Bretteee
Mar 2, 04, 11:11 am
I had originally planned to try out Continental, as they recently began operating 5 nonstop flights weekly between Geneva and Newark / New York.
However when I noticed that SWISS was operating their newly delivered A340 once a week between Geneva and JFK, I decided to switch over to SWISS. The schedule indicated this aircraft Wednesday westbound and Tuesday eastbound. The other 6 weekly flights are operated with the A330.
GVA to JFK:
Usually check-in at Geneva is a breeze. This time, I was chosen at random to take my bags to the end of the terminal and wait at least 10 minutes to have them searched / tested in the baggage area. This seems to be a new policy for US bound flights.
When we passed security, unlike 5 months ago, we did not have to take our shoes off. No idea why this policy no longer exists.
Unfortunately SWISS 2 weeks before departure downgraded the equipment to an A330 from the A340 originally scheduled, but at least on the return I got to fly on this aircraft.
The load was about 30% full. In F it looked as if they had only 1 passenger; there are 12 seats.
In C out of 42 seats, it looked about 1/3 full and in Y out of 142 seats it was also about 1/3 full.
A few years ago this flight in February / winter time was full of American skiers. This market seems to have evaporated. Maybe due to 9/11, the weak US dollar, the development of US and Canadian ski resorts and the lack of advertising. Swissair used to actively advertise ski vacations in the US media which SWISS no longer seems to do.
The crew as usual were extremely friendly. In my experience they really generally are the best.
The A330 were ordered by Swissair and in my view the seats in Y are very narrow (17.3") and hard. Even if one has 2 seats to oneself, they are hard and after 2 hours it feels it.
After take-off we were served the usual beverages. But one thing was missing! The cheese sticks they used to serve with the beverages were gone. However I only noticed this, after reading somene's post about Austrian who serve pretzels with the beverage.
Pretty smart on SWISS management's part to have cut this out to save money. I had not noticed this.
SWISS announced about 1 year ago they were going to serve typical Swiss food on their westbound US flights.
Well the choice consisted of either tortellini or chicken, mashed potatoes and vegetables. Mmmm did not seem very typically Swiss to me. I have a funny idea that to cut costs they are serving food catered in New York which with the weak dollar is cheaper.
We were sitting right at the back. Fortunately, just as the remaining 5 of us still had to be served, they told us they were out of chicken but they did have veal available.
This was veal zurichois; veal in a cream sauce with rice and obviously typically Swiss. It was the first meal on SWISS that had a generous portion and that tasted OK.
Cheese was Camambert, a tasteless American salad of lettuce and dressing, 2 rolls, and a delicious Apricot sponge cake.
However it was so tiny. It seems that on every flight the cake gets smaller and smaller and smaller. A centimetre cut off here and another one there. Management probably spend hours plotting how they can cut more cake to cut the losses.
Fortunately, my co-worker who is on a lifetime diet gave me 1/2 of her cake which made it sufficient.
Because I knew that AF served champagne in Y I asked whether they offered it. I was told they did have an Italian sparkling wine which was delicious. They hide it and don't seem to want too many people to know about this.
When the steward noticed that my coworker was terrified as we entered severe turbulence, he offered her an Irish Bailey. I had no idea they offered after dinner liquors. This is another thing they seem to try to keep hush, hush.
A few hours later we were offered a Movenpick chocolate ice cream. This was the first time they served a normal flavour. Usually they serve something exotic which I do not like.
Before landing we were offered 2 sandwiches; curry and turkey with 2 chocolates.
This was my first SWISS flight where the food was actually better than the previous flights.
JFK to GVA:
Unlike the summer months, check in was a synch with no waiting. The Zurich flight before us looked empty. The Terminal includes a small mosque, church and synagogue which is a nice feature. We saw a few Egyptians flying on Egyptair praying in the small mosque.
As we passed security, the crew of the SWISS flight to Zurich were also in the process of doing so. The Captain was consistently buzzing the machine. He had to pass 3 times and was asked to take his shoes off as the crew waited for him. He did not seem to be happy. There was a rain storm and their flight was due to leave in about 30 minutes.
We were happy to see the newly delivered A340. Finally my chance to travel on this plane.
The load was about 20% full. There are 8 seats in F, 48 in C and 172 in Y.
We had practically the whole Y cabin to ourselves. The plane looks more spacious than the A330, yet the seats are only 17.3 inches wide like the A330.
