Feb 23

Feb 23 Review - Swiss Business Class B777-300ER

How to get to Switzerland in style? One option is by flying Swiss in Business Class. I had the chance to try this mode of travel for a few of my trips and want to provide you with a general review of this product by combining my experiences into one article.

Swiss is said to be the premium airline of the Lufthansa Group and it shows! Especially if you opt for Business or First Class. Swissness in this case means understated elegance with an Alpine touch.

I am covering the Business Class cabin for the Boeing 777 - 300ER, which is the pride of the Swiss fleet. I should mention, though, that Swiss has finished refurbishing their A340s in January 2020. In fact, the whole long haul fleet of Swiss (A330, A340 and B777) now has the same cabin. Only the Boeing is a little wider allowing for a 2-2-2 configuration, rather than a 2-2-1 in Business Class.

On the ground at ZRH

The home base of Swiss is Zurich, and this beautiful city does have an equally beautiful airport: close to the city, easy to reach via excellent Swiss public transport, not too big, clean, nice cafés and restaurants that make it hard to justify buying Business Class only for the lounge access.

Before we get to the lounges, I want to mention the other benefits a Business Class passenger receives on the ground. First of all you can check in at the Business Class desks, which are manned by humans - friendly humans, btw - with no need to first print boarding pass or luggage tags by yourself at a machine. And usually much smaller queues. Next, you can use separate security lanes for Business and First customers - this will also save you a lot of time on busy days. First Class passengers can skip the whole security lane altogether by directly entering the A lounge through a dedicated entrance with their own security check.

Lounges Terminal A

Entrance of the Swiss Business Class A lounge - love it!

After my last review of the Swiss/Lufthansa Business lounge in terminal A, things have developed for the better. The A lounges were completely overhauled and there is even a new Alpine-themed lounge to solve the limited space problem of the existing lounge. These lounges represent everything I like about the Swiss design language: the use of natural materials, like wood and stone; understated - but high quality; clean - but not cold. Vitra designer seats, square lamps, and of course the beautiful signature walls made of Jura stone. I am simply a fan of alpine chic. And which airline should make use of it other than Swiss? (you could say Austrian, but they don’t seem to care about their mountains as much)

Looking down on the market hall of the Swiss Business Class lounge in A

I like both the normal and the Alpine lounge in terminal A, the latter now much more after the refurbishment. More space with nice quiet areas, plus the Swiss interior design. That being said, I still find it to be packed with people to the limit more often than not. In these cases I move to the Alpine lounge, which not everyone has discovered yet. Directly integrated into the normal A lounge is also the Senator lounge, which seems very similar with just a little more space. (Senator is a status in the frequent flier programme of Lufthansa/Swiss)

What sets these A lounges apart from other “short-haul” lounges is their live cooking stations. There is always one dish that is cooked fresh for you, in addition to a salad and cake buffet. Quality of food has been quite good, better than the usual Lufthansa Business lounge offering, but of course not on par with high quality restaurants (that can also be found in the airport). Drinks are nothing special. No Champagne, but coffee very good. Mövenpick ice cream is readily available, which is a nice Swiss touch.

How about some fresh sceambled eggs and a good coffee?

For the aviation fans among us, the Alpine lounge also has a little bit of the tarmac view that only the E lounges have offered before - but much less impressive.

Partly tarmac views from the Alpine lounge in terminal A

All Swiss lounges have sections for dining, working and relaxing. The bathrooms are nice and usually clean. Service is fast enough with picking up dirty plates and usually friendly, especially at the live cooking station.

See below a few more photos of the A lounges:

Lounges Terminal E

Terminal E is used for long haul or non-Schengen flights, so usually you won’t accidentally end up here when flying intra-Europe. Some frequent fliers actually go through passport control to exit and later re-enter Schengen just for the whisky bar in the Senator lounge in E. But even the Business lounge has some advantages to the ones in terminal A: better views of the tarmac, more space and showers.

