Even the Cathay bed was so nice, 1 hr was definitely not enough. I slept for about 2-3 hrs more that morning then went to walk around and shopping on 5th Ave. I used to live in New York, and also come 5-6 times a year, but never get bored of it. Streets were amazing, lively, full of cultures, and real!
A view from Asiate, a restaurant at the lobby of The Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Columbus Circle
I may have been to NYC hundreds of time, but sometimes you can just keep taking pictures
5pm, it’s time to go back to JFK.
Check in took a minute, then I proceed to Swiss Lounge. Being UA 1K only gets you to Business Lounge (unlike flying on OW the night before when I access First Lounge). The Lounge was small but had anything you need including shower. It was kinda packed cuz Swiss itself had 3 flights in a matter of few hours, and there were also many other airlines that were designated to use the Lounge such as SQ etc. There were few choices of food and salad. LH Senator Lounge at Terminal 1 was a bit better I thought. The bad thing about Terminal 4 was that the Lounge was on the land side, so you still have to go through the security. The premium line was longer than normal line most of the time here. When I got to gate, they already called my name!
Pic of the Lounge
Pic of HB-JHH at the gate in JFK
2. JFK-GVA (Dec-29, 2011) LX23 A330-300 [HB-JHH] (Economy: 38A)
Once on the plane, I settled in. Everybody around me was speaking French! I love the international feelings when you hear foreign language. The taxi time at JFK was shorter than usual, around 10-15 minutes. Once we took off, the dinner was served. There were choices of Chicken with Rice and Pasta. I had the rice. After the meal, I felt asleep and woke up right when Breakfast was served. The meal was not that much better than what we had on American Carriers. The flight time was only 6.50 hrs because of the strong tail wind. We landed on time in Geneva.
I did not see any transfer desks, I went all the way outside. I remember that I need to make a reservation on a famous train ride “glacier express”, so I went out to the train station and had that done then came back to the terminal and standby on the earlier flight to Zurich. I went to the Swiss Senator Lounge but did not take any pictures
3. GVA-ZRH (Dec-30, 2011) LX2809 A319-100 [HB-IPX] (Economy: 14E)
More than half of the FAs from the flight from JFK came on this flight to Zürich. I was originally assigned for an aisle seat but when I reached my seat, a very overweight person was sitting there. From what I saw, there is no way this person can fit into a middle or window seat. Since it was such a short flight, I just asked him where I should sit. This flight lasted for only 35 minutes. The view was great when we landed in Zürich. The sky opened up.
