SWISS 777 First Class: A Wonderful Experience

On a slightly unrelated note, funny how the in flight map points out Martha's Vineyard, instead of ya know, Boston or New York. Clearly SWISS knows there first class passengers!

While I agree with you that the seat is very fine still (and better than LH), I have had some awful food in Swiss FC over the years. "Highlight" was a "Bratwurst" from JFK, simply not a FC food option, IMO. And I am fed up with the same old Bally kit for so many years, now even without La Prairie. The PJ's have also not changed in ca. 6-7 years, and are simply not nice enough. So call me spoiled, but with the Wine selection of Emirates and the Caviar there, I have now changed most bookings from LH group, even though I am mostly based in Zurich. However, I will try the new LH group seats as soon as they are available.

A "Florida take" on fondue -- I bet it's tremendous

Ha! Though as the U.S. ambo in Canberra, I doubt she's flying SWISS much.

i can fully confirm all what was written, although you can redeem miles for an upgrade from P to F which i did recently also flying to MIA. I guess you need to be a Senator, not 100 sure about that. Absolutely chose Swiss over Lufthansa or any other European carrier in First, but also in Business especially as they have the single big seats, like 4a that you will not find with Lufthansa.

The skincare products are Soeder, "Foerst" is just their play on the word "first" and how it's pronounced in German

@ Balazs -- My mistake, thanks! Fixed.

Is it normal for airlines to have different entertainment selections on different aircraft? I totally expect the different displays, etc., but I would have thought it would be pretty easy to just load the same catalog to all aircraft.

I guess I got lucky a few years ago with being offered an upgrade on the one and only time I flew Swiss. Had a great time as well (it was from ZRH to JFK), and the people watching was just the best. I was in 1A and a very wealthy looking couple sat in the middle seats. The woman was busy shopping on her ipad for bathing suits that retailed for over $1k a piece, Amex Black in hand, and she did it literally from boarding until the plane was lined up for take off :D.
That being said, I would have passed on the Florida fondue too but good lord am I fascinated by it and wonder what the heck that could be.

Your panna cotta melted under the hot lights of your photo studio!

Said no to Swiss chocolate.

Somebody is getting older 🙂

Flew Swiss First a couple of years ago and while the product was great in the air the ground was an appalling series of mistakes that severely marred the experience and means we won't be hurrying back.

I remember redeeming BMI miles for LX first (GRU-ZRH) - those were the times!

On so many airlines, the difference between J and F is very small nowadays. I get the feeling that Swiss wants to differentiate these products, which consequently leads to a J product that's even worse than Finnair and not competitive in general.

I guess the right thing to do would be to modernize both hard products and keep the J product as meh as it is.

The F food looks great and presentation is like in a restaurant.

Hi Ben. I've noticed that last couple of your reviews don't include pictures of menu. Is it an intentional change? I really miss it, knowing what kind of food to expect is one of my top priorities when researching who to fly with.

Ben, can you post the beverage menu? I flew Swiss FC once, a long time ago (to MIA). I remember their wine selection to be significantly better than LH's.

I have a flight to SIN booked with them this fall, looking forward to it.

I would be curious to know the price of FC vs Business class to see if the bump to FC is a better deal

Fun fact: Swiss used to have a giant thing of La Prairie Skin Caviar (which retails for $4-500) in the first class lavatory. On at least 2 occasions I flew with them the bottle had mysteriously disappeared by the end of the flight. My next flight had much cheaper stuff in the lavatory. You can't have nice things.

Now to be fair, they also downgraded their amenity kit - they used to have really nice wooden hair brushes and shoe horns, but not more.

SWISStastic

There is another travel blogger, because he and his partner are both vegans, do not show the menus. Frustrating.

LX allows/invites FC pax to pre-order items that are not on the in-flight menu handed out upon boarding.

I don’t know how upgrades work in terms of time windows, but on revenue tix I’ve had that option weeks ahead of time, at least for USA-Zurich flights.

Was your experience flying out of Kloten?

If so, then yes, it can be a bit of a clusterfrick.

EK used to have the Hennessy Paradis on a shelf on the A380 FC front bar area. After bottles went missing, the Paradis is only served from the galley now.

The kleptos ruin it for everyone.

Great article. The food looks so much better than some of the offerings you have had from Lufthansa- I’m sure you once had a stale sushi roll ? The chocolate and cheese looks awesome! Out of interest how much was the upgrade and do you think it was worth it ?

I relatively often fly first with LH and LX and definitely prefer Swiss. Also First Lounge in Zurich is better - in my opinion - than LH in Frankfurt.

I think that in order to update the entertainment catalogue, each aircraft's selection needs to be manually updated. I expect that this is easier on aircraft with newer Bluetooth IFE screens.

For example, I fly Qatar Airways often, which has multiple types of long haul aircraft which are often substituted for one another on the same route. I'll have a one week round-trip where I fly on 4 Qatar aircraft, and I often find that the movie selection is different based on the aircraft (some aircraft don't have the newer movies that were just added, and I've noticed that the A350/787s have the updated selection, while their 777s don't always have it).

Great to see they use BALLY for their amenity kits!

Also, may I oint out that you use the verb "select" in the wrong way? I have noticed it across multiple posts, and so I wanted to post here something you might find useful going forward. Nothing major, just minor stylistical and grammatical correction.

