Why SWISS short haul Business Class makes BA Club Europe look good

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Metty says:

  2 Feb2 February 12:48

  Connected via Zurich on Swiss last week to Thai > BKK and separate PNR to Chiang Mai.
  Have asked the wife for an opinion on the Swiss leg LHR-ZRH, bearing in mind that she thought her last business class trip Venice-LGW in Club Europe entailed a lay flat bed. So she is fairly ‘vanilla’.

  Check in at T2 miles better than BA/T5, agent rather good, explained all the lounge (and boarding gate) options and their relative merits. Bags checked through on separate PNR no problem. She even spotted my out of date status matched TK Gold tag and said that my FF number wasn’t in the system.

  Aircraft 1 hour late. Not Swiss’s problem as weather at LHR was terrible. On board, positive was the nice clean aircraft whereas BA’s are disgustingly dirty, negative was the cool CSD equivalent who seemed to have had a humour transplant. Food was equal to BA although it didn’t contravene the Trade Descriptions Act or whatever it is called these days….the omelette was cold but distinctly average, BA’s ‘Ploughmans’ is just a complete joke offering.

  Best was the connection info shown prior to landing. Like it or not, those on connections who had been rebooked were shown and those who hadn’t knew before landing, And after landing, all the way to the boarding gate for the next flight, the staff shepherded us in the correct direction.

  Overall consensus was Swiss no worse than BA and the airport staff either end made it feel like a better experience.

• KH says:

  2 Feb2 February 13:25

  Afraid I’ve had a rather miserable experience with SWISS without even leaving the ground. Booked flights for June to LHR-CFU via ZCH in P Class (promotional business class, restrictions ++) 11 months out. They emailed in Dec to say they had made changes to schedule – ok, this happens – but which, on checking, meant they had rescheduled us to fly out on different airline nearly 48 hours later to MUC, with a 40 min connection time, and returning on a day earlier, now with a random 2 day stopover in ZCH, on a different airline, on a mixed class ticket. Now this is what I would classify as a substantial change. I called them to say this wouldn’t work, suggesting sev. alternative schedules I had found (second legs in economy), and the agent refused to change on the basis that my alternative would feature a mixed class ticket. Called another agent who also refused to change on the basis of P fare class T&Cs. Throwing in the towel and admitting defeat on the trip, called a 3rd time to cancel tickets and this agent refused to refund on the basis of P fare class T&Cs. Finally a 4th agent agreed to cancel and refund … so the tickets are now gone. Still awaiting any refund however, 27 days later, despite calling to chase the money twice. I’m assured it might be with me any moment.

  • Joan says:

    3 Feb3 February 17:46

    That’s outrageous ! I’d be furious

• Anthony Dunn says:

  2 Feb2 February 15:55

  I’ve not flown Swiss for yonks but recent food offerings on BA to/from VIE and PMO have been really rather good and I do not make the comment lightly. As I routinely use the hand wipe then to clean my table/middle table, arm rests and window surround, I have also noticed that I am now seeing rather less grime than used to be the case. Perhaps the CC, having been no little embarrassed at the evidence I have shown them, have passed this onto the fleet maintenance and cleaning teams.

  I was one of those who routinely slated the utterly appalling crap-in-a-wrap alleged food offering in EuroTraveller; the volume of waste was ridiculous and an affront. Far better to give people the option of pre-purchase/bring onboard or M&S BoB in my mind.

  Oh, and one other comment. I recently cocked up a flight+hotel (for a part of the time) booking on BA.com. Got through to the BAEC Silver line and they made the changes for me immediately and at nil cost.

  There are some for whom BA is, apparently, the airline equivalent of the anti-Christ. Personally, I find them occasionally flawed and their LH product is woefully overdue a revamp, but, for the most part, pretty reliable. Of course, my fave remains CX, but that’s another thread.

• Kev says:

  3 Feb3 February 00:01

  I also flew on the 0600 flight in 1C with the plane nearly empty. Good for daytime connection to Tel Aviv but I agree the food was poor on board. Staff very pleasant but I snoozed most of the way. Plenty of chocolate bars available!
  Interesting that in the *Gold business lounge at Zurich there is a Whisky bar with loads of different whiskies to try (but not really my option at 9am) but no champagne just prosecco! Only in the First lounge I was told.

• DPS says:

  3 Feb3 February 22:03

  Last year I flew LX Business Class LHR-ZRH-DME and DME-ZRH-LHR for less than half the lowest WT (or even WT+ where available) fare BA wanted for non-stops on the A321, 777.or 747.

  The T2 lounge was no better than T5 and the seat and breakfast LHR-ZRH no better than CE, but the connection in ZRH was smooth (leaving from the adjacent gate) and the LX lounge notable for excellent soup, unlimited chocolate and a better choice of international press than I’ve ever fouind outside CX lounges in HKG! On the return, however, the LX lounge at DME was drab and the food unimaginative compared to the Navigator Lounge BA uses, the dinner on the DME-ZRH sector was lukewarm (although promptly replaced) and the ZRH-LHR picked up a delay of 2 hours that illustrated the downside of flying indirectly regardless of the huge saving in fare. On the plus side, arriving at T2 Gate A17 meant I was in my car far sooner than possible when BA parks at T5C!

• Alex Sm says:

  7 Feb7 February 00:26

  I think your review is slightly subjective – if you don’t like people bumping at you, why on Earth would you choose an aisle seat? I was on the same flight some time ago, chose 1A and didn’t have a wrinkle of a problem you described. The food was great – prooflink here: https://twitter.com/win_and_fly/status/961027906678984704. But the most important factor was price! It was a midweek flight to Moscow and back, with Swiss in Business it was £450 return while BA ‘To Fly, To Serve’ Economy (!) would have set me, or rather my employer, back eye-watering £600! Because of this stupid remnant Sat night stay rule with a mere egg sandwich and a liliput KitKat. So, I am saying that not because of Swiss but just to highlight that everything depends on individual priorities and preferences, honestly… and you could have reflected it a bit fairer.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.