MIA-IST-BKK on Turkish or MIA-ZRH-BKK on Swiss? Business Class
 

I have the option of MIA-IST-BKK on Turkish or MIA-ZRH-BKK on Swiss. Both options are Business Class. Two adults and one child. We flew on Swiss once and loved it, however the Zurich Panarama lounge was a bit week. Both options have nearly identical layover. Soft Product is our #1 priority. Thank you in advance for your help.

FWIW, LX lounge in ZRH is recently renovated and absolutely gorgeous.

Stick with what you love. Also ZRH is a much better option in case of miss-connect.

TK soft product and IST lounge looks pretty impressive.

Another option could be Austrian via Viana, however the layover is several hours.

I'd avoid Turkey for the time being.

The seats on TK are longer and more comfortable and the food is much better.

OTOH, if anything goes wrong, you really don't want to be dealing with TK.

IST lounge has much better food than LX ZRH, but the transfer experience will be much more civilized at ZRH.

I'd call this one a toss-up.

I'd go with TK, better seat/bed, better food/service, better lounge layover. One possibly problematic negative - IIROPS sometimes aren't so great.

I've done a few Business class trips on TK connecting through IST.

Sure, TK has good food and a great lounge.

BUT the IST airport is an overcrowded circus at best. Gates are way too small with odd procedures.

My last trip through IST featured a very late inbound on TK that allowed no time for the lounge or much needed shower. However, I was relieved that I did not have to deal with the famous TK agents for re-accommodation if my incoming flight was even later.

Getting a second glass of wine on TK can take much effort sometimes. White wines are not chilled. Sometimes they just don't get it.

Some of the DOCO onboard staff are great. Some are so lazy.

The bottom line:

I prefer the civility of ZRH and LX. :)

If you are not a German speaker or an HON/SEN, LX service tends to be extremely cold. As if they would really prefer you chose another airline. At least that's my experience.

But they are efficient. And ZRH is a very civilized transfer.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...ess-class.html

For me, safety factor would come into play, but YMMV...

Current political situation in Turkey would be decisive factor for me, i.e. I'd go for LX.

ZRH-BKK can be on the new LX 77W which has an even nicer looking Business class. I already like LX's J product and TK has a good one too but I'd want to try the new product.

IF soft product is #1 priority then TK is likely the winner. They've been on a real charm offensive recently and came out on top of the Skytrax awards.

In your situation the TK 3-across 777 seating in biz might be advantageous. Keeps your group seated together if that is important.

Otherwise for a myriad of reasons I would go with LX.


SL