Swiss International Airlines - New first on A340

When does Swiss plan to install their new First class product on its A340's?

Never.
I believe new First will be installed on their next batch of A380s only in 2025.

:) They said they do not plan of changing F on 340s ever.

Never.
I believe new First will be installed on their next batch of A380s only in 2025.

:) They said they do not plan of changing F on 340s ever.

Swiss is ordering the A380s?


and really, no plans exisit to update first on the A340s?

Nope, that was a hyperbole.
No plans for further updates to 340 as they feel it is good enough. (shrug)

According to different F-Crews on different F-Flights the A340-fleet will see as well the new F-Class sometime!

I am not able to tell you if this info is correct because I don´t normally trust such information given by crew-members. IMHO crew-members don´t know properly what is going on in the own airline. But this info I got by three different crews on three different LX-flights, all in F and all of them were proud of their recent product and provided a outstanding service!

We have had multiple threads on this topic already, and the response remains the same: There are no plans to install the latest F product on the A340 anytime soon. Period.

Allow me to add: Apart from a small TV screen I find the old F great. Bed is super comfortable, service and food outstanding. Maybe privacy could be better, but as usual C/Y pax this is not my primary concern. I understand Swiss to not update their F product
W

Any New First product will only be seen on the replacement aircraft of the A340 :D

Do you think that giving the extra 65.000 miles from C==> F on A340 is a waste then?

Do you think that giving the extra 65.000 miles from C==> F on A340 is a waste then?

Well, that will depend on how many miles you have, what route you´re flying, daytime/overnight?, would you get a better ground experience? (e.g. FCL)

If you can get a single seat in the forward business cabin, that´s almost as good as old LH F from a hard-product perspective. If all you can get is a seat in the center section in the larger cabin, there´s a much bigger difference between C and F.

Depite the F cabin on the 346 being the "old F cabin", I still find it excellent (escept for the AVOD).

If you have plenty of miles, I´d say enjoy the F experience.:)

New F will come when Swiss renews the current A 340 - 300 fleet. Speculation about LH/LX investing into the A 350 or 787 or more A 340-600's clearly is speculation/day dreaming right now.

Don't think that they will divert from an all bus fleet. LH has a horror example with Austrian who seem to have every model certified in the 80 plane fleet.

We have had multiple threads on this topic already, and the response remains the same: There are no plans to install the latest F product on the A340 anytime soon. Period.
Correct. It is really interesting that this topic comes up again and again and again and again... currently with a weekly frequency... :confused:

Allow me to add: Apart from a small TV screen I find the old F great. Bed is super comfortable, service and food outstanding. Maybe privacy could be better, (...) I understand Swiss to not update their F product
W
Excatly. ^

Correct. It is really interesting that this topic comes up again and again and again and again... currently with a weekly frequency... :confused:




May be this a sign of frustration with the current first class seat on the A343 ;)

May be this a sign of frustration with the current first class seat on the A343 ;)

I agree. Swiss needs to do something with the F on the 340. It is not a bad product, but after having flown the new F on the 330 and the current F offering on some of the Asian carriers (especially CX and ANA) i try to avoid the Swiss 340. It would be interesting if Swiss has softer booking numbers for F for routing where passengers can take an airline with a better F offering easily.

Swiss needs to do something with the F on the 340

I have a bit of a soft spot for LX F as it was the first F I experienced. Travelling back from JNB last week I was somewhat disappointed. Whilst the crew were excellent, the seat/bed felt very old. The most recent comparison I have is SAA C and their bed in the 'cradle' mode was sooooo much more comfy than the LX F seat in any mode. I know the LX seat is much wider than most but it just didn't seem to get into the right position. I'd choose SAA C over LX F any day. I have to admit that the soft product (food/wine/staff) was far superior on LX but the seat really makes/breaks a flight for me and LX was disappointing compared to SAA.

A purser on LX A340 told me last week that beginning of next year LX will take a decision during work groups if they should install the new first on A340 as well.

Time will tell...

Sorry to side track this a bit, but I booked CAI-ZRH return in F (through BMI DC) without much research then found out about the older seats.
Should I cancel and rebook in J if it's that bad?

Sorry to side track this a bit, but I booked CAI-ZRH return in F (through BMI DC) without much research then found out about the older seats.
Should I cancel and rebook in J if it's that bad?

Dude read the all thread and some trip reports here on FT. Swiss F is excellent. Clearly it is slightly better on their A330s than A340s (mostly becuase of the larger IFE screen, but otherwise there is not much difference), but it is still an excellent product anyway.

"Old"L X F beats old LH F hands down for my part.

Should I cancel and rebook in J if it's that bad?Yes, absolutely. The older seats are only a lounge chair with ottoman converting into a fully flat bed, the largest table in the sky and top-rated in-flight service and catering. Absolutely inacceptable, especially on such a long and arduous flight as ZRH-CAI. The horror!

