Trip Report: Swiss Boeing 777 Zurich to Bangkok Business Class

I was really looking forward to the Swiss Boeing 777-300ER when I wanted to get to Asia: I flew from Zurich to Bangkok in Business Class having arrived of a connection flight from Oslo, so I was already airside, and in the Schengen area to boot, so I had a chance to sample some of the excellent lounges at Swiss' Zurich hub.

The Swiss International Air Lines Boeing 777-300 ER (to give it its full proper name) has been getting glowing reviews, and the 300ER - for extended range - is the biggest of aircraft.

The layout is a little unusual, with a staggered 2 plus 2 plus 1 layout and that causes all sorts of problems with only a few of the seats having direct aisle access.

However there is also the delight to look forward to with four lounges at the Zurich hub including the famous Senator lounge with a whisky bar.

Swiss Business Class Lounge Zurich

The Lounge is right in the middle of the concourse at Zurich.

The lounge has a great bar, open kitchen, and a quiet area with large TVs.

However, the facilities are nearly identical to the neighbouring senator lounge, with which the lounge shares many similarities, catering, and bar.

I had access to both with a Star Alliance Gold Card, and indeed at one time both lounges were one, with the famous longest airport bar in the world. That's now gone, and the lounge is split into two - so you get the feeling of visiting 'half' a lounge, and seeing the other half, the Senator side, through a glass wall. Even the central circular balcony area has been split: it's rather like a Berlin Wall of Zurich.

The Zurich A gates Swiss Business Class Lounge has a "front-cooking" concept, with hot dishes prepared on demand in an open kitchen. This looks great, but certainly adds to the noise in thehuge market hall-style food area, with industrial aluminium pipes and an open kitchen at one end. Busy, frantic, and noisy, it is not at all relaxing.

The bar in the Swiss Business Class Lounge Zurich A gates is very good indeed, mainly thanks to the excellent choice of beer and wine.

There is plenty of Swiss and German beer: wheat, dark, all the usual variants, it's all here, and the collection of wines is amazing. However, I was saving myself for the bar at the E gates.

The oddest, can certainly most unique feature, is the meeting room, where the table contains a relief map of the alps, right in the centre.

There is also an odd little outdoor smoking corridor.

On a non-Schengen flight you can visit here first, go past the bars downstairs, and take the underground walkway then the train to the remote terminal to the E gate lounges.

My Boeing 777 departs from the E gates, which has a superb outdoor terrace having superb Alpine views. There's even the unique Swiss airline children's playground up here.

Zurich SWISS Airlines Senator Lounge Concourse E

The Lounge has a spacious feel with great natural light, a live cooking station with dishes prepared to order, buffet dining, and a great self-serve bar.

Although very similar to the Business Class lounge next door, it has two great perks, the Whisky and Cocktail bar, and a great snooze area. There is also another superb outdoor terrace, with views of the Alps.

The Zurich Swiss Senator Lounge at Terminal E quite simply IS the 28/10 Whisky Club. It may seem an odd choice for Zurich, which isn't known for it's Whisky tasting but few other airports have this!

The 28/10 bar is named after the airport's main runway, which is also painted onto the far wall: the layout is seen in the design of the shelving behind the bar.

The bar itself showcases some 120 different whiskies from around the world, and there is a manual on the bar top, explaining all the different choices. The collection includes five locally-distilled malts.

If you don't want a drink here to combat the zigurat of life... you can head to the main part of the lounge, which has a wine fridge, and bottles of beer.

There are also two draft beer taps - and thankfully lessons from the lounge staff in how to pour a beer.

Also in the lounge you can enjoy the giddy heights of swiss theatre cooking for the masses, and a huge coffee machine.

The design is exquisite, and a modern take on SWISS' traditional dá?cor. It combines the airline's signature touches such as hardwood floors, Vitra furniture and a small wall made of Jura limestone, again from the Alps.

In the Zurich SWISS Airlines Senator Lounge Concourse E tThere are squishy, comfortable armchairs flanked by small side tables, which all have a built-in universal power outlet and individual lamps. The whole area gives a feeling of quiet serenity, particularly at dusk with the distant light over the Alps. There are also commercial displays here, typically for Swiss watchmakers, and some modern art which can be a bit disorienting.

Zurich SWISS Airlines Business Lounge Concourse E

I had a look at the business lounge next door too.

It's pretty much identical, except for the deeply traumatic lack of a bar, and the addition of odd dentist wating room chairs around the entrance.

Carrying on the dentist waiting room style, biggest feature is the huge waiting room with lots of dark brown leather armchairs. There is a self serve drinks cabinet, two more beer taps, and a salad bar.

