FRA-ZRH
LX1069
AR1
Business


What to do when you've got nothing to do


Thai in retro livery

Prior to takeoff I was offered a water bottle to have for the quick hop over from Frankfurt. As we were taking off I got a glimpse of quite a few folks on a hill I can only imagine is for spotters, lucky them.

As was the norm for all of my European hops, I had a set of 3 seats to myself. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of a meal, but shortly after takeoff I was provided with a nice fruit plated. Again, why can’t this be offered in the US in domestic F for short flights?


Breakfast on a 35 minute flight


View across the row

The flight flew by quickly and in no time, we were landing in Zurich.



Taxiing in Zurich

Not much to report about this short flight, but the meal was a pleasant surprise and the scenery out the window was plenty to keep me entertained.

We arrived at a remote stand and had to board a bus that would take me back to the terminal. After arriving at the terminal and taking the escalator up, the FCL was right in front of me. I elected to walk around to get a glimpse of the airport first before heading over.


Inside Zurich Airport


ZRH FCL Entrance - you have to push the button to open the door

I went up the stairs and handed over my boarding pass to the agents at the front desk. I also asked to see if they could also try checking me in for the UA flight I was connecting too. They were able to do so and were surprised to see that I had come from Frankfurt and was connecting in Zurich and then Montreal…just to get to Washington. I’m sure they were thinking – why didn’t this guy just get on a direct flight? They welcomed me in and told me to meet them at 12:15PM at the front of the lounge for the F shuttle to the E gates.


Self serve bar on the quiet side of the lounge


Nice decor in the lounge


Buffet area


More seating with a great view outside

The lounge food was the plainest of the F lounges I visited on my trip. It had all the basic offerings along with some warm food, but it was otherwise unspectacular. I did have some chocolate and some of the snacks, but I didn’t feel the need to get a photo of it. After an hour in the lounge, it was really beginning to become full so I decided to head to the front of the lounge to see if I could catch an earlier shuttle. There was room on the shuttle before my designated one so I joined the group and headed downstairs. There we went through a security checkpoint that is designated for employees only and after finishing, walked a few feet over to a special passport control.

I was first through security so I walked up and handed my passport and boarding pass. He looked through for a minute and seemed perplexed. He came back to me and said that there was a problem with my entry into the Schengen area. He showed me the stamp from Paris and pointed out that it was dated for a date after the present date! I had in fact been stamped in 4 days AFTER the current day. Well that was clearly wrong so I gave him my BKK-CDG ticket stub which clearly showed that I had entered yesterday. He called his supervisor to see what he should do and during this time I felt bad for holding up 5 other F passengers in a process that normally takes seconds. 2 minutes later, he got off the phone and said that he would stamp me out anyway and so he stamped right on top of the Paris entry. He said that his colleagues in Paris made a big mistake and this was not good. I wonder how many passengers the border control officer in Paris stamped in with the wrong date…

We finally boarded the van and headed to the E gates. There we were escorted into the elevator and dropped into the terminal. I had heard about the double security that flights to the USA encounter, but if you’re going anywhere else you avoid any wait time by going through private security, passport control, and van service, so I did find the service useful.


Gate area in Terminal E


Bird to Montreal (sorry about the glare)

Boarding had already begun when I arrived so I quickly made my way to the empty Business/First line. There was a border control officer at the gate who inspected everyone’s documents and asked a few questions about why you were traveling in the Schengen area (a customs check I assume). Finally I boarded – it was time for my final F experience of the trip.