:D:D

Good to know, I did come across reviews for LX F, but at the time didn't notice that the A340 were still the old ones. :)

@ airoli - I know, I was so nervous at the beginning but it came down to either chartering a BBJ @ 25k US an hour or roughing it up on WK (guess who's flying the BEY sector for LX). In the end I warmed up to the idea of LX F even if it meant a flight on MS to CAI. :)

if it's that bad?

LX F is that BAD !!!! :confused:

LX F is that BAD !!!! :confused:

Compared to what?

It always depends what choices you have for a certain route. In my opinion the new LX F seat is a significant improvement over the old seat. It is a bit unfortunate that LX has the new seat only on the 330 (which is mainly used on shorter routes).
If you compare LX F (and again, this is my personal opinion) with sime of the offering of Asian carriers (CX as a prime example) both the old and the new seats are inferior.
If you compare LX F with AA F or UA F then LX is superior (old and new).

Compared to what?

It always depends what choices you have for a certain route. In my opinion the new LX F seat is a significant improvement over the old seat. It is a bit unfortunate that LX has the new seat only on the 330 (which is mainly used on shorter routes).
If you compare LX F (and again, this is my personal opinion) with sime of the offering of Asian carriers (CX as a prime example) both the old and the new seats are inferior.
If you compare LX F with AA F or UA F then LX is superior (old and new).

How is F on the Shanghai-Zurich route? New or old seats?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8900/4.6.1.168 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/130)

Compared to what?

It always depends what choices you have for a certain route. In my opinion the new LX F seat is a significant improvement over the old seat. It is a bit unfortunate that LX has the new seat only on the 330 (which is mainly used on shorter routes).
If you compare LX F (and again, this is my personal opinion) with sime of the offering of Asian carriers (CX as a prime example) both the old and the new seats are inferior.
If you compare LX F with AA F or UA F then LX is superior (old and new).

How is F on the Shanghai-Zurich route? New or old seats?

Op by A340 ergo old F. Still a nice flight. It's a day flight so plenty of time to enjoy F.

taking up the cudgels for old LX F.
It for sure is not as pleasing on the eye, but for me old LX F is much more pleasing on the butt.

The old seat is a tad more spacious, has more areas to drop and place stuff (that even goes for drinks), you (or at least I) can get out of the chair easier when the table is folded out, in bed mode your feet are not resting lower since with the new lx F there is a small height gap between the leg rest and the ottoman.

Again, the new design and look and feel is TOP NOTCH, but besides the fact the old LX F's seat pod's color has somehow over time turned into neat turd brown and the cleaning crew constantly seems to be missing dark fingerprints and smudge on the overhead bins I really do prefer the old LX F over the new one.

I have now flown on both the new and old F and have to say that although both are excellent, I prefer the new F. Love the huge LCD's and gadgets, although one minor annoyance is the glare from the sunlight on the screens. #firstworldproblems :D

LX181 (BKK-ZRH, Aircraft 34Z) on Nov. 11 shows only two rows in F. Does that mean it has changed to the F seats?

LX181 (BKK-ZRH, Aircraft 34Z) on Nov. 11 shows only two rows in F. Does that mean it has changed to the F seats?
The entire LX long-haul fleet is fitted with 8 seats in a 4-abreast layout, so there should always be only two rows.

LX181 (BKK-ZRH, Aircraft 34Z) on Nov. 11 shows only two rows in F. Does that mean it has changed to the F seats?
:confused:

LX F only ever had two rows in F. No A340 with the new F as far as I know and all LX A340s have the F cabin.

:confused:

LX F only ever had two rows in F. No A340 with the new F as far as I know and all LX A340s have the F cabin.

I do seem to recall flying a LX plane with 12 seats in F (3 rows in a 1-2-1 config) and ancient C seats a few years ago, but can´t remember whether it was a 343 or 332. I guess the OP is referring to those old birds, but fortunately they´re now gone or have been retrofitted.

The old A330-200s had 3 rows of F with 12 seats, but they have left the fleet over 6 months ago.

The old A330-200s had 3 rows of F with 12 seats, but they have left the fleet over 6 months ago.

F on the A330 was perfectly fine with the exception of the (non-existent) AVOD.

A purser on LX A340 told me last week that beginning of next year LX will take a decision during work groups if they should install the new first on A340 as well.

Time will tell...

In January a purser told me the decision was no. Said the upgrade cost was $200,000 US per seat, and that they were not going ahead with it (this was in my query as to why the airline would upgrade the "shorter" long-haul flights to the best seat and leave the longest routes to the 2nd best choice.

Haven't tried the new F seat but the "second best" is IMO an excellent seat as it is!
I don't mind that they continue with the "old" F on my PVG/PEK routes. :)