found the food good, with a decent portion size
More Augustine please!! ❤️❤️
>I spent over one hour on hold…racking up a $21 T-Mobile bill…to reach SWISS
If you were trying to reach the US call center, you can call US toll-free numbers for free on Skype.
Not when I’m driving up the Feldberg trying to find snow.
Just trying to be helpful but realized that might’ve come off as snarky – sorry!
And why not? If T-Mobile worked, then I assume you had cell service. If you have a local SIM card, you could place the call on data. What am I missing here?
Thanks for indulging me 🙂
I have to say that Swiss, followed closely by OS and finally LH, are downright terrible in my opinion. I HATE the cramped seats and have experienced many LX (and OS) seats that’s bern broken or completely deflated. I hate the bedding. I hate the amenity kits. And I’ve never been impressed by the food. Service has been okay. After a total of perhaps 30-40 long haul business class flights with the LH group, I’ve decided to go out of my way to avoid them. I honestly think that LO is better, despite their awful food. With Star Alliance, TK easily provides the best way to fly transatlantic, perhaps followed by AC, UA and SK’s A350s, IMHO. But Swiss? No way. Awful.
I don’t have a TV either!
I never bother watching it.
And I’m “on” television in New York and Florida!
Did you open each bag inside the baggage claim area at LAX, as you suggested in one of your previous posts?
Also, if you don’t mind my asking, is your wife reselling used crockery, or do German thrift stores also sell unused goods?
It’s used. And we got home before the other story broke.
But would you actually have opened each bag in the baggage claim area? I’m not trying to be a pain…I’ve traveled with a lot of luggage too and I can’t imagine opening each one, so I’m actually curious
We don’t open it at LAX.
We’re leaving for Geneva tomorrow. My first United Polaris flight ever, I realize this review is about Swiss but it still got me excited.
Not gonna fly biz without all aisle access unless there is no other option.
Curious whether the FA’s were particularly bad with your wife because she had a lap child. I last flew Swiss biz 4 years ago with our son as a 1-year-old lap child. It was a pretty awful experience with unfriendly and unhelpful FA’s who clearly treated us inferiorly due to our little guy. I love Switzerland, but it’s not a terribly child-friendly culture, which was evident on the plane. This is no exaggeration – my wife came down with shingles on that trip, due in part to the stress the FAs created. Thankfully, the flight home was KLM J with among the friendliest and most accommodating FAs ever.
My family had a positive experience on both sides of the aircraft flying this route in J back in Nov. If you’re feeling bibulous I recommend tasting the Swiss wines (and/or Swiss seasonal beers) as I don’t run into them much stateside.
The Senator Lounge was packed to the gills — looked a lot like your “Not our line, thankfully” photo.
Please consider offering a MasterClass teaching the great unwashed how to “almost always accurately gauge whether award space will open up on a particular flight”!
A lot of us will pay for that class – Another “side hustle”
Very personal question but why don’t you have TVs at home? Curious as I’m thinking about implementing it.
We don’t view TV as wrong or immoral, but simply addicting and a waste of time.
AMERICAN has better seats,better headsets,better pillow n blankets.
Disappointed in Swiss!
Perhaps but AA’s food and wine are terrible. Quality is just really poor. And there is something about AA’s (and UAs) service that is really unsatisfying. Plenty of airlines have bad service days. With AA and UA it typically feels like they just can’t be bothered. When I’ve had bad experiences with European airlines, I often do not get a sense it is indifference. The FA knows what to do and often provide correct service to others on the same flight but for whatever reason they’ve actively chosen not to do so for you. Matthew’s term seem correct: they are rude. Personally, I can work with rude to get an experience that’s ok for me. I cannot deal with lazy. So in this example I would take Swiss over UA (or AA).
You said that you had LITERALLY a ton of luggage. That’s 1,000 kilos of mostly crockery. How much extra in fees did you have to pay?
Swiss J allows 2x 32kg bags per person, Matthew gets a third free as he is UA*G. So all 7 bags were indeed free unless they had more than 32kg per bag.
Lukas, I was exaggerating but we did take advantage of the full baggage allowance and most bags were 32kg.
Matthew is literally a Millennial; his misuse of “literally” is commonplace for the generation.
Actually, it is a metric ton that’s 1000kg and we spell it as “tonne” and pronounce it like the name “Ron”, just replace the “R” with a “T” and we use the symbol “T”. So, 1000kg would be 1T. I take your point, about the OP’s careless use if the word “literally” when he meant “figuratively”.
@Matthew, your beautiful boy needs his (first?) haircut lol.
@Matthew, in addition to your in-depth trip report home, I would also be interested as to whether you used the EU health pass since I believe you and your wife hold dual citizenship. And just curious, does the digital covid barcode/certificate from CDH work in Europe? Thanks.
We are not dual citizens (yet): our children are.
