Flying me to Zurich was a US Airways antiqued 767-200. From the paneling of the interior and the shape of the overhead bins, you could instantly tell this was quite an old aircraft. Luckily, it was overall still in quite decent shape, unlike the United domestic 767 I flew 2 years ago that really lives up to the name of “ghetto bird”, a term both appropriately and inappropriately coined by some flyertalkers. I did not have high expectations when I knew I had to fly this particular aircraft type, given that the seats were neither the most cutting edge, nor the cabin the most recently updated.



Warmly receiving me at the door was a German American purser, who took a quick glance at my boarding pass, and jokingly said, “Now that’s a good seat, right this way sir”. Now come on, I shouldn’t be expecting to be led to my seat. Shame on me for thinking that, but I just couldn’t resist the thought, especially after being spoilt for years flying with Asian carriers. As I took my seat 2F, one of the flight stewards came by and offered a choice of orange juice and champagne, and I took the former. Whilst I was busy storing my luggage and pulling out my pair of pajamas for inflight use, the crew was busily distributing newspapers and magazines. Later on, one of the flight purser came around and handed out amenity kits, which looked fine, but the content was very poor, just a few packets of lotion, cream and other useless stuff.





Serving the business class cabin were two gentlemen, Orlando, the younger one and another seemingly more senior, but more underdressed chief purser (he was not wearing a jacket or a tie). Together, they worked as an effective team that made this flight one of the better flights that I have ever flown. Surprising right? Especially on a US carrier where bad reviews almost seem like the norm. Everything in the “usual” pre-departure service was delivered so far with a warm smile, and this was to be the predominant tone for the rest of the flight. Right before taxing out, the chief purser, seemingly the more professional one (actually they were both professional), came around and asked for each passenger’s meal choices. Evidently, elite members had their orders taken first, and I was only a lowly Star Alliance Gold. Nonetheless, by the time he reached to my seat, only the pasta ran out, and so my first choice, the beef tenderloin was still available.




Here is the menu for the entire flight. As you can see, dinner options were nothing fancy, just hearty comfort food, and breakfast was disappointingly just fruits or quiche, which I’m not that big of a fan.




As we reached cruising altitude, the crew busily began the process of warming the nuts, cooking the main course, dressing the table in each seat and rolling out the drinks cart. In addition, a cart full of Samsung tablets and Bose headphones was rolled around and each passenger was assigned a tablet and pair of headphones each. The tablet was quite easy to use. Movie selection was pretty good, with many recent blockbuster hits and a good selection of musical albums. I really like the Bose noise-cancelling headphones that American offers, and now that US Airways has it as well, the entertainment option altogether for this leg of flight was actually not bad.




To start off dinner this evening, I chose to have a glass of Californian Pinot Noir, which was okay, but still, what did I expect? Lynch Bage like on Cathay’s first class LOL?




The first course was beef on skewer. Now I know what you’re thinking, why are you having beef for both appetizer and main? I don’t really know, maybe none of the other mains really tempted me enough to try it.



The main course of grilled beef tenderloin was actually quite good, maybe just slightly too red in the center, but better undercooked than overcooked. However, the spinach side was absolutely disgusting. It tasted of nothing and had the texture of seaweeds, which is almost never a good sign.



Desert was cookies and cream ice cream. Taste was okay but I was pretty full by then, so no loss even if the taste was bad.



I was really tired before the FA came around to collect the trays, and so unconsciously fell asleep. The seat was slanted, and so I had to constantly fight gravity so as to not slip to the bottom of the seat, but I managed four hours worth of sleep. A few bumps along the flight did little to disturb my sleep, and by the time I was conscious once again, the cabin lights have been turned on. The distinctive aroma from reheating cinnamon buns was an inviting smell to start off the morning. Feeling the need to be healthy, I chose to have fruits for breakfast, along with a cup of coffee and orange juice.




I must commend the efforts of the crew on this flight. For the dinner service, drink and bread refills were plentiful. They always attempted to anticipate the needs of the passengers. I observed that both during dinner and breakfast, they constantly surveyed the cabin to make sure everyone was content. Of course the service was never as polished as that offered usually by the crew of ANA or Singapore Airlines, but the two FA’s were genuinely trying to make the entire experience a pleasant one, and so kudos to them for giving that effort. Maybe I just got lucky to have a good set of crew.

Landing into Zurich was smooth and on time. The views of the countryside on descent was absolutely stunning, and with the announcement over the PA “Willkommen auf dem Flughafen Zürich”, a warm reminder that I had just landed into one of the most beautiful yet most expensive cities in the world.

Last look at the cabin before leaving