Swiss International Airlines - Standards Falling onboard in C?

Over the past few days I have taken 4 Swiss flights and noticed a drop in standards, or perhaps a change in procedure on longer European flights.

My routing was LCY-GVA-ATH-ZRH-LHR. On the flight from LCY the service was pretty good; a light load in C. Despite the rows of empty seats, another passenger was seated next to me. Grrrr. The MdC was excellent and really did everything to make sure that we had a good flight.

Then I transferred to my onward flight at Geneva, again in C. This flight was busier, but still a good flight. However, I noticed that the linen napkins have been done away with, and there is no longer a hot towel service prior to landing in Athens.

The return flight, ATH-ZRH was a really strange flight, and one of the worst that I have taken on LX. The inbound flight was late, so there was a quick turnaround. This meant no water before take off (forgiveable, though they arguably had time).

Once in the air, we were served the meal before any drinks. On a 2h30 flight, I cannot see why the service would be so rushed in this way. The MdC and a flight attendant, who was clearly very inexperienced, were serving C passengers. When I finally got a drink, I managed to spill the entire contents all over the middle seat. I asked for some napkins to clean it up, and I was given a bundle of paper towels. It would have been nice to have some help in cleaning it up. Nor was I offered another drink as a replacement.

The catering on longer European flights has also changed in some ways. Now they offer vegeterian options that sound bizarre when described by the crew, but in fact they can taste very good. I had a vegetable curry that was excellent on this flight.

This was the kind of flight where I had to press the call bell for anything, including a cup of coffee! Again, no hot towels- policy or oversight?

I am really not the most demanding of passengers, but it seems that LX are cost cutting or making changes that they think will go unnoticed by passengers?

Let's also be clear that no one died. My flights arrived safely and more or less on time. Has anyone else had a similar experience recently on LX?

Catering is definitely considered a nice area for cost savings by LX management. Examples: With the new Menu Cycle (Geneva) the starter and salad was changes to starter or salad on East coast flights. Remember the tasty breadsticks or the choice of different nuts or even Japanese crackers - since the summer cycle they are replaced with disgusting potato chips (I believe it is supposed to be a la mustard) which come as free commercial samples.
Last complaint - a three month cycle of serving virtually the same fare on the entire network is just not acceptable for somebody who flies longhaul twice a month. I was even desperate enough to try the Lacto Ovo option as the Muotothal dried meat Tartar really started to scare me away...
On the other hand I'm still impressed with most of the Swiss crews, they usually really have their act together and provide excellent service - even if the in-flight product is getting poorer and poorer.

I very much agree with verve's post, and have also noticed the new salad or starter policy. As for the nibbles, I guess I was still lucky - on my last LX flight early this month, there was a choice of the weird mustard chips or the traditional breadsticks... pure indulgence, I guess!

(In a testimony to the excellent crews, a copious amount of Lindt truffles somehow ended up at my seat at the end of the meal service... :D)

Cambrian, interesting report. Maybe your experience on ATH-ZRH warrants an email to Swiss? Not as a complaint, but merely as a "heads-up" on substandard service provided on one particular flight?

Also, thanks for the comments on the vegetarian option. I read that it is now being designed by the reputed Hiltl restaurant... maybe based on this feedback I should try it?

my paid c class to madrid from zurich was fine and since its really a short haul was very acceptable ......however i had posted this on another thread but will repeat this here [ only found this more relevant bby accident much later ] >>>>>VVVV

recently flew business on LX to europe from asia and then back and had 2 very contrasting inflight experience which really was sad as i had just started to give it another try [ in its many incarnations ].

the product was OK...nothing great or GREAT but good ole solid stuff. my biggest bugbear was the service off the attendants .

going there...was pretty good....we had an experienced bunch of people esp the guy who served us was confident and even offered us a taste of the wines to see if we were ok with it ...etc etc.....overall very competent and proactive service - there were some asian crew - thais -- who appeared to do alot of the menial jobs [ noticably both to annd fro ]......they were more dispensing rather than part of the overall service experience.....wspecial requests was met without issues and executed well.

now the return flight was another story .....the crew were mainly guys - a very flamboyant bunch at that [ calling each other " my dear ! " out loud across the middle row about something or other ....one even sashaying up and down the aisle !!.. ..yes this was a SWISS flight !!!:p ] - no problems with that .in fact thats all fine ..BUT when it came to executing the service they were deplorable.......refusing to place the drinks or little plates on your tray but handing it to you instead - i was in an aisle seat and giving the impression that it was beneath them to serve .....sighing betwn expllaining the dining options - ..very casual and overall not friendly or approachable and basically offputting.......

one even said within earshot shortly after serving .........I NEED TO GET SOME SLEEP !! .....this was after the dinner service which was at the beginning of the flight !

special request was a joke......they instead gave a 101 reasons why they could not do it and why it would be to my disadvantage of they had acceded to my request......despite me telling them that on my outbound flight they were more than happpy to meet my request .........only after many to and froing did he finallyy accept my request......and then .the more senior crew member asked him OUT LOUD what was the trouble and he went on with a detailed explanation .......and the senior crew member gave a glare in my direction ......

they were not friendly and they were not warm or even pretended to seem to care for your comfort..instead they gave this impression that serving was beneath them and that they were not there to care about your comfort.

i dont expect swooning service but i do expect at least a warm and interested one........

very disappointing return trip on SWISS.:td::td::td::td::td: