snorkmaster

Welcome to my first trip report.

My mom and I have started a tradition of taking a short Christmas trip – I pitch in the miles, and she pays for most of the ground expenses. It’s a nice way to ensure that I spend some time with her at least once a year while visiting a new place.

For the second year straight, we procrastinated on making travel plans and found ourselves faced with a dwindling number of options. Last year, I was able to scrap together two C class tickets to PTY a few weeks before Christmas, and we ended up having a great time on a road trip from Panama City through the western part of the country. It wasn’t exactly our first choice, but the trip turned out wonderfully.

This past November, the frequent flyer availability seemed worse than the previous year, and the discount ticket options were virtually non-existent given our timing requirements. Warm destinations completely booked. While places like Midland/Odessa and Inyokern, CA may have their endearing qualities (and award availability), they were not so high on our list. Things didn’t look good. Then, sometime last month, I noticed a remarkably good deal for Le Montreux Palace on the Luxury Link website, and proposed to my mom that she jump on it. Switzerland was lower than Panama in terms of places I wanted to visit (primarily for cost reasons), but it seemed like a great opportunity to visit the country for much, much less than it would normally run...not so much so because my mother was paying, but because the package at Le Montreux Palace was quite comprehensive in terms of what was included.

With my mom looking like the winner in the Luxury Link auction, I called up AA to check on frequent flyer availability – and voila, we had two business class seats to Switzerland on LX.

The details of the trip follow below...

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I arrived at Detroit Metro on the 24th to find that my flight was slightly delayed. I was more worried about starving than missing my connection (since I had four hours at ORD), so I moseyed over to the lone concession in the concourse, and secured myself one of lonely rotating hot dogs and a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips. Hardly a gourmet lunch to launch to the trip, but certainly enough to hold me for a while. (As a side note, there is some hope in terms of concessions at DTW’s old terminal - they will be upgraded in early 2004.)

24 Dec
AA 1623 (DTW-ORD, F Class, F100)
I was pleasantly surprised by the onboard service. Whether due to tight turnaround or general laziness, this short flight is generally unsatisfying in terms of service - pre-departure drinks are rarely served, and the flight attendant often waits 15 minutes before serving drinks and snacks. This means you only have 20 minutes to snarf down your beverage(s) before the glasses are collected.

This flight was a refreshing change of pace. The cheerful flight attendant offered pre-departure drinks (and refills!), and was very attentive during the flight as well. Perhaps my positive perception of the flight was impacted by her generous sparkling wine servings - for some reason, she served it in the rocks glass rather than the wine glass. Perhaps she thought I needed it after my wonderful lunch.

Anyway – with the generous scheduled gate-to-gate time, we were only about 15 minutes late. My mom was waiting for me at the gate (as she was flying in from BDL.)


Swiss Business Class Lounge
We schlepped over to the International Terminal to relax in the Swiss lounge during our layover between flights. In my opinion, the lounge wasn’t anything to write home about. While the decor was nice enough, I was fairly unimpressed by the snack options. I wasn’t expecting the world, but something more substantial that dry mini-sandwiches and selections that looked like they came from a suburban grocery store’s “Cheese Island” would have been nice. Some Champagne would have been nice too. Then again, the Admirals Club is even weaker in terms of food offered, so perhaps I shouldn’t complain.

24 Dec
LX 9 (ORD-ZRH, C Class, MD11)
While the crew's professionalism, and the quality of the service provided were top notch, I was fairly underwhelmed by my introduction to LX’s business class product. Perhaps my expectations were too high. As others have mentioned, the MD-11 business class seat is mediocre, and IMHO, its foot rest is downright awful. While “AA Business Class” bashing is a popular sport on Flyertalk, I’d tend to disagree with the conventional wisdom that any European airline business class option is better than AA’s (in the case of the MD-11.) I understand that the MD-11s are being phased out, but I’d take an AA Business Class seat over that MD-11 seat any day.

In my opinion the food was perfectly decent, but nothing too impressive. On paper, LX’s food sounds much better than AA’s, but I think AA’s formula of delivering well prepared, simple dishes might more successful. In addition, I felt the portions were rather small.