Swiss Boeing 777-300ER Business Class

Even though the boards showed last and final call, there was a fair ammount of drama at the gate, and no sign of boarding. It turned out a lot of Senator wanted to be upgraded.

I also couldn't board my flight to bangkok without an onward boarding card which checking couldnt print. However oddly, the gate could.

I in turn, having purchased business class was offered an upgrade to Firstclass - with the tiny sting in the tale of a bill of an extra thousand euro. I polietly declined.

Alas there was no hope of getting a good solo throne seats, but I was assured the seat next to me was kept empty.

Or so I thought.

That's actually crucial, because Swiss still have 2 plus 2 plus 2 seating, with every other row having a solo seat - without that solo seat, you need to step over a passenger to get out in the night.

Sure enough, I sat down, the person next to me was part of a couple who had just been upgraded.

They asked if I wouldn't mind changing seats - as they had a big seat at the back - I took it, to find it was a 2+2 seat again, but over the wing.

Now the 2+2 seats aren't bad, and they do recline to a fully flat bed.

Swiss has a Business class featuring a cabin alternates between a 1-2-2 and a 2-2-1 configuration. This means every row has one so-called "throne" seat alone by the windows, two seats in the middle, and a pair of seats on the other side of the plane.

Alas, even for Gold Star Alliance members, Swiss charge nearly 200 pounds to reserve the throne seats.

Beside the seat a flap lifts to show the remote - which has a screen so you can put the inflight map on that.

There are also rather unique buttons for the lumbar, and you can choose a hard or soft option.

The soft option inflates an airbag, but mine was broken, and I was to endure the next 14 hours sitting on the hgard frame of the seat without an padding.

Now lots of passengers swear by the Swiss seat, but I just swore at it.

When I tried to change seats again the crew just shrugged.

The sheer lack of storage is one of the biggest problems of this seat configuration, but there is a small flap under the TV with a tiny compartment.

There was also a button at the top, which released the tray table. This doubled as a privacy divider.

However, as I found, if you put anything on the centre table when folding down the seat, you hear a crunch of broken glass.

Another drawback to this relatively common staggered configuration is that you have to fit your feet into a small footwell when it's time to sleep.

Another annoying aspect of the seat is the shoulder harness seatbelt that's used, which is uncomfortable to wear normally and also to sleep on

I had a look at economy: a 3-4-3 configuration, with 270 seats and a 32 inch pitch.

Plus the new premium economy, with an unusual 2-4-2 layout.

Swiss Business Class Amenity kits

Full Victorinox amenity kits are available, in a cheap plastic pouch. Just the bare minimum included with, lip balm, toothbrush, toothpaste.

Swiss Business Class IFE - In flight entertainment

The in-flight entertainment has a decent, large, high definition screen, and which was actually working properly. Somewhat of a rarity on my recent flights.

The selection left a lot to be desired and I struggled to find something to watch. The TV options were especially bad, with none of the classic sitcoms you can usually expect to find on even the most mediocre airlines.

Unlike the headphones which were broken, and it took the crew about an hour to get me a new set.

Swiss Business Class service

Even before the captain announced that boarding was complete, the crew came down the aisles with a tray of pre-flight drinks. Virtually everyone selected a glass of champagne, but by the time I was reached - in the very last row - there were only two glasses of water left. I asked for Champagne, and she said she'd have to open another bottle, just for me. However, a few minutes later, she came back with menus, and I had to ask again. Then a second time. I finally got my champagne just as we turned onto the active runway.

Swiss Business Class inflight drink service

After takeoff the drinks service began. However, the drinks trolley took a long time to get to me. It started at the front of the cabin 20 minutes after takeoff, but if was another 30 minutes before it got to me.

I had a gin and tonic, with Swiss gin.

The winelist looked amazing:

• Swiss Blanc du Ciel Assemblage from Valais, a mix of Pinot Gris and Chardonnay
• German Riesling Weingut von Winning Pfatz Riesling
• Dole de Monts Valais from Garmay
• Cote du rhone Perrin

The lackadaisical habits extended to the wine, when I was just offered red or white - but it turned out wine was the Swiss Blanc du Ciel Assemblage from Valais, a mix of Pinot Gris and Chardonnay Now Valais is lovely from the Rhone Valley vineyards. Light in body its a fruit driven white. It really was a standout.

Swapping on to the Cote du rhone Perrin.

The Soft delicate tannins started to make me feel much better.

Beer was the AppenZeller Amber. A great swiss beer, it has a light finish of bittering hops.

Swiss Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Meals

Decent, large and solid menus are at the seats.