The colour scheme of beige is very pleasant; but not a good idea. One could already see some stains on the seats. I believe that C is blue.
The C seats fold into sleeping beds like on BA. The seats in Y were a bit softer and more confortable than the A330. However I noticed that Airbus seats are not deep which takes some getting used to.
We waited on the tarmac for one hour as there was only one runway open for both landing and takeoffs due to the rain storm.
Meanwhile an American guy accross from us started eating his dinner. He very proudly announced to the flight attendant that he had brought his own food with him. It stank! For 30 minutes we had to smell this awful stuff, whatever it was.
An article in the Herald Tribune mentioned that flight attendants in the US are not happy as some people bring terribly smelling food on board and leave a mess in the cabin.
The entertainment system did not work for 3 hours. Finally they fixed it but I found it complicated to use. Maybe because I was too tired by then.
A nice feature is that you can watch the takeoff on the video screne but because it was night time, all we saw were yellow blobs.
The crew as usual were friendly. Dinner was below standards. My coworker took the tortellini which consisted of 7 dried pieces with dried tomato sauce.
I took the chicken which consisted of 3 pieces of small chicken in a mushroom sauce, rice and vegetables. It tasted OK but it was so tiny, we were starving. The usual American green salad, tasteless monterey rubbery cheese and a tiny plum cake. The food tasted OK but the portions are disgraceful. The 2 rolls with butter saved us from hunger.
Breakfast was a yoghurt, croissants, rolls (they came by twice) with strawberry jam. Quite tasty.
We found the crew great until we landed. Because of the rain storm we were one hour late. We had switched seats and just as we were getting our stuff (we were right in the back), a steward with plastic gloves rushed to us and said ..."you must leave quickly; otherwise we will lock the doors."
We were in shock! I have never been thrown out of a plane on landing nor rushed like this; neither on Southwest nor on Easyjet who have to turn their flights around quickly.
As we walked into C again we were told ....."hurry they are going to lock the doors!!"
As we got to the front door the Pursar said "Oh here they are!"
We really were not too happy about this. The 2 cleaning women and 3 security guys were waiting.
I don't see why they could not enter the plane and had to wait for us to get out. I have seen cleaners board immediately.
They told us they had to clean other flights and that we were slowing them up.
I have pictures but I was unable to copy them on the report. If someone can tell me how, I will try again.
However when I noticed that SWISS was operating their newly delivered A340 once a week between Geneva and JFK, I decided to switch over to SWISS. The schedule indicated this aircraft Wednesday westbound and Tuesday eastbound. The other 6 weekly flights are operated with the A330.
GVA to JFK:
Usually check-in at Geneva is a breeze. This time, I was chosen at random to take my bags to the end of the terminal and wait at least 10 minutes to have them searched / tested in the baggage area. This seems to be a new policy for US bound flights.
When we passed security, unlike 5 months ago, we did not have to take our shoes off. No idea why this policy no longer exists.
Unfortunately SWISS 2 weeks before departure downgraded the equipment to an A330 from the A340 originally scheduled, but at least on the return I got to fly on this aircraft.
The load was about 30% full. In F it looked as if they had only 1 passenger; there are 12 seats.
In C out of 42 seats, it looked about 1/3 full and in Y out of 142 seats it was also about 1/3 full.
A few years ago this flight in February / winter time was full of American skiers. This market seems to have evaporated. Maybe due to 9/11, the weak US dollar, the development of US and Canadian ski resorts and the lack of advertising. Swissair used to actively advertise ski vacations in the US media which SWISS no longer seems to do.
The crew as usual were extremely friendly. In my experience they really generally are the best.
The A330 were ordered by Swissair and in my view the seats in Y are very narrow (17.3") and hard. Even if one has 2 seats to oneself, they are hard and after 2 hours it feels it.
After take-off we were served the usual beverages. But one thing was missing! The cheese sticks they used to serve with the beverages were gone. However I only noticed this, after reading somene's post about Austrian who serve pretzels with the beverage.
Pretty smart on SWISS management's part to have cut this out to save money. I had not noticed this.
SWISS announced about 1 year ago they were going to serve typical Swiss food on their westbound US flights.
Well the choice consisted of either tortellini or chicken, mashed potatoes and vegetables. Mmmm did not seem very typically Swiss to me. I have a funny idea that to cut costs they are serving food catered in New York which with the weak dollar is cheaper.
We were sitting right at the back. Fortunately, just as the remaining 5 of us still had to be served, they told us they were out of chicken but they did have veal available.
