As I shared in an earlier instalment, for our return flight back to Singapore after our European holiday, we opted to fly SWISS from Milan via Zurich. SWISS Business was something I’d been wanting to tick off for awhile, and 2 cancelled redemptions – one of which was caused by a technical fault on a positioning flight – only made the itch worse. I was glad to finally try SWISS after the failed attempts.
While SWISS Business Class is not class-leading in terms of both hard and soft product, I felt it was still a pretty solid offering. That positive impression was helped by the fact we managed to secure bulkhead seats in the forward mini-cabin. I have no doubt the experience would have been slightly worse had we been seated elsewhere. I wouldn’t go out of my way to fly SWISS again if I’m paying my own way, but would definitely look for redemptions (which are extremely hard to find). Overall, we were both pretty happy with the SWISS experience.
Let’s dive into this review of SWISS Business Class on their 777-300ER!
Booking
As briefly mentioned in the earlier instalment of the MXP-ZRH leg, we booked a one-way Business Class ticket directly with SWISS, with an itinerary of MXP-ZRH-SIN. It was not cheap, over SGD2K. However, when I compared against other traditionally cheap European origin points such as Oslo, the premium for our travel dates was just a couple of hundred. Therefore it made sense to end our holiday in Milan, and spend a few days in Milan itself.
To be honest, we probably overpaid. I probably would not repeat this routing again, at least not at this level of pricing.
Senator Lounge ‘E’
We had built in a nearly 7h transit in Zurich. After the technical fault which grounded our Helvetic aircraft in Heathrow in May, and caused us to miss our ZRH-SIN redemption, I didn’t want to take any chances. In any case the long transit would give us enough time to visit Zurich city and spend time in the Senator Lounge ‘E’.
I’ve done a full review of the lounge here, so I’ll just summarise a few details in this section. As its name suggests, the Senator Lounge ‘E” is in the ‘E’ pier of Zurich Airport, where long-haul non-Schengen flights depart from. This requires taking the Skymetro people mover from the main terminal to ‘E’ pier. The lounge was located above gate level. The reception area is shared with the Business Lounge next door.
A SWISS Business Class ticket normally only gets access to the Business Lounge, however with my Star Alliance Gold status we could access the Senator Lounge. The Senator Lounge also welcomes Miles & More Senators and First Class passengers from non-LH Group airlines such as Singapore Airlines. For LH Group First Class passengers, they can access the flagship First Class Lounge instead.
The lounge has a few different zones, for lounging, resting and dining. The seating in the lounging area mainly consisted of low-backed armchairs with a side table, where a multitude of different power socket types could be found.
The resting areas had some loungers in pods, however the area seemed a little too brightly lit for a good rest.
The dining area had proper dining tables, as well as a long bar counter by the window.
In terms of food and beverage offering, there was a cold buffet featuring salads and desserts, and a live cooking station offering up 3 types of dishes as seen on the menu below:
While the selection of food wasn’t very wide, the quality was quite good. We had a heavy dinner while in town, so food wasn’t really top of our agenda on this lounge visit.
The drinks selection was quite wide, with all the usual soft drinks, wines, liquors and coffee. The quality of wines wasn’t too great however.
One unique feature in the Senator Lounge ‘E’ is the Whisky Club 28/10. This was a whisky bar offering over 200 types of whiskies. The staff manning the bar was lovely, offering recommendations and encouraging us to try as many varieties as we wanted.
The best feature of the lounge for avgeeks is probably the open air terrace. Leica binoculars are provided too.
The lounge has showers, which are located outside the lounge itself and opposite the reception desk. These were shared with the Business Lounge, so they might get busy.
Overall, I found the Senator Lounge ‘E’ a nice place to relax before a flight. It has all the amenities expected of a good lounge. The food selection could be wider, but the quality mostly made up for it. I wouldn’t go extra early for this lounge, but I wouldn’t mind a couple of hours in the lounge. Both the Whisky Club 28/10 and the open air terrace seemed like great spots to kill a bit of time.
My only major complaint would be the lounge closing time of 10pm. While the late departures to Singapore, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and Johannesburg should have commenced boarding by then, this didn’t happen in practice. A few extra minutes to wait in the lounge would have been welcome, especially for those who prefer to board later.
Boarding
With everyone herded out of the lounge by 10pm, we headed to our gate E43 where LX176 was departing from. This was just a few metres away from the lift we came from. However, we found that boarding had not commenced at 9.55pm as stated on our boarding passes. Frankly this didn’t surprise me, as I have yet to find to an airline that consistently commences boarding as scheduled. Unsurprisingly, the queue for Group 2 boarding was extremely long. This group consisted of Business Class, Senators and Star Alliance Gold members.
Boarding finally commenced at around 10.15pm. We waited for most of the Group 2 queue to clear before joining in. From there, it was a walk down a ramp to the aerobridge to board HB-JNE, the 7.5 year old 777-300ER that was operating LX176 this evening.
