Swiss A330 Business Class Zurich to Beijing

Damn. They're having a business fare sale right now. LAX-ZRH RT is <$3,000. I really want to try it. I'm so tired of good (but mostly inattentive) service on KLM. Everyone has such low business prices to Europe out of LAX right now I can't make up my mind.

This might help...if all of these tickets were the same price, and the destination didn't really matter, which would you choose: Virgin Atlantic Upper Class, KLM World Business, Delta BusinessElite, Lufthansa Business, SWISS Business? I also have to re-qualify for Delta PM I guess, and these flights help.

"We ran out, would you mind switching meals?"

If the reason for the switch is that they've run out of your first selection, it doesn't particularly matter if you mind switching or not. You don't have much choice.

Flew LX J last year. Agree with the report. I will say I found the firmness/lumbar feature on the seat though to be really useful and important when in bed mode. Once I got the bed at the right firmness level I slept quite well.

Also, my only real other beef with that trip in particular was that the decent Senator lounge was on the Schengen side of the airport. Connecting from a non Schengen to a non Schengen flight you end up with a dumpy lounge unless you have enough time/patience to cross over and back ( which really isn't too hard/what I ended up doing). Final thought is that it was neat that arriving from the US they don't make you clear transit security but from TLV they did, go figure.

@ AZTravelGuy -- They hadn't yet served the meal, and based on the way it was asked it seemed that if I had some serious objection to switching they would have asked someone else. So I do think I had a choice.

@ Garrett -- Of those choices I would probably go with Virgin Atlantic Upper Class. Love their lounges!

@Lucky that makes my choice pretty easy...getting MQMs is a nice bonus too. You mentioned before you weren't that happy with the seat since it has to flip to recline. How was it for sleeping?

Why do airlines always run out of food?

@ Joe -- Well in practice probably as a cost saving measure. And I'm guessing also because food that isn't eaten has to be thrown out on landing, so that's wasteful.

@Garrett I just flew LAX-LHR-LAX in VS upper class in March. I thought the seat was great for sleeping. A bit narrow perhaps, but the dedicated sleep surface on the back of the seat combined with the turn-down service and dedicated sleep pad made for a very pleasant sleep experience for me. On the return I didn't use the bed at all, and I thought the seat wasn't the best for lounging because the recline is somewhat limited. That and the inability to power my laptop in flight are my main gripes with my VS upper class experience. Overall, though, I absolutely loved upper class (especially the lounge at LHR) and wouldn't hesitate for a second to fly it again.

But isn't the right side of the cabin more or less the Solstys style staggered business class seats? If anything, Swiss seems to be unique in that they have all the different styles of staggered business class you can find.

Was there a pre-arrival snack/meal?

@Kirby thanks! I think I'll fly VA outbound to get some sleep and KLM/Delta on the way home then.

@ wwk5d -- Yes and no. In theory it's similar to Etihad, Alitalia, etc., except you still have a somewhat restrictive foot cubby (though not as bad as a "throne" seat on the other side of the cabin). My favorite thing about the Etihad and Alitalia seat is that the space for your legs is "open."

As far as the pre-arrival meal goes, they served breakfast. Will have more on that in the trip report.

I'm excited to hear you enjoyed the flight! I booked the exact same route and carrier next month and am heading to the airport to catch an OS flight to VIE. Wishing star alliance a sad farewell for a while with OS, LX, CA, BR, TK, 9W and AC J. At least there is coffee menus and Dom ahead 🙂

What is the best way to obtain Business Class seat assignments? Swiss website, call Swiss, other?

Thanks for the report Ben! Just curious if you have any other pics/impressions of the first class amenity kit that you received. I'm flying Swiss F for the first time in two weeks and I was curious what the current kit is like.

