Swiss Intl Air Lines

I flew from Budapest to Delhi via Zürich economy class. 29 April 2013. First flight on a brand new A320 slim seats to give space for the legs. Nice service nice croissant with coffee. Zurich airport is spotless nice design automatic train under the airport from one terminal to the other. Second flight to DEL brand new A330. Nice meal working entertainment system with consol for kids. The system got frozen they had to restart it two times but at the end we were able to watch the movies dedicated for first class too. During flight they offered water many times. Before landing light sandwich was ok. The staff were very friendly. Five star service.

A340 from Los Angeles to Zurich and return. Major complaint we have is that in economy class the video screens were difficult to see when the passengers in front of us reclined their seats. The screen doesn't tilt enough to compensate for the angle change created by reclining seats. We were unable to watch movies due to poor visibility. The video system seemed old and mine froze on me a couple of times and had to be rebooted. On a long flight the lack of satisfactory video was a huge drawback for us.

Geneva-Athens in an A319. A very smooth and pleasant flight. We had exit row seats but even the ordinary seats seamed to be comfortable and have adequate legroom. A small and tasty hot meal was served with beverages. The crew was polite and efficient. The plane was on time and the luggage appeared fairly promptly (albeit a little damp on the outside from having stood in the open during a connection at Geneva while it was raining). The proverbial nice touch - a chocolate - was appreciated.

CDG-ZRH-LAX return. Economy. Legs on A320 were fine for such short flights: thin seats which leave surprisingly good legroom a bit of decent food and nice FA. A340 very ageing with sad brownish colours. Food was average and not very plentiful though I could get a true gin tonic. Most FAs were nice and some even very smiling or a bit funny. IFE screens surprisingly large for Y class with good selection and many languages yet unfortunately on both legs not working very well. Long delay on first flight no apologies and not any word from the captain (but the FAs tried their best to manage the situation). ZRH airport is spotless. All in all not too bad good value for the money.

Swiss C Class ZRH-BKK quite disappointing. Airplane rather old A340 seats okay but atmosphere quite cramped Entertainment system took several restarts to finally work and is very slow and old - if you stop a movie and restart it starts from beginning. Service efficient food complete disaster! They had beef Gnocchi or a soup - gnocchi were a disaster. Flight on time Baggage delivery okay. However whole experience on long haul even worse than Lufthansa far below Austrian or Thai! Seats are full flat but very very narrow.

Prague to London-City with a layover at Basel/Mulhouse. Both flights on the Avro RJ100 soon to be retired although still a nice aircraft with good seats and reasonable personal space. With both flights full carry-on storage was an issue but otherwise a problem-free journey aided by the quick and efficient staff and handling at all three airports. Swiss still provides drinks snacks and the signature chocolates on their flights making the experience all the more pleasant.

Very unpleasant experience with Swiss on a flight from Rome to Kiev stepping over in Zurich: First flight was very late for the fog in Rome (no complains on that) but the assistance of Swiss personnel was terrible: the lady didn't have a monitor and was asking by phone other flight possibilities. On the flight to Zurich I had to insist with the hostess to check the connection and give me assistance to arrive quickly to the gate for the flight to Kiev. Arriving in Zurich with very tight connection nobody assisted me and I had to run end to end in the Zurich airport. This company is cheap but it seems it is not able to manage problems.

EWR-ZHR and ZHR-ORD in Economy. Clean new planes with great IFE. Food out of EWR was average but the food out of ZHR was outstanding. FA's were friendly and restrooms were clean. I think it has been over 20 years since I have had real silverware in Economy but Swiss provided it on both flights. Wine cheese and chocolate were great. I fly to Europe several times per year and this is probably the best Economy class experience I have had in many years.

Flew from Johannesburg to Zurich on A340. Didn't have pyjamas in my size on board. The cabin is very dated when compared to the new Swiss First on A330. The seat was very uncomfortable fully reclined as it is not completely flat (the backrest still extended slightly outwards and the mattress cover they provide is not thick enough to iron out all irregularities). When I ordered a coffee in the morning I had to remind flight attendant again ca. 10 minutes later. The cabin was full and the one small bathroom was crowded in the morning with people changing again. I would not recommend the First class product on A340. I also wish the Swiss crew would loosen up a bit more. They come across as very uptight when compared to the Lufthansa crew who often seem happy to serve you.

LCY to ZRH April 2013 Business Class. Good service in the air unfortunately let down by the policy of allocating both A and B seats in business class in a 2-3 configuration. Their competitor on this route only allocates either or in the same scenario. On this flight there were 8 rows of business class which equals a capacity of 32 seats. There were only 8 passengers so why Swiss insisted on seating solo passengers right next to each other in the AB seats and leaving so many rows free is a mystery.