This was veal zurichois; veal in a cream sauce with rice and obviously typically Swiss. It was the first meal on SWISS that had a generous portion and that tasted OK.
Cheese was Camambert, a tasteless American salad of lettuce and dressing, 2 rolls, and a delicious Apricot sponge cake.
However it was so tiny. It seems that on every flight the cake gets smaller and smaller and smaller. A centimetre cut off here and another one there. Management probably spend hours plotting how they can cut more cake to cut the losses.
Fortunately, my co-worker who is on a lifetime diet gave me 1/2 of her cake which made it sufficient.
Because I knew that AF served champagne in Y I asked whether they offered it. I was told they did have an Italian sparkling wine which was delicious. They hide it and don't seem to want too many people to know about this.
When the steward noticed that my coworker was terrified as we entered severe turbulence, he offered her an Irish Bailey. I had no idea they offered after dinner liquors. This is another thing they seem to try to keep hush, hush.
A few hours later we were offered a Movenpick chocolate ice cream. This was the first time they served a normal flavour. Usually they serve something exotic which I do not like.
Before landing we were offered 2 sandwiches; curry and turkey with 2 chocolates.
This was my first SWISS flight where the food was actually better than the previous flights.
JFK to GVA:
Unlike the summer months, check in was a synch with no waiting. The Zurich flight before us looked empty. The Terminal includes a small mosque, church and synagogue which is a nice feature. We saw a few Egyptians flying on Egyptair praying in the small mosque.
As we passed security, the crew of the SWISS flight to Zurich were also in the process of doing so. The Captain was consistently buzzing the machine. He had to pass 3 times and was asked to take his shoes off as the crew waited for him. He did not seem to be happy. There was a rain storm and their flight was due to leave in about 30 minutes.
We were happy to see the newly delivered A340. Finally my chance to travel on this plane.
The load was about 20% full. There are 8 seats in F, 48 in C and 172 in Y.
We had practically the whole Y cabin to ourselves. The plane looks more spacious than the A330, yet the seats are only 17.3 inches wide like the A330.
The colour scheme of beige is very pleasant; but not a good idea. One could already see some stains on the seats. I believe that C is blue.
The C seats fold into sleeping beds like on BA. The seats in Y were a bit softer and more confortable than the A330. However I noticed that Airbus seats are not deep which takes some getting used to.
We waited on the tarmac for one hour as there was only one runway open for both landing and takeoffs due to the rain storm.
Meanwhile an American guy accross from us started eating his dinner. He very proudly announced to the flight attendant that he had brought his own food with him. It stank! For 30 minutes we had to smell this awful stuff, whatever it was.
An article in the Herald Tribune mentioned that flight attendants in the US are not happy as some people bring terribly smelling food on board and leave a mess in the cabin.
The entertainment system did not work for 3 hours. Finally they fixed it but I found it complicated to use. Maybe because I was too tired by then.
A nice feature is that you can watch the takeoff on the video screne but because it was night time, all we saw were yellow blobs.
The crew as usual were friendly. Dinner was below standards. My coworker took the tortellini which consisted of 7 dried pieces with dried tomato sauce.
I took the chicken which consisted of 3 pieces of small chicken in a mushroom sauce, rice and vegetables. It tasted OK but it was so tiny, we were starving. The usual American green salad, tasteless monterey rubbery cheese and a tiny plum cake. The food tasted OK but the portions are disgraceful. The 2 rolls with butter saved us from hunger.
Breakfast was a yoghurt, croissants, rolls (they came by twice) with strawberry jam. Quite tasty.
We found the crew great until we landed. Because of the rain storm we were one hour late. We had switched seats and just as we were getting our stuff (we were right in the back), a steward with plastic gloves rushed to us and said ..."you must leave quickly; otherwise we will lock the doors."
We were in shock! I have never been thrown out of a plane on landing nor rushed like this; neither on Southwest nor on Easyjet who have to turn their flights around quickly.
As we walked into C again we were told ....."hurry they are going to lock the doors!!"
As we got to the front door the Pursar said "Oh here they are!"
We really were not too happy about this. The 2 cleaning women and 3 security guys were waiting.
I don't see why they could not enter the plane and had to wait for us to get out. I have seen cleaners board immediately.
They told us they had to clean other flights and that we were slowing them up.
I have pictures but I was unable to copy them on the report. If someone can tell me how, I will try again.