Onboard
We boarded through door 2 and were directed across the galley and left to our seats. SWISS’ 777s are configured with 4-class: First, Business, Premium Economy and Economy. Business Class has 62 seats spread over 2 cabins. The forward mini cabin between First and door 2 has 10 seats, with the remainder in the much larger rear cabin.
For this flight, we had managed to snag 4J and 4K, a pair of bulkhead seats on the right side of the mini cabin. SWISS uses a lot of wood finish in its premium cabin, which I found quite nice. On the cabin wall, there was a print of Matterhorn, a distinct feature of SWISS’ aircraft.
SWISS Business Class Seat
SWISS uses the Thomson Vantage with customised finishes for Business Class onboard all their long-haul aircraft, including the 777-300ER. This is quite a popular seat model; Singapore Airlines uses this on their 737-8 MAX as well, but with very different finishes. SWISS Business Class on the 777 is configured in alternating 1-2-2 and 2-2-1 layouts. The “1” in each row is a throne seat with shelfs on either side. This provides more privacy and loads of storage. However, these seats are only available for advance selection for free to Miles & More HON Circle and Senators. Other passengers have to pay, or wait for check-in to open to select the ‘throne’s for free. On a premium and elite heavy route like Singapore, snagging a throne for free is close to impossible.
In any case, since I was travelling with my girlfriend, 4J and 4K suited us fine. Some couples may prefer the centre seats, where both passengers have direct aisle access, but we didn’t find the lack of aisle access for 4K a major problem. I was in 4J, while my girlfriend was in 4K.
One other downside of the A/B and J/K pair of seats of the shared centre console. There wasn’t much flat surface or storage space as a result. The centre console had a hook for headphones, a hanger for jackets which had the seat number for identification by crew, and a strap for keeping documents or a tablet in place. There was also a bottle holder. I also liked the lamp mounted on the console. It added a glass of touch and complemented the wood finishing.
The seat controls were also on the centre console. There was a set of hard buttons for basic controls such as adjusting to preset takeoff/landing, lounging or lie-flat positions. Under a flap, there were additional controls for adjusting the lumbar support, seat cushion firmness and the massage function. The inflight entertainment controller was stored inside the centre console behind the seat controls. This was a standard Panasonic touchscreen model.
Beneath the centre console was universal 110V power socket. There was also a USB-A charging port.
The tray table was stored within the centre divider between the seats. I’ve never been a fan of the tray table mechanism of the Thompson Vantage seat. (The Vantage XL is fine). The tray table is a bifold unit.
The IFE screen measured 16in and was fixed to the bulkhead in front. Between the screens was the literature pocket and shoe storage. This was another minor downside of this pair of seats, as there was only enough space for one pair of shoes. The middle pairs have shoe storage for both pax.
Being in the bulkhead seat, the footwell was quite generous. My feet never felt constrained inside regardless of sleeping position. Throne seats have the tightest footwell.
The only significant enclosed storage space in this pair of seats was the compartment beneath the IFE screen. It was only large enough for small items such as mobile phone, wallet and passport.
The seat was perhaps slightly on the narrow side, but I had no issues getting in a few hours of sleep. In full-flat position, the bed length is a touch over 2m. In 4J, only a narrow armrest separated me from the aisle. This armrest was immovable, which was a little obtrusive when the seat is flat, but at least afforded some degree of privacy.
Apart from the lack of enclosed storage space, this was a decent seat. The lack of direct aisle access for some seats is a problem, but for couples who prefer seating next to each other, the window pairs still work fine. I’m conflicted, because on one hand direct aisle should be a given on widebody business class nowadays, but on the other hand we did enjoy having a pair of seats together by the window. In a 1-2-1 configurations, that’s not possible. Scoring the bulkhead mini cabin certainly made this a better experience too.
Overall, I’d say SWISS currently offers a solid hard product. This was certainly better than Thai’s outdated product that we flew up to London. Of course, a lot will change when SWISS Senses eventually comes around. I would caution that the SWISS Business Class experience can vary depending on seat type, so travellers should be careful when selecting a seat.
SWISS Business Class Food & Beverage
After boarding, a crew member came around to distribute the menus, including an order sheet for breakfast. A pen was clipped to the order sheet for passengers to tick their choices.
The crew offered a choice of pre-departure drinks; we opted for champagne. Towels were distributed as well.
Meal orders for dinner were taken on the ground, and the breakfast cards were also collected. For dinner (or should I say supper?), I opted for the smoked trout to start, and beef tenderloin for the main.
We departed Zurich around 11.05pm, and dinner service commenced around 30mins after takeoff. Firstly, our tables were laid with a tablecloth, and a drinks cart was rolled down the aisle. I requested for Austrian red wine, the Blaufrankisch Ried Durrau 2021, which was quite nice, and some still water.