If you’re interested, here is the menu:

M E N U

DINNER

First Course

Pastrami-style smoked salmon and squid filled with fish served with squash and carrot slaw
or
Proscuitto with fresh mozzarella and tomato

Main course
Seared fillet of beef in red wine sauce accompanied by roasted red potato wedges, sauteed carrots, and yellow squash
or
Veal picatta in a lemon sauce with tarragon and capers served with buttered noodles and sauteed peppers with sugar snap peas
or
Cioppino-style seafood with fish, shrimps and scallops accompanied by white rice and sauteed spinach
or
Gnocchi in a creamy mushroom sauce served with portobello mushrooms, carrots, and zucchini

Cheese
Selection of cheeses
exact same selection they had in the lounge

Dessert
Apple crumble
or
Chocolate mousse
Swiss chocolates


BREAKAST

Fresh seasonal fruit

Fruit yogurt

Assorted breakfast breads


And the wine list...

W I N E - L I S T (too lazy to do accents...sorry )

Champagne
Brut Nicolas Feuillatte Reserve Particuliere, France

White Wine
2002 Donaggio Giglio Bianco Ticinese DOC Luigi Zanini, Switerland
2002/03 Chenin Blanc Boland Kelder, South Africa

Red Wine
2001 Donaggio Merlot del Ticino DOC Luigi Zanini, Switzerland
2001 Vin de Pays d’Oc La Cuvee Mythique, France
2001 Pinotage Bay View Longridge, South Africa

Other notes:

• The amenity kit was very spartan, but additional products (such as razors and moisturizer) are available from the cabin crew.
• IMHO, the eau de toilette in the bathroom is a bad idea. Over-application by one passenger overwhelmed our area with the scent. I’m not one of those “don’t wear any perfume around me” types of people either – I just felt the scent was far too strong.
• My mom and I got a kick out of a lady on the flight who looked like she asked her stylist to model her hair after George Washington.

We arrived in ZRH early and without incident, and proceeded to the Allegra Lounge for some snacks, drinks, and refreshing showers before our flight to GVA. Interestingly, I did not see one other Business Class passenger in the lounge, even though the flight was full.

More to come...



[This message has been edited by snorkmaster (edited Jan 01, 2004).]

Seat 2A

Great report so far ~

Enjoy your travels!

Bretteee

I am amused the portions in C are small. I thought that was only the case in Y.

You say that C on AA is better than LX. This is also the case in Y in my opinion.

snorkmaster

After our brief stop in the Allegra lounge, we headed through immigration the quasi-sneaky back way, and made our way to the new Dock E by bus. This was kind of a pain in the butt, but reasonable given that construction on the subway still seemed to be underway.

We didn’t spend much time in Dock E due to our relatively quick connection, but from what I saw, it appeared to be an attractive building. (As someone who works in the airports business, I found myself wondering how much it cost to build – maybe someone here knows…)

25 Dec
LX 2804 (ZRH-GVA, C Class, A320)
Boarding commenced about 20 minutes before departure. Economy Class was fairly full, but there were only 4 or 5 people in Business Class. Coats were not hung, but the friendly flight attendants did come around with champagne and orange juice for pre-departure drinks.

After take-off, the flight attendants came around to take our drink orders, and offered us mini-sandwiches off of a tray. If I recall correctly, the options were fish, beef, and cheese. They were actually quite tasty, and IMHO, an acceptable snack for a 30 minute flight. Perhaps one of the LX experts here can advise if this represents a downgrade from what was offered on the flight in the past.

25-29 Dec, in and around Montreux
Given the cost of round trip travel between GVA and Montreux (62 CHF*), we decided to get the Lac Leman regional rail pass since we were planning on bopping around by train quite a bit. It runs 99 CHF for 3 days of free travel, and 4 days of half price travel. While the scope of the coverage is somewhat limited, I think it’s a great value for someone who’s only going to be in the area for a short stay. Other types of regional passes are also available for the Lac Leman region, and other parts of Switzerland as well.

After a quick transfer in Lausanne and an additional 20 minutes of travel, we were in Montreux. As guides will tell you, Montreux may be spectacularly set, but it’s not a particularly exciting place (outside of the Jazz Festival and other special events, I assume.) That didn’t matter to us though – as seeing Montreux was low on the priority list – spending time together, living in the lap of luxury, and seeing the surrounding area were.

We sniffed our way to the hotel, and checked into our spacious Junior Suite. As mentioned elsewhere on Flyertalk, this Raffles-managed hotel has a bit of an old-world-hotel-meets-sterile-new-renovation feel, but it’s still a classy property with top flight service. And heck – we had nothing to complain about – our $900 package included:

• 4 nights in a Junior Suite overlooking the lake (which looks like it goes for 545 CHF a night at best)
• Welcome gift upon arrival (not sure what this was)
• Champagne (Veuve Cliquot – not too shabby considering it was part of the auction package) and hors d'oeuvres (cookies) in room upon arrival
• Daily breakfast buffet
• A four course dinner for two (turned out to more like six), in restaurant 'JAAN' on the evening of
  arrival
• Intimate candlelight dinner in the suite on 2nd evening (given that I was with my mom, we swapped this for another JAAN meal)
• Two 'à la carte carte' dinners in the Brasserie
• Unlimited access to the Amrita Wellness
• One 'serenity' wrap at the Amrita Wellness per person
• Service charges and VAT

I thought the JAAN meals were quite good, but then again, I haven’t had a lot of Khmer influenced modern French dining experiences in my time.

