Review: New Swiss First Class Lounge Zurich Airport

Fantastic lounge, the best I’ve ever visited. I dare say it’s noticeably better than FCT. I may have been one of the first guests to use the day rooms and indeed they’re awesome, super comfortable with proper private bathrooms. We were on a 6-hour layover on the way to Hong Kong and very kind lounge agents insisted that we try a day room. “Nah, thank you, we’re fine”. But when we had a look it changed to “Hell, yeah, why not!”. Great relax and a refreshing sleep before a long flight. Definitely the brighter side of travelling Swiss first class on their new 77Ws (which are a bit of a letdown – especially FC tiny lavatories).

Unbelievable! Just can't even think of any other lounge I've been in that's remotely comparable. It's in a class by itself!

Noticed the walkway in front of the private bedroom as well as the main restrooms - was that my mistake or can someone "walk" by the bedroom window? Great review !

Hi Lucky, have you already seen the new 360° Videos from SWISS on your smartphone? In the videos theit two new planes "present" themselfes. Here's the link to the videos on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82GY6Zq4GI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKzGFFFp7dk&t=5s
I really like These two 360° videos. What do you think about them?

Thanks for the review! Hard product and food sounded good.Wine and champagne seem pretty more like a business class offering at best. The French still wines are coach quality.

Hi Lucky,
First of all, I'm thrilled to visit this Lounge on my next Flt out of ZRH. Looks amazing.
Little detail. I don't know if you noticed it but on your picture of the wine-list there is a HUGE mistake wich I don't understand that no one noticed this error at Swiss. On the White wine part, the Portugese wine Dão. I quote "Encruzado Branco is the indigenous grape variety in Dão, "SPAIN" (???)" As far as I know the Dão region is in Portugal, not in Spain...
Remark two. Maybe you didn't check but is there inside the Lounge a smoking Lounge like you have for example at LH First Class Lounges?
Thanks a bunch and keep up the good work!!

I would just warn everyone that SWISS is incredibly stingy with lounges, and seem to vacillate on the rules. I was flying Swiss J to FRA, and then Lufthansa F to LAX (United mileage ticket), and SWISS would absolutely NOT let me in the first class lounge.

They told me that my ticket number indicated a United ticket, and therefore there was no way I enter the lounge. I reminded them I was flying Lufthansa First that day, and they said it just won't happen because the ticket was issued on United stock. The lady even called a colleague and confirmed. I also looked it up online and saw a lot of reports on this.

Just want to mention this so nobody goes out of their way only to have their hopes dashed. Definitely double check that your particular ticket will grant you access to the lounge before purchasing! You have been warned!

You can go to the F lounge in the main terminal, right after security. They'll drive you to terminal E in a Mercedes and a private elevator takes you right to the lounge front desk.
The advantage is that there's a private passport check desk, which saves time.

Swiss and their mind-boggling rules - one reason I'll NEVER fly with them.

Here's my Swiss horror story:

Firstly, NEVER (I repeat NEVER) travel with them if you've got a disability requiring ANY form of accommodation.

I was supposed to fly BRU-ZRH-YUL-YYZ, with the first 2 legs on Swiss. It seems that even what should theoretically be a simple request to accommodate a passenger's disability is met with absolute hostility if it isn't in line with their "rules" - such as getting seat 4A or 4K for someone who absolutely needs a bulkhead and they're not an elite member, yet booked in business class and such seats are in fact available. They'll try to cover their derrieres by turning to one of their "paper doctors" who doesn't even so much as speak to you, and use them to find any excuse to deny the request. Then, they'll refuse to communicate with you further if you try to object to their decision and appeal it to a higher level.

What happened in this individual case was so egregious that Aeroplan literally said "enough is enough" and rebooked the reservation free of charge. I was rebooked BRU-NYC-YYZ (with a slightly annoying airport change from JFK to LGA) and the difference was night and day. Absolutely no problems - in fact, I would say they went above and beyond, even going so far as to making sure they corrected the issues with the special meal I had with the previous flight with them - and the end result was great!