We could have set up Germany’s Luca App, but we just used our LA County electronic vaccine cards, which worked fine (when scanned, they were rejected, but at every place we were allowed to proceed with those passes and our IDs).
Why not the state of California digital vaccine card? It seems to be more accepted because it is based on the Smart system?
I didn’t even know that existed. Thanks – I’ll look into it.
Business class in Lufthansa is horrible and Swiss is even worst, food is terrible , seats are not that comfortable, at least in the 350 Lufthansa is too close to the next persons and they don’t have trones. Austrian air the material of the seat is itchy , very narrow, they don’t turn the AC properly so while wearing a mask you are literally out of breath , but the food in Austrian air is amazing . Bottom line , living in Germany I will never Use Lufthansa, unless is an emergency and no Place in Singapore Airlines which flight from Frankfurt to New York , I rather take a local flight from JFK to other part of the US. Singapore Rocks !! Lufthansa NOPE
“In short, you cannot pre-assign seats with an infant ticket, so while I assigned the only window seat left on my separate ticket, the rest of my family was in limbo”
As soon as your ticket is confirmed and etix issued, you should have contacted swiss via facebook or twitter, requesting for BSCT (Baby bassinet) and BBML (Baby meal) and linking the two separate bookings into one. There is no guarantee that it would have worked, but sometimes it does the trick!
I did. Twitter was no help. We did get the baby meal.
Seriously, you, your spouse AND your children on a Long-Haul Business Class flight would drive me up the wall, I would accept, even beg for a downgrade to Economy just to get away from your annoying family. Business Class is intended for individuals seeking a quiet, family-free environment, a peaceful cabin that is not a playground, unfortunately cheap fares and upgrade deals are changing the very nature of Business Class.
Don’t let the curtain hit you on the way out…
Wow, you are a real prick! Not only don’t let the curtain hit you but I hope you trip and fall on your snobbish a**
Can only imagine the kind of entitled little brats your kids will grow up to be flying them in premium cabins at that age, no doubt annoying the f$%^ out of all the other passengers too actually paying $ for tickets!
Thanks for the review. I have been considering a family trip to the region for a while and nearly booked Swiss but had second thoughts. Sounds like LH business to me. AF business was a delight for my family. They really treated us as special. Pro tip with kids, try to get the seats at the back of the section before the curtains to the rear classes. Usually the most private spot. Traveling gets so much more fun when they turn about 6 or 7, so the best part is ahead of you.
Matthew, don’t let the AlphaHotels who criticize you and your wife’s parenting skills bother you, their comments indicate more about them than about you. “Don’t let the curtain hit you on the way out…”, terrific reply.
“I’m so proud of her. A side hustle to nursing.” Great line, made me smile. I forgot or didn’t know your wife is a nurse. I’m a retired ER doctor, have the absolute highest possible regard and respect for nurses; the vast majority are wonderful, hard-working, compassionate and have tremendous integrity (and like teachers should be paid MUCH more highly).
Please, “probably marks the end of our family premium travel, at least for now…”, why is that? Running out of redeemable miles, personal and/or school schedules, worsening jet lag decreasing desire to fly, someone developing airsickness, fear of flying, finally put on the “no fly” list (with no more appeals) due to taking photos on a commercial airplane ?
Please again, “We are not dual citizens (yet): our children are.”, what is your and your wife’s citizenships?
(I realize these questions might be considered personal but you regularly share personal information.)
Thank you.
Thanks for your comment/questions. I am a US citizen, Heidi is a German citizen. We both have permeant residency in our adopted countries, but not citizenship (yet). The kids are dual citizens.
While I love premium cabins for the family, I am about out of miles…used 500K alone on this trip (outbound in LH F, return in LX J). Plus, I don’t want to spoil my kids. The only reason I fly them up front now is because they are too young to be left alone. Hopefully in a few years they can fly in the back and my wife and I can fly up front.
Thank you.
Re “about out of miles”, sorry to read that.
Don’t intend to hijack this post and comments (maybe a topic for a future post) but I think “out of miles” may be a common problem and I believe these days it’s multifactorial; miles are more challenging and costly to obtain and the number of miles required for an award ticket has increased inordinately. At a MegaDO or 2 in the past I was criticized and chastised for saving (perhaps more accurately hoarding) points and miles vice “earn and burn”. It’s nice now that my method is paying dividends, I don’t share the “out of miles” dilemma (yet).
Oh yeah, re “Plus, I don’t want to spoil my kids. The only reason I fly them up front now is because they are too young to be left alone. Hopefully in a few years they can fly in the back and my wife and I can fly up front.”, good on you (and Heidi), I knew those AlphaHotels were wrong (and rude)!
I love it when you share stories of your kids travelling in premium cabins. I enjoy taking my kids on similar journeys and teaching them how to live well but also to appreciate it and show proper respect for those providing the service.
I’m wondering about the unanswered call lights. Was this mid service or during turbulence?
There was no turbulence. A very smooth flight.