I don’t have all of the details of the menu buried in my head, but here’s what I recall was served on the first night - unfortunately, without the detailed explanations:

• A mini-bowl of soup, “compliments of the chef”
• Pumpkin veloute with foie gras
• Salad with duck and other things I can’t remember
• Some sort of sorbet involving lime and vodka
• Frog legs with risotto
• Veal loin with something like mashed taro root
• Another sorbet involving basil
• A mini-desert, “compliments of the chef”
• Some sort of durian tart
• Assorted hotel-made chocolates placed on a long piece of bark (or perhaps it was a genetically enhanced cinnamon stick...I'm not sure)

I won’t go into excruciating detail about the hotel beyond the above (unless requested), other than to say that we were more than pleased – particularly for the price paid. Those of who are familiar with costs in Switzerland know that this was an incredible deal. To put the dining costs in perspective, I think each of the JAAN meals would have run about 160 CHF a head. (Not that we would have paid that much, but the total cost still compared favorably with what we would have spent over 4 nights had we done it on our own.)

Highlights of train trips to Gstaad (on the Golden Pass line) and into France (on the Mont Blanc Express) will follow shortly...

*currency reference: 1.00 CHF = 0.81 USD


[This message has been edited by snorkmaster (edited Jan 01, 2004).]

JuPe

Great report so far. Keep coming. I enjoyed Montreux 4,5 years ago. I stayed in Righi Vaudois up in Glion. Did you see the Chillon Castle?

Bretteee

A fantastic deal indeed you got. I checked this website but it looks as if the deals are mostly auctions. I personally like the Montreux Hyatt Hotel, which is modern. I agree that Montreux is sleepy but you can take great tours from there.

airoli

Thanks for sharing this, I enjoyed reading it.

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truly yours. airOli.
March 1st 2004: Morgestraich Do!

onedog

Thanks for the trip report.

arkangel

Most enjoyable reading! Anxiously awaiting the next installment. It brings back some wonderful memories of a six week visit my wife and I had in the area some 20 years ago or so. We stayed in Evian les Bains, but visited Montreux, Lausanne, Geneva, Leysin, and points in between.

BTW, speaking of DTW and the Smith terminal, do you know when, if ever, all the non-NW carriers will move to the old NW terminal? And what kind of upgrade will the Smith terminal concessions undergo?

snorkmaster

In fact we did walk down to the Chillon -- it was quite impressive.

Did this hotel recently change management? I checked the Hyatt page and didn't see any mention of a location in Montreux.

DL will eventually move over to the new NW terminal. Other carriers will move into a new facility...the design has not been finalized, but expect it to incorporate the old Davey (NW) Terminal building's check-in and baggage facilities along with a new concourse containing 20-odd gates. It's my sincere hope that the Berry Terminal will be closed, but there is no official word on its fate.

In terms of the Smith Terminal concessions...I don't have the list, but expect to see national brands (Chili's Too, Quizno's, etc.) replace the awful options that currently exist. Hardly ideal, but anything's an improvement over what is in place today.

More on Switzerland tomorrow...

Altaflyer

I enjoyed your report

Bretteee

You are correct. The hotel I mentioned is no longer a Hyatt. They used to have a wonderful Sunday brunch. I was there over 10 years ago twice. I have no idea whether they changed names or whether it is even still a hotel. It was brand new then.

snorkmaster

On the day after arrival, we took the MOB (Montreux Bernese Overland) Railroad up to Gstaad. We rode in an older train on the way up to Gstaad, and returned on one of the “Golden Pass Panoramic” trains. To be honest with you, I liked the older train more – it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the new panoramic train, and it seemed to cater to a more local crowd (given the clientele and number of stops).

The primary purpose of our trip up was the scenic train ride, but we timed it so we could spend a little time in Gstaad as well. I had originally hoped to make it to Interlaken, but our late start from Montreux made that virtually impossible (or perhaps more accurately, unworthwhile, as we’d have to see Interlaken in the dark ).

