zrh-pek swiss a343 F
I took the train back to the airport and checked in at the business section in the train station, then walked through to security and to the F lounge. This was my first time in the ZRH F lounge and it was quite nice. Good selection of foods, drinks, and candies on every table. It does tend to fill up a bit as it seems that swiss groups their long haul departures to all leave around the same time. A couple sat down next to me with a very young kid but surprisingly they actually watched him, kept him quiet, and didn't let him run all over the lounge. Anyway, since the lounge is not in the same building as the international flights depart from, they have shuttles every 5 minutes to that terminal. A swiss employee guides you from the lounge, down the elevator, through exit customs, and to a bus that takes you to the other terminal. There was a slight holdup at exit customs as they did not stamp my passport when I entered. I didn't think anything of it since US immigration never stamps it. Anyway, the customs lady just asked to see my itenerary which I luckily had printed out and I was good to go.
Boarding was fine, although I noticed that they boarded all pax at the same time, just through different lines (perhaps this was because the flight was a bit late).
Today's load was 3/8. And the other 2 pax were on the opposite side, so it was quite private. Everything was great, as expected, although I would have to say the service was actually a tiny bit better on the pek-zrh flight.
The alps
More balik (not as good as on the previous flight for some reason)
Asparigus soup
Salad
Lamb with cheese
The lamb with cheese was absolutely amazing. I think it wins best tasting airplane food I've ever had. One of the pieces was significantly more undercooked than the other, so they put it back in the oven, but it was still amazing.
I skipped the breakfast before arriving in PEK as I was still stuffed from dinner/lounge food.
I believe this was the first if not, one of the first flights to land at the international section of T3 for the day as it was completely deserted.
I had booked the bmw airport transfer from the park hyatt for 680 CNY ($108 US), mainly because the flight arrived so early (5am) and this would likely help ensure a very early checkin. An agent from the airport met me at the gate with the hyatt sign and walked my through immgration and bag claim (which did take ~20 minutes). She waited while I got some money from the ATM and a sim card and then led me down a hallway and elevator to a private area where a bmw was waiting.
next up:
beijing/ park hyatt
pek-lax