I had the opportunity to fly Swiss Airlines Business Class in November 2022 while traveling for an urgent commitment in New York. Although I try to avoid spending on business class, on extremely long flights it sometimes becomes essential to spend that extra buck if you can, to try to ensure your well-being and comfort, especially if you are traveling alone. In my blog post below I will tell you all about my experience, from the booking to the lounges and of course details about the flight.
Decadent Diaries Tips:
As per my experience, their website is quite wonky and payment methods do not go through online so be ready to give their customer care a call to make your booking.
Try to get throne seats as they are the best seats on the flight, especially if you are traveling alone. It is usually chargeable to reserve in advance unless you are a high-tier senate club member, but I have written below the method I used to try my luck to get it for free.
You need to beat the jet lag when you are traveling on such a long-haul flight. The tip is to trick your body into sleeping on the flight at such a time when it is nighttime at your arrival destination. For eg. during departure, my flight from Mumbai was at 5:30 am. This meant I naturally stayed awake till around 6-6:30 am when the flight had completed its ascent. That is when I finally went to sleep as it was now nighttime in New York. And you must sleep as much as possible (I slept for 6 hours). And then after that stay awake and not sleep when it's daytime in your arrival country. This method works for me and I am somehow able to beat jet lag. I have faced a lot of issues when I have not followed this method and jet lag has lasted for days.
Do take advantage of your connection at Zurich airport to buy yourself premium Swiss chocolates, cheeses and other Swiss treats.
BOOKING
The website of Swiss is very tedious if you try to book from India. No matter how hard I tried my credit card was not being accepted online. I had never faced this issue before on any international airline website. Then I called up Swiss customer care and they told me that they will send a link on which to make a payment. As 30 minutes had passed between my last attempt and my phone call, I had to repeat the entire process of booking over call as they could not retrieve the details I filled online, with a very laid-back agent slowly taking down all my details again. Overall, I found the booking experience quite frustrating and not well organized. Even the link for payment they send is of some third party so for a second you are a little puzzled that whether it is authentic or not. However as Swiss was the only one offering the lowest fare at the last minute, hence I had no other option but to go along with the booking process.
SEATS
The airplanes during my journey were all Airbus A 330 - 300s. The business class has an alternating 1-2-1 and 2-2-1 configuration. The 1-2-1 configuration results in some extra special seats called throne seats.
In Pic - Throne Seat 10A
The seat numbers for these throne seats usually are 4A, 6A, 8A, 10A and 12A (check out SeatGuru or the seat reservations page of Swiss Air in your booking to have a look at it.) As these are extra special seats, they cost extra to reserve in advance and are only free for some high-tier hon-circle members of Swiss Air. Having already paid a bomb for the ticket I was not willing to spend the extra buck. I was able to get the free reservation of individual K-row seats for 2 of my 4 flights, however, in the Mumbai-Zurich, Zurich - New York sectors I was not able to get individual row seating. So I selected one of the double-configuration seats for backup and kept it. I kept on checking the seat chart daily on the Swiss Air "manage booking page" hoping for some single seats to open up. I was lucky in the Zurich - New York sector that few individual K-row seats opened up 3 - 4 days before my planned departure. But still no luck on the Mumbai - Zurich sector. There were throne seats (chargeable) still unreserved in the Mumbai - Zurich sector so I did some research online to understand how to go about getting these coveted seats for free as K-row seats were still unavailable. As I would be sleeping and going on that flight I ideally did not want anyone seated next to me for privacy and safety reasons. The trick that I followed was going in for check-in exactly 24 hours before departure when check-in opens. That means I put an alarm and got up at 5:30 am the morning before my flight (Exactly 24 hours before my flight) and did my check-in online. By following this method I was lucky enough to get one of the coveted throne seats for free in the Mumbai - Zurich sector! Throne seats become free of charge to reserve during online check-in period. Do note that the method and rules of check-in change from time to time so please keep updated on the Swiss Air website.
BOARDING AND FLIGHT
I proceeded to the gate about a half hour early, as it takes some time to walk to the gate. There was of course a separate boarding line for first and business class. So I boarded the plane and arrived at my extremely spacious throne seat, seat number 10 A.
The business class of the flight I was on is quite dated and basic. Compared to the business-class comforts of the likes of Emirates and Etihad, Swiss Business is not that hi-fi. The business class cabin has black upholstered seats with wooden panels and white side tables. There was a pillow provided, a bottle of water, a freshly packed blanket and headphones.
They provide an amenity kit in tie-up with Victorinox. If you are lucky you will get one of their silver or black pencil box-type kits, which are great to take home and store stuff in. The kit although well designed was quite basic but contained all the essentials such as an eye mask, warm socks, pen, dental kit and earplugs. Many airlines do provide moisturizers and perfume as well in their business class amenity kits but not in Swiss. There are individually adjustable reading lights on the left of every seat, a plug point and an earphone point for the screen.
There are buttons for adjustment of the cushion firmness of your seat and also for adjusting your seat into the lounging and fully flat bed positions.
