Lack

If they're shutting down the lounges to speed up the refurb I can't imagine how long it would take them to do it with the lounges operating.

Ok, next time I'll be flying through ZRH I'll ask the captain to hurry up so I can be there early enough to hop between the terminals and use the lounges.

For me at least, the biggest appeal of the new E lounges is the great open air feel the lounges manage to accomplish. Not sure if that's possible given the main terminal architecture.

worldclubber

Did it last week, had to line up for the elevator, but once downstairs I walked past all of the other (apparently) non-EU visitors and found the one "EU"-booth, where there were about 2 people in front of me...

YuropFlyer

Sounds more like all the others didnt notice they could go there. In my experience at least 80% of pax departing ZRH to the E Gates will have a CH or EFTA or EU passport.

worldclubber

Most of hem didn't "look" European.

NewbieRunner

If you are arriving from Montreal and connecting to Nairobi you will almost certainly use E gates. The business lounge there will not be affected though there might be more passengers than usual due to the closure of the Schengen lounges.

BlueNordicSky

This will at least give me an excuse to get to the airport earlier and go straight to the whisky bar at the gate E lounge. Perhaps it's time to start a challenge and try to go through the entire whisky menu while the gate A lounge is closed?

rossmacd

I'm not sure I agree that the D lounges "suck". They have the same offering as the A lounges, but I would agree that they are a little darker in lighting especially in early mornings and evenings. But to say they "suck" is a bit bold, compared to some really poor lounges throughout Europe.

oliver2002

Swiss lurker says C/status pax will be sent to the Aspire lounge in the interim.

florens

Oh dear. It will get even busier.

vantage03

I just think it was pretty poor form of Swiss not to have a small bathroom in the D SEN lounge, the ones down the hall are pretty unpleasant..!

YuropFlyer

Have you ever used the bathrooms in the A SEN? I prefer to use the public bathrooms next door over them..

Back to topic, that poor Aspire lounge will be fuller than the good old C/SEN lounges at the A Gates (mid gates) in FRA before they opened the current lounge setting... if you even manage to squeeze in there..

It provides a "massive" 100 seats.. That will become the "lounge from hell" for the next 8/9 months..

On the positive side, it opens at 5.30am already, so Swiss pax on an early flight finally get to enjoy a lounge

Looking forward for the hot food item (changing weekly ) and the 2hrs of free wifi

rossmacd

One point which I agree with, but not a reason why I would brand the whole lounge complex as a lounge that "sucks".

GVA

Admittedly I think LX are managing this whole thing poorly from the initial information we have.

The aspire lounge will be utter hell, so I hope they have staff present who guide passengers to the D/E lounges and reserve the Aspire lounge for those who have short schengen connections (say less than an hour).

Knowing how LX manage these types of things, I expect nobody will be there to guide passengers and the Aspire lounge will be a total zoo.

The whole thing is poor form from LX, I remember when BA renovated their lounge in GVA they gave 25/30 CHF vouchers that were valid in most restaurants/outlets at the airport or last year AZ redid their lounge in FCO (similar to LX) and gave 20 EUR vouchers despite having other lounges open at FCO that one could use in addition to that voucher.

I think the end result of this mess will be mean I'll avoid booking connections through ZRH in favour of other airlines.

klausa

The website mentions something about "Coffee-to-fly concept". Anyone has a clue what that is?

swiss_global

The Aspire lounge is already operating beyond its capacity for Skyteam and Oneworld! That's hillarious!

Well LX never gave much importance to lounge access ... but some other airlines using Aspire do!