Swiss only made things (somewhat) right once they realized they were in violation of the Canadian Transportation Agency's rules and could be subject to consequences as a result of their behaviour, with which I had a good amount of evidence, and could have probably gone further than the CTA, but didn't bother.

Anyway, those are my few cents on Swiss.

Great review! Looks absolutely incredible. One thing I noticed was that when you said two A330s pulled in, one of those was an A340. Sorry to be nit-picky, but I can't help it. Great writing and photos as always.

I Totally agree with this :

the same time, there’s one area where I think Swiss drops the ball with their first class ground experience. While the lounge is spectacular, their ground services for first class passengers are otherwise limited. They don’t escort you from check-in to the lounge, or from the lounge to the gate. That’s fine.

However, what’s more annoying is that if you’re leaving from a different concourse they’ll drive you to that concourse in a car, but just to the central part of the terminal, rather than the gate. So the overall ground experiences don’t really compare the best in the world.

Yes the first class lounge is superb
I was lucky to visit it last week zrh-lax
The nap room overlooking the runways is awesome

This lounge is beautiful, last week I was in the Zurich first lounge which is part of the business lounge on the second floor. As I type this I am sitting in 1st on a Lufthansa flight on my way to Frankfurt, the experiences I have had with flying are so cool and most of how I do this I learned from you and a few others in the community.

Thank You

"The bedrooms in this lounge are hands down the nicest sleeping area you’ll find at any lounge in the world."

Seems that Ben has been around in each and every lounge in the whole world, again. LOL

Does the Swiss F lounge still have the ridiculous "our LX ticket stock only" policy?

Wow! Thats quite a wine list. Never seen anything so extensive in an airline lounge. Rest of the lounge looks great too.

Looks all rather dull!
Give me EK and SQ first lounge anyday!

Famous for thier cheese and great bread, Swiss chocolate is always something I look forward to. But this lounge could offer much better chocolate than those cheap Lindt truffles that are full of heart-clogging palm oil.

Hi schlappig
Wow u could douche and then slide a butt plug up ya while watchen dem planes cuming n goen

@dr bongo: Just because you do those things, it does not mean that everyone else does it also. Do you have to work hard at being a complete dickhead or does it come naturally to you?

Service on SWISS is always pretty cold. Food is good, planes stylish. Seats in first and Biz are not very comortable. I would never recommend anyone getting to a lounge early to use the bedroom. Your hotel will always be more comfortable. That's beyond ridiculous. Lounges are wonderful when they are necessary but al the glamor of them is taken away if you replace vacation time with sitting in an airport eating food that's never as good as a great restaraunt in the city

Great report! No report is more comprehensive than OMAAT.

Ben, is there any sort of time limit for how long you can use the bedrooms? If there are really only two rooms, I could see that being a difficult amenity to take advantage of unless you got to the airport way early, or were really lucky.

@ Fitzherbert Carruthers - couldn't agree more. Lucky - please remove this guy's posts.

On many articles regarding this lounge I have heard they serve fondue on the terrace in the winter months. However, I have not read any first had accounts that have actually seen this happen. Has anyone had any experience with this? Anything in the lounge advertising this perk?

If you're in one of those bedrooms, can someone walking out on the terrace walk by your window and see in? How many bedrooms were there total, just the two?

I have recently used the lounge, the evening of 23/12 before my flight to Singapore. I had smiles galore, and that was before I was joined by my blogger buddy, Iain d'Eau, a teddy bear from Penang. He broke down any remaining barriers.

Maybe you need a Bärli to break any remaining ice.

Sorry SQ First (The Private Room) is so old and tired -there is no way you can compare the LX F E Gates Lounge to SQ Private Room at SIN!! No bedrooms, bad food are the most obvious differences. EK I don't know but after EY F MEL-AUH 777 then EY F Apartments AUH-JFK AUH is a bad bad airport and there is even more of a lack of F ground services at AUH than at ZRH which is saying a lot! ZRH is just so easy and civilized for transit, you can go downtown to ZRH for the day before your connection, and you can leave your carryon I nthe F Lounge A Gates all day no issue!