Flight LX1068 ZRH-FRA
7:05a – 8:15a, Aug 22nd, 2014
Airbus A320
Business Class, Seat 2A
I am always amazed by Intra-Europe flights – even more so after having lived in the US for a while now. First of all, most of them are very short – usually below 3 hours but mostly between 0.5 and 2 hours. Some of the busiest European routes (like CDG-LHR, LHR-FRA, MUC-FRA, LIN-FCO) are usually between cities that aren’t very far away, but the volume is enough that many of these O&D’s are served by jet-type of planes. What’s most amazing, though, is the service that you get in business class. it’s true that the seats on European carries cannot compete with Asian or North American carriers’ in width and comfort – as they simply are economy class seats with the middle seat blocked. But even of the shortest of the flights, you’re always offered food and drinks – no matter what’s the time of the day. Last year I was amazed by British Airways’ LUX-LHR flight – where they managed to serve champagne and a great salad with prosciutto on a hour-long flight. but SWISS managed to do even better than that, serving a full breakfast… on a 45-minutes, 250 miles flight!
The business class cabin was surprisingly big and busy today – after all, it was a 7am flight on a business-heavy route. The seats on this A320 are the slim type, narrow but overall not too bad. After seating down, one of the flight attendants came by offering me a newspaper (they had a good selection). We took off 10 minutes past our scheduled departure time, mostly because we were waiting for connecting passengers to board. We managed to land on time nonetheless, since the block time for this flight is very generous.
Once airborne, the FAs started to serve breakfast. It was a surprisingly nice tray that I was handed – cured meats, cheese, and a selection of bread rolls (which I did not take) and jams are a great way to spend 45 minutes on a plane! A number of drinks were offered as well, and I got myself some decent coffee.
It always amazes me how efficient European crews can be, because there was even some time spared after breakfast and before landing! Whoever works in the food & beverage department (and training one!) at SWISS is simply awesome!
We landed on time in FRA at a very remote part of the terminal – it took me a good 15 minutes stroll to get out of the airport. All in all, a very short but again pleasant flight on SWISS – an airline that definitely knows how to treat its premium customers.