The screen is quite small compared to other airlines and lacks adequate brightness. The entertainment selection is also quite restricted compared to other airlines. The throne seat however was quite spacious as it had two side tables, one on either side and two storage areas near the screen one on either side. A hanger was also provided with a seat number in case one wanted to check in their coats with the flight crew. However, what Swiss may lack in modern features in their cabins, it makes up for in service and food. The service is absolutely excellent. The cabin crew make sure to make you as comfortable as possible. They take the time to talk to you and understand your preferences. While traveling on the Mumbai - Zurich segment, I decided not to have anything to eat. I had received a personalized card for ticking my breakfast options but I told the lady I would prefer to sleep. When I woke up I was pleasantly surprised to find a Lindt Lindor chocolate on my side table. I thanked the lady for the same and then in the last hour of the flight I looked out of my window for the amazing views. I was pleasantly surprised by the cabin crew lady once again as she gave me a handful more of those chocolates as she saw how much I liked them. It was a very sweet gesture because she paid personal attention to me and it made me feel special.
Do not forget to look out your window in the last hour of your flight. I was able to see clearly the Alps and the mountain ranges were so beautiful covered in snow and just so scenic. Overall the flight was also quite smooth without much turbulence. We landed in Zurich and the disembarkment was also quite smooth.
SWISS BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE
To read about the same click here.
SECOND FLIGHT
On my second flight from Zurich to New York, the cabin was exactly the same configuration as my first flight.
On this flight all the throne seats were reserved well in advance, I sat at seat number 11K. This was an individual seat however unlike my previous seat, it had only one side table. Check SeatGuru before you book these seats, as this seat had more privacy than the seat behind me as the side table was on the right near the window as opposed to my left. So my seat gave a more enclosed feeling compared to seat 12K.
On this flight, we got a more eco-friendly amenity kit from Victorinox in a cloth pouch. As I had freshened up at the airport lounge, on this flight I decided to stay awake and enjoy the food and beverage services.
I enjoyed some assorted nuts with juice and I followed it up with only the main course of the meal as opposed to the full 3 courses offered (I did not want to eat heavily on a long flight).
The vegetarian main course was this amazing potato rosti topped with a creamy mushroom sauce and sliced seitan. It had a side of broccoli and carrot. There was also crusty bread and Swiss butter provided which I used to lap up the remaining delicious sauce left from my main course. The vegetarian menu in Swiss Airlines is designed by Haus Hiltl in Zurich, the oldest and most famous vegetarian restaurant in Switzerland. Having eaten there many times in Zurich, it was a delightful treat to experience their food again on the flight.
For dessert, I chose the option to just have an ice cream from the bistro menu. They serve Movenpick ice cream which is one of the most famous ice cream brands of Switzerland. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. The cherry on top was that they have a stash of Swiss snacks (chocolates, biscuits, chips, etc.) available for one to browse through. It is kept in a small corner nearby the service area of food. I appreciate the fact that they try to represent the best of Switzerland in everything they do. Be it their meal service, airport lounge or their amenity kits.
I watched a few movies and took a short nap and before I knew it, it was time to land. There was another snack meal service around 2 hours before landing which I avoided even though it was quite inviting. We landed around 45 minutes before schedule and the pilot very proudly announced the same. However, after a few minutes the pilot informed us that our JFK terminal does not have any open gate for disembarkment. So for 35 minutes we just kept circling the airport until our plane was allowed to park. At JFK there was no separate line for business/first class so it took some time to clear immigration.
RETURN JOURNEY
RETURNING FLIGHT AND REVISITING THE SWISS LOUNGE AT ZURICH AIRPORT
The return flights were exactly the same and the menu options were also similar. Service was as usual excellent. When I landed at Zurich, I first headed to buy some Kagi chocolate packs (one of the best chocolate-covered wafers you will ever have) and some Rivella bottles to enjoy at home. Then I headed to the lounge and this time I tried some lunch options.
I had the lasagne, I enjoyed the wonderful creamy butter with the bread again and I also tried some mixed salads. Then I freshened up and brushed my teeth ready to board the next flight. The confusing part of Zurich airport is that the passport check is pretty unorganized, you need to head to a separate counter for the passport check and come back with a blue stamp and then head to your gate. This is never specified so everyone came into the gate without the blue stamp. We were then informed to go and get the same and thankfully they had a separate line for business and first class so it did not take long there as well. I then boarded my second flight and tried to stay awake to sync myself back to Indian time. Once it was getting to nighttime as per Indian time, I took a nap to try to get my body readjusted to sleeping at this time.
I then woke up peckish and not having eaten anything much throughout the flight except for a couple of snacks from the snack basket, I decided to have the bistro meal of the vegan mushroom momos with spinach, pickled pumpkin and radish by Tenz from Switzerland. I'm glad I opted for this option because it was absolutely fantastic. There was a small bottle of chili oil provided and I doused the entire bottle on the momos and just savored each bite. Once we landed at Mumbai airport there was a bit of a walk (like always) to the immigration counters. You can however book in advance the buggy for a cost to drive you through that long path between the gate and the immigration area. At the immigration counter thankfully there was again a separate counter for first and business class and was able to clear it pretty quickly, I got my bags and was just glad to be back home.
Overall if I had to summarise my experience I would do it as follows:
POSITIVES
The flight timing is good. Helps you beat the jet lag. (read the tips given above)
The throne seats are quite spacious
The food on the flight and Zurich lounge was excellent
Gives you a taste of Switzerland in everything they do from the food, to the amenity kits etc.
Cabin crew service is excellent
Usually has better rates than other similar airlines
NEGATIVES
Seats are dated compared to other flights
Difficult online booking from India
No value-added services like chauffeurs etc. like on Emirates.
Everything said and done, my overall experience with Swiss was pretty positive, as I do like Swiss hospitality and food. I hope you were able to get an idea of what it is like to travel on Swiss. Thank you for reading.❤️
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