bruce80

I have been there several times, yes.. and while I didn't say the E lounges (C and SEN) were a complete failure (they are still better than the ones in A), I just believe that they are not that great a leap forward from the old A/D ones, much unlike the FCL E. At least have I never bothered to take all the hassle to get there before an A/B departure, as it just didn't seem worth it to me, even with around 3 hours of connecting time.

Please allow me to elaborate this a bit further, so as to enable other readers to better understand the base of my opinion. While the design of the new lounges itself is quite nice, I never felt that design was an issue (just compare the old lounges to, for example, old LH SEN lounges or even BA lounges).

My main concern was always about the food and drink offerings, which is more or less a problem with all LH group lounges, particularly if they are located in a hub. Compare that, for example, to the average Emirates outstation lounge, or even to SQs T2 SilverKris lounge, which basically is a regional business class lounge.

And even if I compare the LX lounges to what is probably the closest relative to a SEN lounge outside the LH network, the BA Galleries First lounge at LHR, at least the drink offerings there are more suitable to my taste than those at ZRH (and while the breakfast there is quite typically british and might not be top-notch quality, the choice is much wider there). And while I cannot comment on the quality of the front cooking in E, it probably won't stand a comparison to what they, for example, do at CX The Bridge in HKG. And while they have extended the selection slightly conpared to the old lounges, they have more or less leveled the difference to the A lounges in the meantime by backporting most of the new offerings to the A lounges.

Now, they have added some additonal features as well, like the whisky bar. For sure, that's a nice idea, but will probably be of only limited use to most people arriving early morning. And every time I have visited the E lounges so far, the terrace was either closed or it was too warm outside to actually use it, so that's also something with limited value to me. I would gladly exchange both features for a wider spread of better quality catering in the lounge.

In the end, particularly if you compare the new lounges to what some (international) competitors provide at their hubs, the lounge is still "just" a LH group SEN lounge, and you can very clearly feel that. To me, it simply feels like they haven't gone as far as they could have to get their product one or two steps ahead of their competitors (while perfectly achieving this with their new FCL), and that is the reason why I just don't understand the hype that has obviously been created among some of the lounge users. It is definitely a welcome refurbishment of an existing product, but it is in no way something really new that would justify a huge enthusiasm.