@Garrett That's a good plan with one big hole: the VS lounge experience at LAX is pretty abysmal (you use the horrific Air France lounge in T2), and the VS lounge experience at LHR is wonderful. So flying VS outbound and DL/KL inbound, you get a crappy lounge on the outbound and miss the fantastic VS Clubhouse on the inbound. Kind of a tossup as to whether or not the Clubhouse is worth sacrificing some comfort on the inbound flight, which is obviously a matter of personal taste.

@Kirby LOL...I've spent a lot of time in that stupid AF lounge. Tomato juice and pretzels and peanuts...that's what happens there. Terminal 2 as a whole is pretty depressing, but I don't mind too much. The new TBIT isn't as impressive as I feel like it should have been. The KE Lounge on the non-F side isn't that much to talk about either. I'll just cut it close and reduce the waiting time lol

We flew LX from NRT to ZRH in April. I really enjoyed it and liked the food a lot. I didn't have any issues with the seat itself, but the foot cubby is way too small and has a weird upward angle on the interior that made it restrictive. I also disliked that there was so little storage space generally - they give you all this crap: amenity kit, blanket, slippers, newspapers, magazines, menu; then you have nowhere to put anything.

I liked that the pre-arrival "snack" was accompanied by a draft beer. They had a pony keg on a cart they wheeled around to offer people Swiss beer to go with the ham, white asparagus and potato salad.

@ RKToledo -- Website is the best way if you have the Swiss locator. Otherwise by calling Swiss.

@ Adam -- Haven't posted any, but will post some with the full trip report, which should be before your trip. Hope you have a great flight!

Ah, picture it BOS c. 1998 and a fresh faced 23 yo is flying business class BOS to ZRH for work. I watched Thomas Crown Affair and oh did I think I was the shiznit.

Sounds like a great flight. But I figured with two young and energetic flight attendants at least one of them would have offered you alcohol and warm nuts. At least they were attentive with the meal service and the rest of the flight.

Foot cubby is less restricting if you select the seat that is flush to the aisle rather than the one in your photo which is flush to the window ,as it is open to the aisle rather than fully enclosed.

I was flying YUL to ZRH on SWISS 87 earlier this year. I have experienced the same top notch service in business class as Ben has described. I guess it is kind of the "new generation" of young and ambitious flight crews and they represent Switzerland and SWISS to it's best!

I flew LX in C DAR-ZRH on A330 connecting to LX in C ZRH-LAX on A340 just last week. Enjoyed it, but found service in the two row "mini cabin" just behind F to be pretty poor. Both aircraft had the same configuration and we were in the same seats, and had the same service experience. Attendants in F would walk right by us, C attendants spent most of their time in the main C area. Food was average. But I did get a restful sleep, which is unusual for me even in C, but perhaps because I had just spent a couple days in DAR which will tire anyone out! I preferred the new LH C seat and food I had the previous week LAX-FRA-JNB. The FRA-JNB A380 wasn't supposed to be the new C but I guess we lucked out with an aircraft change.

@ Daniel -- Since I'm not an LH elite, I went out of my way to book LH F on my return from Europe in November. YMMV but service was very nice and my FAs were ladies in their 40s so it's not just young FAs that are good.

@ Lucky - make an LH SEN or HON a member of your household on SPG and transfer miles to him/him 😉 I suppose the only other way is to book paid J and use miles to upgrade to F.

Are the loads in LX F consistently high or can you envision them eventually becoming more like LH F (14 days out for partners) or like SQ which started out highly restrictive for suites?

@ Jeremy -- Loads definitely aren't high based on what I've seen. Wouldn't be surprised if they change their policy eventually.

Be glad you didn't pick the seat with a table on both sides (aka Captain Kirk seat) - the foot cubby with it is MINUTE! Weirdly they even restrict pre-booking it to Star Alliance Gold customers, but it'd be my last choice of seat. Re cabin temperature - I normally find it fine on European airlines, it's the Asian carriers that run it hotter than I'd like - I remember genuinely sweating on an SQ JFK-FRA upper deck flight a few years back!