A tray was then delivered from the galley, consisting of the starter, a side salad and cheese plate. I had the smoked trout with marinated leek, mimosa and turmeric vinaigrette. This was quite nice, if slightly fishy. My girlfriend had the second option of roasted pumpkin with tomato and cucumber tabbouleh and ginger raita sauce. This tasted fine as well, although she found the spices used in the tabbouleh a little too strong.
Once our starters were cleared, our mains were brought out a few minutes later. I had the beef tenderloin with peppercorn sauce, served with mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and sauteed mushrooms.
The beef was excellent, one of the best I’ve had on the plane (although nothing will beat the wagyu on ANA First Class). The sauce and beef seasoning was a little too salty, but the cook on the beef was gorgeous.
My girlfriend had the poached char with lemongrass sauce, served with sesame sushi rice, sugar snap peas and roasted squash. She said this was not bad as well.
Dessert was served around 90mins after takeoff. This was a Tiramisu made with Nespresso Colombia Organic coffee, a dish created from SWSS’ partnership with Nespresso. It was a nice end to the meal.
In all, meal service took just under 2h to be completed. While some passengers might prefer to sleep quickly given the late hour, I thought the pace was fine given it’s an 11h flight. SWISS does give passengers an option of a quick meal with just the starter, cheese and dessert. Lindor truffle balls were offered after the meal service.
SWISS doesn’t have a midflight snack service, however I did notice some packaged snacks available in the galley midflight. No bottled water were handed out, however these were also available in the galley so I grabbed a couple.
Breakfast service commenced around 2.5h before landing. Again, tables were laid with a tablecloth. However, the whole breakfast was served on a single tray. From the breakfast selection, I had chosen fresh fruit, bircher muesli and the English breakfast, which consisted of potato galette with pumpkin, spinach and hollandaise. To drink, I requested for orange juice and a cappuccino.
The English breakfast was tasty, but too salty as well. My girlfriend has the Asian breakfast of wok noodles with roasted pork, and she had the same complaint about the level of saltiness.
Overall, the quality of meals was quite good. The beef tenderloin was a near-perfect example of getting beef on an airplane correct. If only SWISS would tone down the salt.
SWISS Business Class Service
The crew were friendly and warm in general. However, there was a level of attentiveness that I felt was missing, certainly compared to the best Asian carriers. Plastic wrappings and empty water bottles were never cleared despite various crew members passing by. On Singapore Airlines, such items would disappear quite quickly. In fairness to the crew, I suspect this was more a service protocol issue rather than a lack of attentiveness on their part specifically. Still it would have been great not to have empty bottles rolling around. The crew also forgot to return my coat, which they had hung up after boarding. I had to remind them while we were waiting to disembark. This was rather poor in my opinion.
It also appeared that communication within the crew could be lacking at times. For example, our pre-departure towels were cleared by one crew member who we had not seen serving our section prior, but shortly after another crew member came round looking for used towels.
I would rate the service as fine overall, maybe slightly disappointing.
SWISS Business Class Amenities
When we boarded, a blanket and pillow were waiting at our seat. Also preset was the amenity kit from Victorinox. This was quite basic. The soft pouch contained eyeshades, socks, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste.
No slippers or mattress pad were provided, which was rather disappointing. I would have liked slippers at least so I don’t have to put on my shoes every time I want to visit the lavatory.
Speaking of lavatories, there were 3 for Business Class passengers, all located at door 2 between the two cabins. There were two on the right side of the aircraft (where we were seated), and a single one on the left. The lavatory was quite basic, and the only amenities inside were wet tissues, hand lotion and a face mist (I think). The latter two items were from Soeder, similar to what was found in SWISS’ lounges. The lavatories were kept fairly clean throughout the flight.
SWISS Business Class Inflight Entertainment and Inflight WiFi
SWISS’ inflight entertainment selection isn’t the widest. The movie selection had several new releases and some older ones, while the TV show choices were quite limited. It’s not so bad that downloading some Netflix in advance is absolutely necessary, but I found it hard to find anything that piqued my interest. The current selection of movies and TV shows can be found here.
SWISS has inflight Wi-Fi installed on its 777 fleet. There was a free messaging plan, a 4h plan for CHF25 (~SGD40, USD30), or full flight plan for CHF35 (~SGD55, USD42). Unlike many carriers which don’t allow sharing of images or other media, SWISS does. I was able to send and receive images via WhatsApp quite well during the flight. This is one area that I thought SWISS did well.
Conclusion
SWISS Business Class on their 777-300ER was a solid but unspectacular product. The seat was reasonably comfortable and the food quite good. The service was about par for course with a European carrier i.e. not up to top Asian carrier standard, while the minimal amenities was disappointing. I came away from the flight relatively content and satisfied to have ticked this off the list. I don’t mind flying SWISS Business again, but it’s not an experience I would go out of my way to do again. Not until SWISS Senses arrives at least.