During my trip to Zimbabwe, I intentionally planned a roughly 10-hour layover at Zurich Airport, to be able to do some lounge hopping, after getting off my SWISS 777 first class flight from Miami. My first stop was the SWISS First Lounge Zurich Terminal E, with Terminal E being the area for non-Schengen departures.
Continue reading: Review: SWISS First Lounge Zurich Airport Terminal E (ZRH)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The bedrooms are the best part.
You're right about the beds being "absurdly comfortable."
Great lounge overall.
The amount of ads on this site is becoming outrageous. I just had an ad on top of and ad on the bottom (cruises) then an overlay ad on the top. Not to mention ads every paragraph. It’s almost unusable.
Even better, when I went to submit comment a pop up opened a new window for Ruggable. Awesome.
I agree that the lounge is an exceptional experience. The outdoor area with combined mountain and apron view, the bedrooms and the shere amount of privacy is very pleasent. At the same time, the interior style shows Swiss premium understatement, no bling bling at all.
I honestly never see ads on his site. On mobile, try Firefox Focus. It's free and blocks basically everything on mobile. His site is not doable in chrome.
Great review, thanks. What time of day did you arrive in the lounge and did you have to wait for the bedroom or was it immediately availabel when you asked? Thanks?
The terrace was definitely my favorite part when I visited last year. Also, for the whisky heads in the house, one of the staff was nice enough to take me to the Senator Lounge across the hall, since there is a significantly larger collection than what was at the F lounge bar.
@Francois I suppose that was nice of them but almost all of the whiskeys in the Senator lounge are duty free junk. Probably saved them money from the more expensive ones in the F lounge
I'm curious why you don't use French language accents (e.g. in "La Premiere" and "a la carte"), but you do in what I assume is German (e.g. "Hästens beds").
Genuine question - @lucky don’t you find the wine / champagne offerings extremely underwhelming?
also, since it is accessible by LH same day F itinerary, can you clear immigrantion, go to this lounge, then clear back into EU again, to go take LH flight to MUC/FRA as it is Schengen? Otherwise you can only fly into MUC/FRA in F and then connect to ZRH then connect yet again to another place all in one day.
you can also enjoy the terrace from Business, senator, and the Priority Pass accessible Primeclass / Aspire lounge. Admittedly without all other niceties.
also one can wish the Business & senator lounge can have better food, the difference between their food and the first class food is night and day.
@ beyounged -- Clearing immigration to use the lounge shouldn't be an issue, based on everything I've heard, even if traveling within the Schengen zone. Of course you'll want to make sure you have sufficient time. The Terminal A SWISS First Lounge is also exceptional, though, and more convenient.
@ Tsunami -- Honestly, I'm not a huge wine connoisseur (or drinker), aside from knowing some major brands. So if you say it's underwhelming, I trust you. 🙂
It's interesting how so many airlines invest in offering great wine and champagne onboard flights, but not in lounges. Presumably that comes down to access requirements, since you have a lot more people who have access to lounges than you'll find in first class (since you can also access the lounge based on status).
@ Josh -- Fair question, and I'm not sure I've really thought all that much about it, to be honest, and it's not really intentional. I guess it comes down to how (at least in German) you'd have to write "ae" instead of "ä," so not including the umlaut would alter the letters you have to use. Meanwhile in the case of La Premiere, I think there would be less confusion. But it's a fair point, of course.
@ Julia -- As noted by TravelinWilly, it's not. Only the Terminal A SWISS First Lounge has a smoking area.
@ Tim -- I only asked for a bedroom at around 1PM, after the lounge emptied out (following the departure of other flights). At that point a bedroom was immediately available, though I think they were both occupied earlier in my stay.
@ JP -- I appreciate the feedback, and I hear you. It's something we're working on, so please stay tuned. Thanks for your patience!
@ Miami305 -- There are no limits to how long you can use the bedroom, beyond the operating hours of the lounge. I only took a brief nap, as I was busy hopping around to different lounges and trying to work. 🙂
Define "underwhelming". If you are just going about the names or the price tags on the bottles, I think you're missing the point. It's all about personal taste. I always say: there are only two types of wines, the ones I like and the ones I don't. So far in each of the Lufthansa group First Class Lounges I always (!!!) found at least one or two I liked. And for you those may be the "underwhelming" ones.
Indeed, time permitting it is absolutely no issue to visit the "E" Lounge when flying intra-Schengen. Did it lots of times. But as pointed out you need to clear immigration from A to E and back. Given the difference of quality between the E and the A Lounges, it is well worth the trip in my opinion.
Makes sense and agree! I’m certainly not a regular at any F lounge but the presence of a few prestige wines / liquors makes the journey (and rightly or wrongly the value prop of flying F) way more fun for me personally. It’s definitely first world problems.
Luckily the Concorde room is still pouring some good stuff (Pommery 2006 on a recent visit) and Emirates lets you hunt/gather in DXB.
Fantastic review and the aesthetics of this lounge are top notch.
Fair point. I’m sure I could’ve easily found something I loved. I find it fun to try some higher-end champagnes/wines that I’m generally not drinking at home in lounges, but as Ben very rightly calls out, this is kind of the norm. And the selection on board doesn’t look half bad.
Great review. I rank this at the top as well. No bling, but exceptional service and amenities. When able, I choose this over LH and the FCT in Frankfurt.