I've been wanting to do a "there and back again" for awhile since aeroplan charges the same for lax-pek-lax, as for lax-pek-zrh-pek-lax, (175k miles - or duing the sale last year 125k) and swiss seems to have great availabilty on the pek-zrh route. The main value of aeroplan is their favorable routing rules which basically allow a total of 3 stops. After hearing the raves from my parents when I scored them 2 F seats on lax-zrh a few weeks ago, I had to try it myself (and lax-zrh is insanely difficult to find). Also I wanted to try the new CA 773 to see if it was a good tpac option as all the other good ones have fuel surcharges now.
Check in at lax (t2, not tbit) was fine. The agent was nice but could not print my boarding pass for pek-zrh on lx. I was worried this might be a problem due to the 1:05 barely legal connection in PEK. One problem with t2 the last two times I've been there is that the check in agents don't take your bags, you have to walk them over to a scanner and wait in a usually incredibly slow line. Earlier this year in NZ business, we had to wait about 20-30 minutes, which seems really unacceptable for customers in business. Anyway, today the CA agent took my bag to the front of the line.
Their are only 2 *A lounges in T2 (Air Canada and ANZ) and neither has a F section (like the *A lounge in TBIT). ANZ is without a doubt superior, but it was closed and CA contracted with the AC lounge. IMO CA should have splurged on the ANZ lounge, especially on a flagship route with their newest F/J products. They had a few fruits/cheeses/cookies/soups as well as drinks but the food options looked very un-appatizing and the seats quickly filled up. I was also able to print the boarding pass for pek-zrh using the advanced check in option on swiss.com.
First impression of the cabin was WOW. Photos really don't do it justice. CA got it right with these seats and with the mood lighting, the cabin was very impressive. Today's load was 4/8 and all 4 middle seats were empty which made the cabin feel very private. The seat is easily in the running for the best F seat out there. I might even have to give it the edge over CX. Even though CX is 1-1-1 vs 1-2-1 on CA, it is still plenty spacious. The TV is much larger (although immovable, but there is no need to move it), the table slides forward from under the tv instead of having to pop out which provides tons of surface space to set things when it's stowed. I did notice that the paint on the buttons for the recline options was wearing off (after only 8 months in service) but I'm really nitpicking. 0 complaints.
The service was suprisingly good with 1 caveat. The FA's were very attentave and it definitly had the Asian carrier feel. During the middle of the flight I pushed the call button and a FA was there in literally 5 seconds. They also circulated through the cabin every few minutes during meal time and less often through the rest of the flight. The Caveat was that the FA's didn't speak english very well (although I could have just gotten a new FA).
The food could use a bit of work. The first meal was a light lunch (at 1:40 am departure) and the second meal was dinner (at 5:30 arrival). Not sure about the logic of that, but my issue was more with the quality. The dishes definitly had a business class feel and presentation. They weren't terrible, but this is the main area CA needs to up their game if they want to compete with the other Asian carriers.
Somewhere over Siberia
Overall, I would have no problem choosing them again (although would prefer CX/NH/JL/OZ).
To come in a couple days LX F, Zurich, Beijing and a few additional photos from the return LX/CA flights.