"When you say select, you mean that you have to sort out the best based on the requirement. When you elect, you mean that you select based on the number of votes or comparison. When you say you choose, then you select based on choice." - From BARD AI

Samo FYI there is a menu thread over on flyertalk with SWISS's current menu offerings, and swiss also Swiss does publish there menus for various routes on their website.

Swiss Business transatlantic award can be booked for 63k lifemiles one way which is about 820 USD (assuming you buy your miles one way or another), add taxes and fees, about 1000 USD. As mentioned FC awards on LH are not very accessible so you have to upgrade cash.

In cash you can find a one-way MIA-ZRH for 5k+ in Business and 14k+ in First. Ben has reported separately that a cash upgrade at the airport on an award ticket can run between 1000 and 2000 USD. Setting you back a total of 2000-3000 USD vs about 1000 USD.

However this is subject both to availability of the Business class award and First Class upgrade.

In the end it's a question about what you value and how else you'd use the money if you pay for your tickets.

While the upgrade from chicken class is a no brainer on long haul to access the better hard product, paying 1000s of dollars to be served "better" (reheated) food and wine (in shitty glassware) seems precocious. Hell, with the ban on liquids coming to an end you'll be able to bring your own wine and glasses and caviar ! Why pay for First ?

As a regular Swiss First traveller I'll add a few details that I believe are noteworthy:
- The screen in Swiss First is 32" and beats most airlines in size
- The amenity pouch is Bally
- The pyjama is from a high-end Swiss brand (Zimmerli) and their Swiss-unbranded equivalent retails for 200USD+

I'm not sure Bard AI is an authority you want to cite when correcting people on grammar. It contradicts itself in the quoted guidance by using 'select' in the same manner it claims is incorrect.

There's nothing incorrect about using "select" as a verb meaning to choose. It's vernacular at worst and in a "stylistical" (this is not a word, by the way) context, it would pass muster on any copy desk I've ever worked on, be they conformed to Chicago, AP or AMA manuals of style. And I've worked on quite a few.

How much cash was upgrade?

It looks as though one can take the box home anyway?

He said in a previous posting that the upgrade was $ 1920.

It seems like it's a (bad) strategic decision to not enhance business class in order to promote their first class. They are afraid of cannibalising their first class, but the outcome will be people choosing other airlines.

Flying SWISS first out of ORD recently and when placing my dinner order, I said something like “of course I will have the cheese course as this is Swiss”. The flight attendant looked at me and after an uncomfortable silence said “sir, I must tell you, this cheese, it is from… Wisconsin.”

The way she said it was just absolutely perfect.

I passed.

I am happy for you to have this experience. I do wish sometimes you would order something other than fish on these reviews, just for us avid readers to see how they do other meat dishes in the most premium of cabins. I understand your stance against eating pork, however there are many other interesting opportunities to delve into some of the other things on the menus.

In South Africa we don't eat much fish lol 😉

The cheese on that plate looks neither Swiss, nor particularly appetizing.

Great review! HOWEVER: if you are in First on the Swiss A330s which ply the ZRH-JFK and GVA-JFK routes you will have a VERY different seat. Totally unacceptable for a First Class experience. It seems this will be changing in the next year or two, but flyers beware in the meantime. The 777 is MILES (pun intended) ahead of the 330.

I just completed my first Swiss first flight, and I thought it was 10/10. I paid 62,500 Lifemiles for SFO-ZRH and paid $1920 at check in to upgrade. It's more than I wanted to spend but $2000 was my limit, and I consider it a bucket list item. I got an escort from the Polaris lounge to the gate, which was not needed but a nice touch considering the lack of other services departing from a US airport. The seat is massive and the most comfortable aircraft seat I have been on. Both F flight attendants as well as the purser came by to greet me and wish me a nice flight. I'm not usually chatty but they were very personable and nice to talk to. They asked me if Zurich was my final destination and the First services available on landing. We chatted about skiing, which is why I came to Switzerland.

Meal service started promptly 25 minutes after takeoff and concluded 87 minutes after - I timed both. Even thought the flight was 10.5 hours, I appreciate a quick meal service that doesn't take 2-3 hours (ahem, BA). The food was wonderful, but I wouldn't say the best I've ever had. I'd say it's on pay with JAL or ANA business. For starters, I ordered the raw salmon, scallop, and parsnip puree. For the main, I had the beef. The main FA came around and offered everyone extra vegetables that were not on the menu, and she came back to give me more when I told her beets were my favorite. I had both the cheese course and dessert, where I chose cinnamon ice cream with ginger and plum.

I was in the window seat (1K) and the seat across the aisle was empty, so she asked me if it was okay if she made my bed over there. Of course it's okay! I had one of the best sleeps ever on a plane and slept solid for 6 hours. I'm a side sleeper, so having a wide bed was one of the main reasons I decided to upgrade.

For breakfast / lunch, they said I could order anything from today's menu or last night's, and the second FDA put together a very nice brunch. Same with dinner, the tray table, place setting, and presentation were all done to perfection.

Upon landing, the two FAs and purser again came by to thank me, and they gave me a full box of pralines to thank me for flying with them. It was such a nice touch as I told them Swiss chocolate is my favorite. The car transfer and private passport control were a nice touch, as someone near the baggage belt taking first class/HON luggage off the belt and onto a separate cart.

This was definitely one of the best flights of my life, especially for the things I look for in a good flight: simple no frills, fast service, bed and sleep. For reference, the only other true F I have flown is AA 777 and Korean 747.

Seat: 10/10
Food: 10/10
IFE: 7/10 (excellent large screen, but very outdated offerings)
Service: 10/10