Well, here I am in the Radisson Blu hotel room at ZRH airport during my unscheduled layover. As was posted above, they did not hold the LX138 flight which surprised me given that I was on the ground only 40 mins after it was due to depart.

What surprised me even more is that there were no signs or anything for pax leaving the LHR-ZRH flight. There was a woman standing around but she looked disinterested and I thought it best to plough on and see whether the LX138 had left yet.

Ended up wandering round a deserted airport with nobody in sight and had to ask the passport control people how to get to a transfer area. Ended up at a busy Transfer Area A and queued at the first class desk. I did express (mild) displeasure at the lack of signs/info etc during a) the boarding process in LHR ("we are keeping connections open but we do not know if they will hold aircraft for you" ) and b) when we disembarked at ZRH.

Anyway, they had rebooked me via the 1740 from Frankfurt tomorrow, but I asked them to reroute me via MUC. While I love the 744 over the A346, I prefer the first class setup of the Airbus in Lufthansa as the window seats are more private. It gets me in later (but still ahead of tomorrow's LX138) and I have lost a day anyway...The rebooking process took AGES, not helped by the man behind me losing his patience and tutting.

Major downside is the loss of the day and having to change all my forward flights/hotels etc. As a sidenote, the Radisson Blu service is fairly grumpy (no Goldpoints as I am not paying, no benefits of the "business class" room - normally free minibar, movies etc - as I am not paying etc, lunch/dinner vouchers not valid for room service). Makes you feel like they are doing you a favour. Still I can hardly blame Swiss for that.

Finally, do I get miles for the flights tomorrow or does it still count as an award booking?!


PS Did not think this would be the tone of my 500th post!