This past vacation, I had the chance to visit Switzerland and Japan. En route to Japan, I booked a SWISS Business Class ticket with a stopover in Zurich to visit Zermatt.

Preamble

At time of booking, finding SWISS business class availability was quite easy. Award partner space is usually open at sporadic dates throughout the year, which is not true for most airlines.

Even now, a quick search on seats.aero returns some space two months from now.

Why fly through Europe (or transatlantic, aka “the long way”) to Asia?

My tl;dr impressions:

  • If doing a stopover improves your trip, flying SWISS is an excellent option.
  • If your goal is to just go to Asia, SWISS is a great back up option while setting alerts to monitor for something aspirational.

Instant ramen whilst in a gondola in Zermatt

SWISS Business Class

Airbus A330-300

  • SWISS A330 J is 2-2-1.
  • Every other “2” seat on the left side is an Extra Space / “Throne” seat. It costs money (~$200) to reserve this.
  • This flyertalk post has a decent overview of the seats.
  • For a solo traveler, I quite liked the aisle “1” seat.
    • Technically less privacy, but you don’t feel trapped, since the aisle is open.
  • I flew a red-eye and planned pop a melatonin and sleep for most of the flight.

Overall, for the value, great flight. The flight attendants were attentive. The meal was surprisingly quite good. The amenity kit, a solid aluminum box, is unique (I currently use it to store glasses now). I would book a red-eye on this route and aircraft again.

IRROPS

Unfortunately, on the morning of the flight, I got a notification that my flight was cancelled.

  • I was automatically rebooked onto a JFK-FRA-ZRH operated by Lufthansa. Not ideal, since this was on a 2-2-2 seatmap.
  • Swiss’s chat was quick to respond. I was able to get rebooked onto JFK-GVA for free.
  • Since the original rebooking would make me borderline eligible for EU261 compensation, I applied. No dice - the cancellation was due to a bird strike, which counts as an extraordinary circumstance and the airline is not liable for compensation.

Anyway, Geneva is pretty much equidistant to Zermatt from Zurich, so I’ll only arrive a couple hours later than planned.

Massage functionality in the SWISS seats

SWISS First Class

Boeing 777-300ER

SWISS First Class is notoriously difficult to book. The ticket itself is ~$16k and is not bookable with points by partners. The only other way to book this is through a cash upgrade at check-in.

So when I saw the upgrade offer in-app at check-in, I rationalized - this is a ~12 hour flight on the 777, and LX F is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I pulled the trigger, moderately guilty at the amount of cash I was spending.

I had 2 full days in Zermatt, followed by a 1pm flight to NRT from ZRH. Zermatt is roughly 4 hours by train to the airport, so I considered departing the night before and staying in Zurich, but instead just chose to leave the morning of. In hindsight, this was a mistake.

The next 8am train was already going to make the flight tight. To make matters worse, after boarding, I found out that one of my connecting trains was completely cancelled. I had to wait at the station for another 40 minutes for the next train. Despair.

I’ve heard great things about the ground service and first class lounge at ZRH, but I was sad that I wasn’t able to experience it. Yet, I was still able to experience it first hand.

Upon arrival, roughly 40 minutes prior to departure, at check-in I told the attendant that I was horribly late - can I make the flight? Her face was like 😬 until she presumably saw my ticket was in first class - then said “right this way”.

Upon arrival at the ZRH first class lounge, the check-in agents said I was right on time. Relief.

Clearing through security was a breeze (<5 min). I rode in a private shuttle directly to the terminal, which is on a separate island designated for non-Schengen departures.

There were ~8 others on the shuttle dressed in various forms of business wear, contrasted by myself, sweaty from running around the terminal.

I ran from the shuttle drop off to my gate. It took less than 30 minutes from airport arrival, security, immigration, and transit to butt-in-seat (and champagne!).

I could only imagine what the rest of the ZRH lounge and experience was like.

The Seat

Incredible. There’s tons of space, including a closet and hangers. A huge TV screen. Nothing felt cheap - the seat itself feels like a high-end chaise. There’s plenty of wooden accents and even a lamp secured on the side.

Dining

SWISS has several rotating themes for dining on their flights. In this theme, it was described to me as offerings from up-and-coming young chefs in the field. Since I had just finished binging Culinary Class Wars, I was intrigued.

Overall, it was delicious and I was quite satisfied (and drunk). The plates felt more experimental that I would have expected, but in a surprisingly good way. For example, a thai green curry panna cotta in the amuse-bouche. The only one that I didn’t enjoy much was the main beef course - it didn’t taste particularly special.

The fondue was super fun. The FA recommended a schnapps spirit to go with it, and I happily obliged, even though I was already almost spinning.

The salmon and breakfast pancake were probably my favorite items.

Conclusion

And that’s it! A memorable flight for sure.

  • To me, this was a perfect routing for a stopover-in-switzerland.
  • Business class SWISS A330 is quite comfortable for solo travel.
  • First Class SWISS 777 is definitely a significant upgrade over Business Class.

Would I do it again? Probably, but not frequently. In the future, this might be compelling if I made sure to have plenty of time ahead to enjoy the First Class Lounge experience at ZRH.

For other routes not ex-ZRH, I would probably not upgrade again.