Anyway – we walked around Gstaad for about an hour before heading back down toward Montreux. As non-skiers, we couldn’t appreciate Gstaad for all it had to offer, but we found it to be a nice enough place. My tour book suggested (in a negative tone) that Gstaad was a very exclusive place, but I didn’t necessarily get that feel...although I swear I saw a hunkered over Enrique Iglesias walking through town.

Upon returning to Montreux, we took a short 15 minute ride to the town of Aigle for the sake of seeing another place. It was after dark by the time we arrived, but we still took some time to stroll around the old center of town. I thought it was a cute place, and filed in the back of my mind that it might be a nice, off the beaten track place to stay if I visited for the Jazz Festival or some other event in the future.

On the second day, we walked along the lake to the Chillon Castle. We spent about an hour exploring the place, and continued our stroll a little further to the town of Villeneuve. As many of you know, Switzerland has excellent signage, including yellow sign posts indicating walking time to various destinations. Perhaps I’m just a signage-geek, but I think the walking signs (and associated paths) are great.

In the afternoon, we returned to the hotel for our “Serenity Wrap” spa treatments. I don’t think this is an indulgence that I would normally partake in, but it was still thoroughly enjoyable. I felt that the front desk attendant at the spa gave me a little bit of “you don’t know what you’re supposed to do?” attitude when I checked-in, but otherwise, the experience was great.

Once again, we got a late start on the third day. My mom wanted to take the ferry across Lac Leman (from Lausanne to Evian-les-Bains in France), and I wanted to take the Mont Blanc Express (to Chamonix, in France), so we divised a vague strategy to accomplish both – although we didn’t have access to train schedule information from Chamonix onwards, so that part of the trip was up in the air. (I have to give my mother a lot of credit – I can imagine that a lot parents wouldn’t relish the thought of rolling into another country on a Sunday afternoon with no idea of how to get home.)

We took the CFF train to Martigny (by combining our pass with a paid ticket), and connected to the Mont Blanc Express after guzzling a few mini-coffees at the station and picking up some convenient screw-top-bottle wine for en route appreciation. (The French must think screw-top wine is too tacky (as I didn't see any in the supermarket), but I found that the screw-top wine sold in Switzerland was perfectly drinkable and very convenient for travel.)

In my opinion, the Mont Blanc Express was as stunning as the ride to Gstaad, with a much more dramatic track placement (for the Swiss part of the trip). At the frontier, we waited on the platform for the French ter train to take us down to Chamonix.

route of the Mont Blanc Express

Upon arrival in Chamonix, we consulted the multitude of mini-train-schedules in the station, and determined that getting to the ferry in Evian-les-Bains (as originally planned) was doable, but risky in that we might get stranded if anything went wrong.

Mind you, the alternatives weren’t much better - we could backtrack (which is a cardinal sin in our family), or we could make a series of connections to get back to Montreux. We chose the latter.

We walked around Chamonix for an hour or so before heading back to the station to make our way back to Montreux. After three connections, we found ourselves at the SNCF (French Railroad) train station in Geneva. The last train was probably the most painful – we arrived in Annemasse, France (which is basically next to Geneva), and had to wait an hour for a train to take us on the five minute ride into Switzerland. Perhaps Bretteee knows some trick for handling this more efficiently.

The SNCF station in Geneva was a graffiti-filled dump with no clear directions on how to transfer to the Gare de Cornavin (CFF/Swiss Rail station). We walked about a block to the right of the station, and were fortunate enough to find a direct tram to Cornavin.

Upon arrival at the station, we took the opportunity to make calls to the U.S. before departing. I was planning on using my calling card, but decided to experiment with coins. I was pleasantly surprised – I think the call ran about 0.50 CHF a minute – in my opinion, very reasonable for a payphone call.

Anyway, after missing a few trains (as something funny was going on -- the data on the yellow departure signs didn’t correspond with the changeable overhead track information signs), we were finally on our way back to hotel. We grabbed a quick dinner at the Brasserie around 10:30, and crashed.

With retrospect, we both felt that it was a great day, but perhaps a little more train-intensive than we had planned...

In the next few days I’ll wrap it all up with the GVA-ZRH, our day in ZRH, and the flights back to the U.S.

(This post seems awfully minutiae-laden. Sorry!)

[This message has been edited by snorkmaster (edited Jan 04, 2004).]

pallensf

Well done indeed for your 1st report snorkmaster...

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Patrick A. Inouye, LMT
volunteer trip reports moderator

Bretteee

Shame, you could have travelled from Annemasse to mid-town Geneva through the residential neighbourhoods by tramcar or bus in about 15 minutes.