There was also a card with breakfast selections, with the two pieces conveniently held together by a pen, so you can preorder your breakfast.

Entre

• Fennel and orange salad with vanilla dressing and toasted pine nuts
• Marinated tuna and wasabi mayonnaise

Mains

• Vegetable tikka masala with planted chicken
• Veal tenderloin with cheese crust and just plus Schupfnudeln and marinated fava beans
• Chicken cordon bleu with potato gratin
• Cod with tomato beurre blanc and basil oil

Selection of cheese from Valais: Gommer and Rahm Mutschli cheese with Swiss pear bread

White chocolate mousse with poppy sees and passion fruit gel

The crew - by the time they got to me, they'd become the west end girls - just told me my choice was unavailable, the only option left for the entree was the Fennel and onion salad with pine nuts. Insipid with little flavour, I held out higher hopes for the mains.

Everything was served on one tray - even the cheese - adding to the cheap, hurried feel of the inflight meals.

Moving onto the main course, there was Veal tenderloin with cheese crust and jus plus Schupfnudeln and marinated fava beans.

Blink and you'll miss it - it's cuisine with just a tiny serving. Clearly Swiss don't want you to put any weight on during this flight.

However, the Schupfnudeln or German potato noodles - were amazing. Drenched with melted garlic butter, these little potato fingernudel made the ultimate side dish.

Normally I avoid Veal but it's pretty good. Light, delicate, with lots of flavour.

For dessert I selected the white chocolate mousse cake with poppy sees and passion fruit gel. While the cake itself was rather dry, the sauce added a delicious boost of flavour.

I turned on the light just to eat it, as most people had had their food a couple of hours before me, and we were now well down past tiblisi and heading for mosel with the cabin dark.

The crew were noticeably attentive at the front of the 62-person cabin - but far less impressive for those at the back.

My seat mate had refused all food, and went straight to sleep blocking me in.

I just could not sleep on the appalling seat, so I tried to raise the crew. After waiting for 20 minutes with the call bell sign on, I had to lever myself over the body next to me, and checked out the decent, if totally unremarkable bathrooms, and asked the crew for a beer.

There didn't seem to be any sort of mid-flight snack menu, one area where I've been consistently disappointed on my recent flights.

I then tried to sleep. There is just a tiny pillow on the hard, solid, seatframe. And a tiny blanket too, but not an issue considering the cabin was turned up to acclimatise us to the steamy and sticky heat of Bangkok.

I'd just about achieved this, when the lights snapped on, and it was time for breakfast.

Two options for Breakfast, with either the Swiss breakfast with cold cuts and cheeses. Or, the English breakfast with a hot egg based dish.

Prtions are still tiny, but thank goodness I did ask for both.

While the English breakfast is a croissant, with the Swiss air version of a full english breakfast, in a dish with an 'egg based' dish. Mushrooms in there. There is bacon too.

No butter though - and no milk either - which for an Australian is a blue blooded murder of the English breakfast tea.

Swiss Business Class Boeing 777 review

So how did I find the Swiss international Airlines Boeing 777 experience?

It's a bit of a mixed bar, particularly as this flight can cost around four thousand swiss francs - that's about three and a half grand GBP - but I brought the price down to less than a grand by flying out of a Scandinavian airport, doing the first leg on SAS and then linking from Bangkok to Singapore on Jetstar - as part of an integrated ticket. It's not a trip for a novice but it brings the price down considerable - at the cost of another day in the air.

Weeks later, I got a reply to my email asking for compensation for the non working seat. Bizarrely, this was turned down, on the surprising grounds that apparently I had asked to move to the seat, and had refused the cabin crews offer to sit elsewhere in the aircraft.

The journey itself was 'OK', but only just.

The Swiss lounges at Zurich are a delight. Really good, and well worth a visit.

But the seat was a nightmare. Passengers shouldn't be forced to hop over other sleeping passengers to get to the aisle anyway. But it was broken - and I had a really uncomfortable ride to Bangkok. I couldn't sleep at all, the blanket is small and heavy and the pillow far too small...

The crew were grumpy - but then they didn't want to be on the aircraft anyway.

But the food was remarkable good.

In general then I'll put it down to a one off bad experience.

See the full Trip Report: Swiss Boeing 777 Zurich to Bangkok Business Class video:

Trip Report: Swiss Boeing 777 Zurich to Bangkok Business Class
Lux-traveller.com rating:7 out of10
Seats:	2 - As bad as it gets
Food:	6 - Surprisingly good
Service:	4 - Woefuly, getting better
IFE:	5 - OK, not the best