The First Lounge in E is the crown jewel. Experts have said that only the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt was better. But more on that in a First Class review.

I hope to be able to provide photos of the E lounges soon!

Lounges Terminal D

These are the not the best lounges Swiss has to offer. Again you have one for Business and one for Senator customers and both are similarly small and featureless. They are meant for transferring passengers not within Schengen airspace. I urge you to use either the A or the E lounges whenever possible.

Arrivals Lounge

For breakfast and shower after a long flight, Swiss is one of the few carriers to offer an arrival lounge. As the name suggests, only arriving passengers can enter this lounge, which is located right after customs control when exiting. Also, you have to have travelled on Swiss with Business or First Class flight or hold one of the higher Miles&More status levels. I found the breakfast to be very solid with cold and warm options and with a barista-made coffee and the latest newspaper. There are plenty of showers and a few relaxation rooms as well (they have real twin beds in there). This lounge is only open in the morning from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm.

I had a decent breakfast in the Swiss Arrival lounge

Geneva (GVA) - Lounges

Considering its international importance regarding UN-related work (anyone needs to conduct peace talks on neutral grounds or handle a virus outbreak?), the field of science (CERN), organising Olympic games (IOC) or re-inventing coffee (Nestlé) the “capital” of the French part of Switzerland is treated by Swiss as a small outstation. (I guess UN-people have their own planes?) Thus the lounges in Geneva are not that spectacular. They do have the Swiss design style and have recently been renovated, but are otherwise quite small and don’t offer many amenities.

Other Airports

New York JFK - this is one of only two airports where Swiss operates their own branded lounge outside of Switzerland. It’s currently under renovation and will be modelled after its counterpart in ZRH.

Chicago ORD - Chicago also got the Swiss treatment, but nothing special to see here.

In other outstations, Swiss premium travellers are bound to use the Lufthansa equivalent lounge (or other partners).

The Swiss Business Class Cabin

Let’s check out the Business Class cabin in the B777! Getting there from the lounge is usually a breeze, since Zurich airport is small enough to have short walking distances from most lounges and if you are travelling from the further away E terminal, you’ll hopefully be in the E lounge already. This terminal is reachable via famous “Heidi train”, which is the short subway ride from terminal E to the main building. In 2020 they installed new LED technology outside the train window with a real movie showing, replacing the old flicker book where yodelling and mooing put you into Heidi mood. Now you can watch HD videos of the Swiss alps, instead. The yodelling was getting old, anyway. Mood is still being set.

The Business cabin of the Swiss B777-300ER has 62 seats that are aligned in a staggered configuration in Business Class. The center section of each row has two seats, with the layout staggered in every other row.

Along the windows the cabin alternates between having one seat per side (the so called “Throne”) and having two seats per side. The solo “throne” has a lot more space and is thus preferable for single travellers. To reserve such a seat can cost up to 185$ extra, though. Sometimes you get lucky by not choosing a seat before check-in and have it automatically assigned to you.

Jacket hanger on on Swiss Business Class (wish they had them for short-haul, too)

Yes, I did try the massage function. It’s fine, but definitely not a killer argument for the seat.

A large enough screen in Swiss Business Class

How did I sleep?

This cabin is fine for sleeping, but has some minor issues that might bother some people. The relatively hard mattress without a soft topper, like you get in some other Business Classes. The firmness can be adjusted electronically, but it might not be enough. I am fine with hard mattresses, though. I was more disturbed by the narrow footrest.

If you want to turn around while sleeping, you might have a problem. The double seats are not much better in this regard. It’s not a show stopper for me, but if you want to have the real bed feeling in Swiss, you need to fly First. At least I didn’t feel claustrophobic, which I did in the Lufthansa Business Class.

View from the Business Class Throne seat

Amenity Kit

The old amenity bag seen above has now been replaced by Victorinox-made bags, which seem much nicer. The content hasn’t changed much and is not that special, see this review (yes, there are whole reviews of amenity kits out there - bless the internet). You also don’t get pyjamas in Swiss long-haul Business Class - in First you get ones from the high-end Swiss brand Zimmerli.

