Swiss Intl Air Lines

Flew from ZRH-SKG on July 3rd. Flight was full (A-320). Despite the flight was 30 minutes late due to late incoming of the aircraft we arrived on time. The onboard Crew were very nice and did go the extra mile always with a smile on their face. They served in coach a little hot meal (Risotto with dried tomatoes and a small chocolate cake) was very good and gave 2 rounds of drinks on a flight of 1.5 hours. Unfortunately they fly only in July and Aug twice a week. I hope they will start an all year service on this route.

Flight LX 454 Zurich to London City Airport on 16 June 2014. We boarded the plane as normal welcomed onboard and told we were ready to take off despite an earlier bird strike in one of the engines. Informed there was a 20-minute delay due to changing weather conditions. 15 minutes into the flight the pilot announced that we were returning to Zurich as the earlier bird strike had apparently damaged the engine too much. Then we had to be patient for an extra half hour due to the heavy incoming traffic to Zurich. In the end it took us what felt like the same amount of time as the flight would have taken to London. To offer an alternative a crew member announced that we should take the next scheduled flight to London Heathrow at 21.20 hrs. There was no alternative to London City allegedly due to lack of smaller aircraft that could land there. The hostess also announced that as soon as we land we should go straight to gate 31D to board the new flight stressing the point about going straight to that gate twice. I decided to go to Heathrow so I rushed along many other passengers to gate 31D and queued up only to find the gate unattended. 20 minutes later a staff member appeared and told us we should go gate 53D get our new boarding passes there and come back to gate 31D for boarding. While providing us with our new boarding passes the staff at gate 53D also gave us a food and refreshment voucher by way of compensation they said. These were valid for the coffee bar across the hall. So we all went to the coffee bar and queued up there to get our “ free”food and drink. Alas we found out that the vouchers was valid for a bar of chocolate and bottle of water. The time was after 8 pm. I was the last passenger to get a new boarding pass I got seat 36B which is a middle seat in the last row. The best seat in town. Finally took off at 21.55 hrs. We touched down in London Heathrow about 22.30 local time. It was about half past midnight by the time I got to my destination.

ZRH-CPH C class on a slightly tired Airbus. Departure from ZRH 1 hour late due late incoming aircraft. Crew was outstanding - Purser came and explained the reason for the delay and apologized accordingly. The whole crew were very friendly and highly professional. Ground and onboard service very good and C class bags delivered first to baggage belt. On leaving the aircraft senior Purser and First officer greeted and thanked all pax nice touch.

Travelled between LCY-ZRH and ZRH-IST to and fro and all four flights food was non-existent. LCY-ZRH - Muffin and juice/tea. ZRH-IST - Pasta with tomato sauce a cake and juice/tea. Absolutely no entertainment system onboard not even multi-channel radio! The flights are always late up to 20 mins.

We flew LX 180 - Zurich to Bangkok on 20 June 2014 - a code share flight - we had booked Thai Airways Sydney to Zurich. We were seated in 33J and 33K The aircraft appeared tired and the seating is very restrictive. With the person in front reclined it is impossible to use the seat table. I sat in seat 33K and found there is a positive - we left on time and arrived on time but we do not wish to repeat the 10 hours in between that the handset was missing. A broken piece of plastic remained attached to some wiring - as it was a full flight we could not be offered a change of seat. The cabin crew appeared to be efficient but by the end of the trip I would rather describe them as glacially indifferent. Food quality served on silly little trays was very poor and small things like no salt or pepper sachet shows a lack of quality control somewhere. The toilet nearest to us ran out of toilet paper. Yet again a poor reflection upon Swiss flight crew. On the positive side we left on time and arrived on time but we do not want to repeat the 10 hours in between. Better seating and re-focused cabin crew would help.

(LAX to LHR on United) LHR-ZRH (A320) - JNB (A340) Business class. Outstanding customer service - the purser on the flight from London to Zurich detected a glitch in the onward booking before the plane had landed and the (minor) problem (owing to booking through UA in the USA) was fixed before the plane landed! (It would not have been a crisis either way). Transit IN ZRH: international transit (Euro gates incl UK to Pier E) is not so well signposted as there is an escalator to the left of the immigration hall that saves one from clearing immig/customs and re-entering which happened to a few other transit passengers who didn't notice the escalator sign. Watch out for the sign to Terminal E! A340 Business: Staggered seats arrangement if on an aisle seat try to select one with the arm rest console on the aisle side yourself for extra distance from the aisle. Seats are narrower than some - a little on the hard side but fully flat and "cosy". Entertainment on demand and a large choice even for those of us who fly often in the same movie/month cycle. Food very good and a nice compliment of wine if one enjoys that. Very elegantly done! Nice breakfast presentation from a trolley (not a cart).

LX1934 April 16 2014. Friendly and very competent crew. Enthusiastic pilots. Good service. Planes in good condition. Clean cabin. Rather poor onboard menu. No special comfort onboard.

We flew in march from Johannesburg to Zurich. The flight quality overall was very low. The entertainment system was very old (prehistoric) small screen very few movies and almost half of my leg room was cut due to the entertainment system “box”. Food was poor quality and service very rough. I used to know Swiss from the past and had much better memories than my recent findings. The flight ticket price was ok but far from cheap.

BKK-GVA A340-300. The seat pitch is ridiculous and seats are too hard. Legroom very small and IFE box takes some space. IFE average. Food excellent service good on time. Zurich airport very good little lines fast transit. Swiss will replace the A340 by Boeing 777 soon. I hope they will privilege seat comfort and legroom for these long haul carriers the current ones are not good at all.

We just finished flying LAX-Zurich-Rome and Venice-Zurich-LA on the way back). Several of those legs were delayed but only by a few minutes each and they were honestly apologetic about even that much so I'm not complaining. All the cabin staff was friendly and helpful. Food was decent by ground standards but mind blowingly good by economy seat on a plane standards compared to other airlines I've flown. We got a full meal and a sandwich going one way and a meal a sandwich and ice cream going the other way - all several steps above edible. Free booze on the longer legs too! (Various little bottles of spirits plus the house red/white wines. Wines merely drinkable spirits were fairly classy considering we were in coach and they were free. If you want Campari though I learned you have to grab it quickly as they always ran out. Checking in our bags at LAX was the most painless experience I've had checking in. Zurich airport by contrast is surprisingly a bit of a madhouse but while the lines there were long once we figured out which line to stand in it also moved remarkably quickly so we weren't in line for too long. I would definitely fly with SWISS again unless one of the other small handful of respectable airlines were way cheaper. That said not everything was perfect: their website was having issues all the time (we had to call to get our confirmation numbers and to reserve seats because their web reservation system was all kinds of buggy). Our seats on the transatlantic flights were quite cramped (I'm extremely thankful we got seats that were only 2 across or the flight would have been hell. It was still a bit cramped even just me and my wife.) The transatlantic flights also didn't have individual seat-controllable air and as a result got rather stuffy one of the flights.