YuropFlyer

After some decent SQ flight, had a rather negative experience in the Arrival Lounge in ZRH.

Upon lounge entrance, had to inquire for the shower (so far so good, albeit the inquiry shouldn't come so much to a surprise to the staff as it did) - was given the shower card. Without telling which shower it was. After inquiring of this again, was told "number 9" - an answer which left me a bit daffled. But then I've not used the lounge for a few months, and maybe they'd have gotten rid of the names and using numbers now? Just like their good old mother Lufthansa in Frankfurt? So I left for the showers, obviously just to find names and no "number 9" shower.

Cleaning staff (who speaks better German than the lounge attendance lady, by the way..) obviously told me the same - it's names not numbers. On heading back to the entrance to finally receive the name and not some internal number, got told a very annoyed "thats shower Juli" answer. Somehow my half-asleep brain could translate that into YUL, which translates again to Montreal (showers are only having the full city name, not IATA airport codes) - and the computer indeed said "Yes" when I entered the shower card into Montreals slot.

All-in-all, it was a very bizarre experience, and I hope that's not the new norm at the Arrival lounge, but something happening due to moody staff and/or missing proper explanation to some new staff member (didn't see that partical person before)

chris63

chris63

mmff

Perhaps this thread should be locked until the Lurkers are back?

SwissInternationalAirLines

Hi all, Lurker is back Honestly spoken, I have to admit: It is indeed a challenge to respond to all comments on various Social Media channels. Even here on Flyertalk, separate threads were opened which we tried to accommodate from time to time. We really try our best to comment on everything on every Social Media channel as fast as possible - especially because all these comments are so valuable to us. However, complexity in every sense is arising. Trying to reply to every comment given within the next days. Very best, Franziska

chris63

SwissInternationalAirLines

Thank you! Especially FT is of great interest to us. My apologies for any delays. As you all might know we had a tough summer in the airline business this year.

chris63

SwissInternationalAirLines

Dear Flyertalker,

Again, please accept my apologies for my absence during the last couple of months.Since the year is ending now, I thought it is a good time to refresh our initial intend to have an official SWISS representative here on Flyertalk.

Some points to raise:Flyertalk is part of our Social Media strategy and we are aiming to keep the handling of the forum internally within SWISS.My name is Franziska, working for SWISS since 8 years. I am responsible for the SWISS Social Media Dialog and Service – basically I am managing the reactive activites on SWISS Social Media channels with my Marketing and Customer Services lenses. Occasionally my colleague Leslie helps out here on Flyertalk during my absence.

What will we be doing?
We will try our best to answer any questions that need a response or some sort of clarifications from SWISS. This will only be possible on this offical SWISS thread. We are happy to gather your suggestions on product innovation or how to overcome the rising complexity in the airline business and its products.

My personal wish is that we keep Flyertalk as a channel that focuses on things that we do well. I am sure there are tons of things that SWISS is actually doing pretty well I am keen on your frequent flyer expertise and feedback.

What won’t we be doing?
We won’t be able to handle individual complaints or question any decisions that have been made already within the company. We are not aiming to make Flyertalk another complaint channel. We are unable to search for any threads individually openend by one of you. Please bear in mind that I wont be able to offer you a 24/7 service.

Talking about end of year, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a joyful holiday season with your family and loved ones. Merry Christmas and have fun at New Year’s Eve.

All the good things,
Franziska
SWISS Intl' Air Lines

asimha

Dear Franziska, thank you for coming out of the dark and of course best wishes in advance to the whole Social Media team

We will be flying to JFK on the 25th so we'll have the opportunity, as always, to praise the crew on board.

Personally I have only good things to say about Swiss and have been faithful since a very young age in the days of Swissair.

The complexities of travel are indeed challenging both for yourselves and for your passengers as it is increasing difficult to understand the rules (mostly) and regulations (somewhat) and often the difference between the marketing and reality.

If I may ask of you one thing is to focus on IT and make the website less buggy and less cumbersome and to ask the teams to at least create proper error messages as they are often (and I am the CIO of a large multinational, so I know what I am talking about) ... cryptic and not helpful.

Many of the complaints are actually about this and less about service except perhaps the complexity of the Star Alliance concept which to be honest, does not always ... "fly"

Best wishes once again to everyone !
André

HKG1111

I am speechless about so much marketing bulls... "My personal wish is that we keep Flyertalk as a channel that focuses on things that we do well. "Are we not reporting enough positive news about Swiss? This forum is in my view to share what we see positive and negative and ask questions. At the moment I see that somebody tries to explain that this forum is not valuable (in a nice way). Ok point taken there are other ways of communication. I just hope with LX being more integrated into the LH group they don't go the same way that windows are changing to mirrors which you see yourselves but not the truth anymore. Merry Christmas to all!

SwissInternationalAirLines

Dear André,

Thank you for your comment and all the good things for the new year.

The challenges you are raising with regards to the website are always addressed to the team with utmost urgency. As you may know, the colleagues from the eCommerce Team are highly involed in building the new groupwide airline.com website. I also had to learn that major changes to the existing webiste are "on freeze" for now.

And yes, complexity with the Star Alliance concepts and products is immense and gives all of us a hard time sometimes.

Very best,
Franziska

SwissInternationalAirLines

Dear HKG1111,

Dont get me wrong. Of course, we also wish to get your feedback on the things we dont do properly - anything else wouldnt feel right. However, my intend was to raise that we wont always have a proper explanation on why we are doing this nor the possibility to change things immediately.

I will focus on trying to give you some transparancy on possible reasons behind stuff - thats for sure!

All the good things for the New Year and definitely continue reaching out to us!
Franziska

LoungeLizzard

I do like Swiss and it's still my preferred choice of carriers, but this thread is making it harder for me to keep on doing that.
Sorry to be so direct, but the appearance and attitude shown here is not at all in line with my expectation of a company
which cares for customers.
What I see here - and also what I don't see here, is definitely lowering my appreciation of Swiss.
Letting even HON's stand in the rain countless times and for extended periods is a disservice to Swiss and it honestly
saddens me to see this.

My vote is to lock this thread and throw away the key.

I think both parties would benefit from it. - The Social media team would have more time to focus on what's important to them,
and far less people would be disgruntled here by waiting for replies which either don't come, or then don't help.

Artemio

Dear Franziska,

There is something annoying for some about the swiss first class access policy I want to report to you in the purpose of being more customer friendly in the future.

Here is the problem:
Swiss first class passengers on a codeshare flight (but still on swiss metal) are being turned down to access the first class lounges in ZRH. And this, from a first class' passenger perspective, is impossible to know beforehand, then really difficult to understand why and to admit it 2 hours before departure.
I guess there is a valuable reason to deny the access for those codeshare flights passengers; and that's none of my business to actually know why! I'm not arguing here about this although as I already mentioned it's difficult to swallow it at the lounge entrance. So finally my point is that if you want to keep this policy, why not warn e.g. at the final step of the booking that this codeshare flight won't give access to the lounge (next to bagages policy or ....). At least that way, the customer is aware of this "non-published" policy and won't be disappointed on the day of the travel.

I haven't been in that situation, but have seen it happened and can't get why there is no warning of this policy.

Hope it gets constructive,
take care,
artemio