Dining

Start your flight with a Champagne. It gets you in the right mood for a pampering experience. Swiss serves Duval-Leroy Brut, which is not the highest-rated Champagne on the planet. I find it quite refreshing, anyway.

The wine list is quite nice and usually includes local Swiss options as well, which I like trying.

Swiss has a changing theme every four months for their menus corresponding to a different region or canton of Switzerland. I love the local touch.

On 6 - 7 hour (night) flights you get a light midnight meal and breakfast shortly before landing, e.g. to Dubai or New York. On longer flights between 10 - 12 hours, e.g. to San Francisco or Tokyo, you get a full lunch or dinner and a full breakfast with mid-flight snacks. The photos below are from a shorter flight from Dubai to Zurich.

As Nespresso was invented in Switzerland, that’s the coffee on board for Business passengers. I like it - it could be worse!

The food on Swiss Business is usually of high quality and taste is quite good.

Entertainment

The IFE at Swiss has gotten better over the years (Emirates is still king regarding amount of content, though), now offering over 90 films and 170 TV programmes. I usually found the choice to be to my taste and have not much to complain about - your mileage may vary, of course. The screen size and resolution in Business is sufficient and the handheld can run different applications on its small screen. I used that feature to have the flight map on while watching a movie on the big screen.

Internet on Swiss has high prices and Busines Class or status passengers don’t get a discount. First passengers get a coupon for 50 MB, worth 19 CHF - oh great, I just handed over about 10k CHF for First Class and all I get is 50 MB? Reminds me of this. Here are the prices:

20 MB for 9 CHF (~9 USD)
50 MB for 19 CHF (~19 USD)
120 MB for 39 CHF (~40 USD)
220 MB for 59 CHF (~60 USD)

I can’t comment on the speed or reliability, but I assume it’s similar to my Emirates experience, which was hit or miss.

Service

Swiss culture means efficiency, but always remain polite and friendly. (in contrast: German culture means efficiency <fullstop>) This translates to service in Switzerland in general and of course on flights with Swiss. I mostly got intelligent, genuine and attentive service. I always felt taken care of, though not in an intrusive kind. If you compare it to Asian or Middle-Eastern service culture, you could say that in Switzerland you are expected to do some things by yourself and be self-responsible - in Asia it is expected that you know nothing and need help every step of the way (even if not needed). Both is fine for me - I also like to relax and let go of all worries. But some people interpret the missing of the latter to be bad service. I can be happy with both - as long as there is respect toward the customer. Service-level in Europe is hit or miss, Swiss has been more often a hit for me.

Summary

Airline
Class	Business Class (Intercontinental)
Aircraft	Boeing B777-300ER
Good	Tasteful, understated interior design on the ground and in the air in line with the Swiss alpine luxury branding (I like natural materials vs. bling-bling) ZRH - one of the finest airports in the world Ground experience is world-class, with great lounges (even in Terminal A now) Service is efficient and a tad friendlier than Lufthansa - some would say a lot friendlier - some would state the exact opposite Food, wine, Champagne, inflight entertainment: all as expected, nothing super-special
Bad	The seat is certainly a worthy long-haul Business Class seat, but it has some potential: narrow footrest, hard mattress, lack of privacy, especially for the non-throne seats when you are a solo traveller Amenity kit: content could be improved Restrooms: the usual standard eco restrooms - why not differentiate here and add some alpine chic? Most outstation lounges are partner lounges that are far inferior to the home base (most airlines have this problem, still is a "problem" in my view)
CT Points	95

Swiss has an exceptional ground experience in Zurich, certainly one of the best in Europe and comparable to the best in the world. In the air, the Business Class is pretty great as well, but there is no wow-factor. I like the tasteful understated design, that is not easy to find among airlines and the friendly and efficient service. I would fly Swiss Business Class again in a heartbeat. But I expect the real Swiss indulgence to only be had by flying First.