Trip Reports - SR DXB-ZRH-AGP Part 1

Arrived at the Dubai airport at 2240, 3 hours and ten minutes before the scheduled departure time of 0150. The plane was coming in from Kharachi. The flight today was full in all three classes, although it appeared that most of the pax were from kharachi. Although we checked in 3 hours before the scheduled departure time the incompetent(you´ll know why he turned out to be incompetent later on) check in agent couldn´t get us (my father, mother, sister and I)window seats. So we got four seats together in row 34 of the airbus A330. Here´s how the flight went

DXB-ZRH on SR (Y) A330-200
sch dep: 0150 sch arr: 0625
act dep: 0218 act arr: 0635

Boarding was supposed to commence at 0105 but started at 0118. Take off was scary and very bad, it wasn´t just me who said that but I heard other pax speaking about the rough take off. The first thing that pissed us off about the flight was that the FA´s expected us to use used blanket from the KHI-DXB leg of the flight. This is very unacceptable. After three requests for new blankets we finally received them! Fourty minutes after take off we got a snack which consisted of a turkey sandwich, a pasta salad and two slices of marble cake. Nothing special, but it wasn´t bad either. The entertainment system is ok, the games are quite useless, and the movies that were being shown weren´t that great so I decided to try to get some sleep. I slept for a few hours until the sun started coming up somewhere over Turkey. Hot towels were distributed to us 1.5 hours before arrival into ZRH, then the breakfast trays were given out by the extremely rude FA´s(they weren´t rude to me but to other pax, I didn´t like the way one of them spoke to a few pax). No menus on the flight were made available and there were no meal choices for breakfast, it was either take it or leave it. On British Airways Breakfast is a whole different story. Anyways for breakfast we got a small omlette, a tomato sauce and a potato fritter along with a chicken sausage. This was served with a roll, croissants and yoghurt. It sounds like it was alot but believe me it was very small, and I´m one of those few people who adores airplane food and I found the omlette horrible, it tasted like rubber. Anyways onto the good points of the flight, the seats had a nice lumbar support system for one´s back and the footrests did come in handy. The seats were better than your normal airplane seat. We had a very smooth landing at 0635, ten minutes behind schedule and we reached the gate at 0639. (we cruised at 39,000 feet during the flight). A last note about the flight. The FA´s didn´t come around regularly with drinks(like BA does) but they just handed out a 0.5 liter water bottle at the beginning of the flight.

*The 5 hour layover passed by quite fast thanks to the free internet desks, however ZRH was a major disappointment especially after having been to AMS/LHR/YVR. However I understabnd that a new terminal is opening up in 2004 so that should make things a bit better. I saw 2 DL B767´s, 1 AC B767, 1 CO B767, 1 AA777, 1 747 of each SQ/TH/SA and another 777 of MS. I lso saw loads of SR airbus planes and MD11´s!

SR 686 (Y) A321-100
sch dep: 1150 sch arr: 1425
act dep: 1240 act arr: 1455

We boarded the plane five minutes later than scheduled (1125) but we had to wait for connecting pax so we got off the ground at 1240 (four planes were ahead of us). The check in agent in Dubai who had promised me window seats on this part of our journey turned out to be a filthy liar and the seats he assigned to us were everything BUT window seats(we just wanted one window seat). We couldn´t change our seats on the plane because it was 100% full and the guy sitting next to me (who was sitting next to the window) turned out to be the biggest phscyo ever! Anyways 1 hour after take off we were served an excellent lunch of a salad with cream sauce, a chicken with cream sauce, yellow rice and sauteed carrotts. For dessert they seem to be copying north american airlines and we got a choclate bar but hey I´m not complaining it was delicious(after all it was SWISS). We had a bumpy landing into Malaga and everything seemed to be calm despite the events of yesterday (a bomb was defused here in the airport!). We cruised at 33,000 feet during the flight. FA´s were quite blunt on this flight althought the maitre de cabine was very nice.

Finally I´d like to say that although I sound very antagnostic towards SR, I expected more of the airline but I guess BA has pampered me. One reason that I could come up with for the poor service level (and the FA´s rudeness) is that SR is in deep financial trouble and I guess the employees´ morale is down, please correct me if I´m wrong. My next trip will be AGP-ZRH-GVA-ZRH-DXB. Hope the flights will be better!

Sorry for the long report and thanks for listening.

Not to sound insensitive, but I don't think there is any airline in the world that can make economy class acceptable on a transiting flight from Karachi through the Arabian Peninsula. I speak from experience, including one flight on SR from RUH to ZRH a few years back. In addition, I've taken flights out of DXB, ABU, BAH, JED on a variety of carriers with destinations in Europe, NA and Asia. Y class out of the Gulf just stinks. No bones about it.

The late night departures, timed to arrive in Europe in the morning are no bonus. The flights are just long enough to warrant a red-eye flight, but just short enough never to get enough/any sleep.

Ground services in any of the above-mentioned locations is spotty at best. Especially in Y class, there is no motivation to provide much service at all.

I flew SR way back when from RUH to ZRH, as a matter of fact we landed in Zurich on the same morning as the Rome Airport (FCO) bombing. When was that? 1986? I could have easily written the same trip report back then. Subsequent flights on KL, PA, AF, BA, SV, even Air Lanka (do they even exist anymore?) were all similar if taken in Y.

I´ve flown BA/KL/SR/EK out of Dubai (SR out of Kuwait) and I´ve enjoyed flying with BA alot. BA gives you a choice between two meals for breakfast, SR doesn´t, BA gives you NEW blankets, SR doesn´t, to cut it short BA tries to make your flight a pleasant one. The ground handling people in Dubai are one of the best around especially with the opening of the new airport. The kitchen is operated by the company "Abela" and I´ve had no complaints about their food especially on BA/EK. As for the check in agent, he really pissed us off. He could have reserved us a window seat from dubai but he choose not to. Not only that he lied to us. Swissair let me down this time.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with SR Y class! I usually heard about positive comments. Airlines always try to cut back on the services on these redeye flights, but fresh blankets are pretty much requirement on these flights. They serve you snack and small breakfast, and the airline should be able to afford some fresh blankets. Neverthless, the redeye flights in the US are worst... no food on those five hours transcon flight (you are lucky to see some snack in Y class, and even in F class, you don't see much food). The sign of hot breakfast makes me jealous.

I guess redeye flights are generally bad...

Thanks for the report and I hope your return flight will be much better! BTW, the chocolate bar snacks are bad signs... I hope the meals won't become all pre-packaged like the US soon. I always think that SR serves organic food, which will guarantee some fresher ingredients and less pre-packaged stuff.

Look forward to the rest of your report!

Thanks,
Carfield

Carfield thanks for your comments. I agree with you about red eye flights being bad in general. Try getting some sleep in economy class, it's impossible!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Carfield:
I always think that SR serves organic food, which will guarantee some fresher ingredients and less pre-packaged stuff.</font>

SR serves organic food on all flights out of ZRH but not on the inbound ones since their catering companies abroad are unable to deliver it. My experience is that Swiss-catered food is far better than the one they load abroad. (e.g. Moevenpick ice cream in all classes long-haul out of ZRH, pre-packed chocolate bars on the way back)