Swiss Intl Air Lines

Munich-Zurich on an AVROLINER with 2x3 configuration euro standard of leaving the middle seat empty. Aircraft very clean and comfortable for the 45 minutes flight. A gourmet sandwich with parma ham and Swiss cheese plus choice of alcoholic drinks and chocolate dessert and coffee. Crew polite and attentive but rushed service due to the short length of flight and stormy weather and turbulence. Zurich-Berlin Tegel on an A320 3x3 with the middle seat empty not a fan of this euro-configuration for business. Flight delayed almost an hour in Zurich due to severe storm and airport congestion. For the 1.10 hrs flight a full dinner was served in spite of the heavy rain and turbulence with fresh breads foie-gras and sauerkraut Swiss cheeses and a fruits-tart for dessert. Service was friendly by young flight attendant. Arrived Tegel in late evening with airport almost empty. Baggage was one of the first due to Priority tags. I like to fly SWISS always a high quality product delivered by friendly and professional crew.

JNB-ZRH-LHR in Business. First stage a very mixed bag. The new long-haul business seat is a minor miracle in that with a small gap between the rows one gets a lot of personal space (especially in the single seats by the windows). Both dinner and breakfast were excellent and the service attentive. On the negative side the pillow and blanket are paltry and the entertainment system antiquated. Short hop to London ok but nothing special. Difficult to see why they have won best European business class.

Had the opportunity to try out the new Business Class product on LX due to the Thanksgiving week premium fare sale EWR-ZRH A340-300 on the way out A330-300 on the way back. Seats were roomy for C with only 4 or 5 across (depending on row) made for lots of living and storage space. My only complaint was how low to the ground the seats were in bed mode - you felt every single bump. That said it did an excellent job providing privacy and blocking out any ambient light. Service was highly professional and pleasant flight attendants where everything from meal service to mid-flight beverage requests was quickly responded to with a smile. Passengers were addressed by name and as far as I could tell every member of staff spoke English in addition to Schweizerdeutsch (and a few French as well). I highly recommend trying the Swiss speciality entree for me it did not disappoint. IFE was a mixed bag. While both aircraft type feature AVOD the A340's system appears to be an older generation - clunky interface long load times and the system froze on me (necessitating a reset) twice. The A330 has a newer system better interface and a larger screen although with the same limited selection as on the outbound flight. Despite wishing the seat's bed mode was slightly higher and a more extensive/ newer IFE system I had an overall excellent experience with the best sleep I've ever had on an airplane.

Flight on an A340 from PEK to ZRH. Seats are really starting to show their age now especially when compared to the new version existing in the A330's. Otherwise cabin clean and tidy. Service was very personalized and attentive. Crew multilingual as on most LX flight. Good choice of newspapers and magazines. wines are very good and food good but not up to standard when compared to other airlines. Seat is good and quite comfortable but certainly not the best in the sky. Once turned into a bed it is very comfortable with a good size duvet and a real pillow allowing a good rest. The fact of having only one WC for first class can be very bothersome especially just before landing when everyone uses it for changing.

ZRH-MUC on December 7 early morning flight. Flight left and arrived on time. The cabin service was a disaster. The flight was operated by OLT Express F100. Flight attendants were rude. Coffee was not available and this at 7.30am! I will avoid flying to MUC with Swiss or their sub companies.

GVA-JFK SFO-ZRH. Nice and modern cabins (A330 and A340) very good corporate design comfortable seats and very friendly staff.

Return leg from BKK-AGP. As with the outbound all flights ran slightly early. Staff again professional and efficient and some friendlier than the normal Swiss staff. The Cabin Manger was very attentive and spoke to all passengers individually over dinner (interestingly he was in fact Spanish). Dinner as on the outbound was very good and as a late night departure quickly served which was appreciated. Fully flat beds again which is normal for the A340 and woken the usual 90 minutes prior to landing for a (very poor) breakfast which let this flight down. Could not find the arrivals lounge at Zurich but not important as has a shower at the departure lounge while waiting for the second flight. Again no complaints a full lunch with champagne served despite being 10.30am but acceptable as being awake for many hours and travelling in a different time zone. As always have no problem recommending Swiss.

AGP to BKK via ZRH. All flights ran slightly early. I find Swiss to be consistently good but not fabulous. Prices in Business out of Spain always one of the best and makes the 7 hour layover in ZRH justifiable. Fully flat seat a little hard even after choosing soft function. One of the best steak meals ever enjoyed on a flight which was one of the celebrity chefs signature dishes. Champagne and drinks of good quality and usual service a little cold and slow but always polite. Overall never disappointed never wowed but this means trust and worth repeat business.

I've flown twice with Swiss once from Tegel (Berlin) to Cairo Egypt via Zurich and the other time was from Tegel (Berlin) to Milano. Both times were extremely nice even with very short flights like Zurich-Milano you feel taken care of. Zurich-Cairo flight was very comfortable entertainment system was good. On the bad side the cabin crew repeated instructions every time in at least 4 languages (English French German and Swiss) it got a bit much sometimes.

Birmingham - Zurich - Sao Paulo return. Last-minute on-the-day booking due to family circumstances. Flight from Birmingham to Zurich was late turning a tight connection into a stressful experience. Once on board the long haul run to Sao Paulo it was about as bearable as a 12-hour overnighter in economy can be. The return leg was similar - 12-hour overnighter from Zurich to Sao Paulo - I had pre-booked an aisle seat but was assigned at check-in to a middle seat - only when I threatened to call Swiss in Zurich did an aisle seat miraculously become available. However this turned out to be a rear seat with limited recline. As I am not a sleeper on night flights that was not a huge problem and it was good that the crew came around regularly with water. The food was standard fare - not good. 7-hour layover in Zurich was very welcome with the excellent Dayrooms facility at Zurich Airport. I was able to get 4 good hours of sleep before my onward flight and drive home. By the way I have rated the seat-comfort as very poor - this is not a reflection on Swiss - all economy seating is akin to purgatory on any long-haul.