San Gottardo

Dear Swiss Lurker,

I thought I‘d share my impressions of the new First Lounge in Terminal A after having been there about ten times now since its opening. I am doing so in an open forum so that others can chime in. As a background, I am a Zurich-based HON with a mix of Euro and intercontinental departures, on rare occasions I also use the lounge upon arrival in ZRH, and sometimes I am actually a transfer pax at ZRH.

What is great

• Private security checkpoint (pure bliss!)
• Design (colours, materials) is well done
• More showers

What is disappointing and probably impossible to fix as long the lounge is in the current location

• Very dark, no natural light. The tiny opening on the rooftops behind the dining tables is not enough
• No terrace - a real pity, as the lounge is on the rooftop of other buildings

What is really disappointing, but takes time/effort to fix

The biggest and very serious disappointment: overall the lounge feels crowded and small, and does not offer the haven of peace and tranquility of other comparable lounges (FCL in Dock E in Zurich, Lufthansa FCLs in Frankfurt and Munich). It‘s just not somewhere one likes to spend time. The old lounge was „boring“ but at least it felt as being removed away from the buzz of the rest of the airport and one could stay there before flights and actually wind down. The new lounge does not block out the buzz, it feels cramped, crowded, hectic, noisy. A number of observations:

• The lounge actually *is* small. As many sofas as in the second room of the old lounge, as few tables as before in the restaurant area but closer together, so basically the entire main room of the old lounge is missing.
• Basically a corridor where people are moving from/to the entrance/gate access to/from the staircase leading to the limousine meeting point. The rest of the lounge is sitting alongside that corridor, a bit like strip malls along a freeway. It gives the lounge a „busy“ feeling instead of being calm and peaceful
• A lot of space is wasted on top of the escalators where the welcome podiums are: they take a lot of space, and to their left is a lot of completely unused space. Then the security checkpoint takes also space that could have been lounge space. Why not do the following: when coming up on the escalator turn left to the welcome podiums, put the security checkpoint along the wall to the left where the welcome podiums are now, and use all of the space of the current security checkpoint and part of the space used by the welcome podiums for actual lounge space!
• Inside, for the dark place it is due to the absence of natural light, the bar is too big. It sits like a huge block and „fills“ the space, and makes it feel even less airy and spacious
• The working booths are in yet another bunker that sits in the middle of the room and contribute even more to the narrowness of the space. Why not move the working closets where the „meeting room“ is now, that opens up the space in the downstairs lounge which can be designed and decorated usefully
• The meeting room is useless: it uses space, but usually there is nobody or just two people who didn‘t find seating in the lounge downstairs and then had to move there. Instead: put the working booths there
• The staircase towards the limousine meeting point sort of „closes“ the room
• The room does not absorb noise well. The espresso machine makes a lot of noise which is heard throughout the lounge.

What is disappointing and can be fixed easily (please do so!)

• Open access from where the limousine desk is. Since there is a door to the lounge, why use it only for exits? For passengers arriving in the A gates or going to the A gates this is much more convenient than taking the detour through the shopping area and the (not very First Classy) corridor (with its linoleum floor it feels like the back room of some cantonal office building, all that is missing is the number-dispenser at the entrance). It would be so easy, arrive in the A gates, take the elevator or spiral staircase to the first floor like before, and then just enter the lounge by the limousine desk
• Working booths! They are open just above the doors, which lets in all the noise. And therefore completely defies the purpose of being spaces where one can work and make phone calls quietly
• The buffet: in the old lounge the setup wasn‘t great with one part of the lounge getting hot meals only off the buffet (=not fresh...), now in the new lounge the things that were good on a self-service buffet are missing. Salads, drinks, etc. Some inspiration from how they mix buffet and ŕ-la-carte in the lounges in Munich and Frankfurt would be good
• And this one is my „please please do it now and don‘t ever start it again“: switch off the music!!!! Seriously, the place is noisy and hectic enough as it is, so don’t add to it. Having the same „Radio Swiss Pop“ that we have at Migros and in ski lift waiting lines is just annoying, and any other music would be as well (don‘t get me wrong: this is not a comment by someone who doesn’t tolerate music. I love music, I listen to it all the time with my own earphones, but the lounge being carpeted in this Muzak is not good). What intrigues me most: there is no background music in the First Lounge in E, so why have it in A?

Other forum members, please chime in.

@SWISSLurker: I hope this is helpful. It is really meant as constructive feedback. And switch off the music. Thanks.

ced_lx

Honestly, I’m not really looking forward to passing by next month. I will check it out for sure, but I am always transiting do the security facilities are a moot point for me. Aside from being renovated is the new lounge better in anyway than the old lounge?

gru_muc

chris63

mbr

Indeed I am also not very happy with the new lounge and can support most if not all of your point. Actually the location of the lounge is really not nice at all (no daylight, no view, etc) and I also find the lounge noisy and busy. Really uncool.

Additionally: No Eggs Benedict for breakfast, despite they have poached eggs etc. Offerings should be identical to Lounge E imho.

Let's hope LX improves it.

San Gottardo

Dear SwissLurker,

It would be good if you gave us a signal whether this post is actually seen and the content passed on to higher-ups at LX. I understand that it isn't nice to hear so much negative feedback after having invested a lot of money, but better we "let it out".

I felt the contrast again just yesterday. When I arrived from my longhaul flight I headed to the E lounge as I needed to do some work immediately (phone calls, the background noise of the Heidi train would have been disturbing). Plenty of free seats, setting myself up at one of the large tables towards the back gave me ample room, light, powerplugs, and I didn't disturb anyone nor was I disturbed. Just quiet. And the layout of a large room with windows and no background noise really helped. This is what a First Class lounge should be like.

The same evening I left Zurich again on a European flight, using the Lounge in A. No single seat in the sitting area. Bar quite crowded. There was only one table in the restaurant area that had a free seat, so I took it although I didn't want to eat - so I basically blocked a table simply because there was nowhere else to go. Wanted again to get some work done, peeked into the working booths - all were occupied, and I could hear every single conversation. So I went on to the relaxation room to get some quiet there, but was asked to leave it when making phone calls (there was no other guest in there). So, to have a quiet place to make a phone call without background noise and without disturbing anyone I had to go to the corridor that leads to the limousine desk.

Seriously, there are questions of taste and preference (furniture, food, etc). But not being able to find a single quiet corner in the Lounge because it is simply overcrowded is just unacceptable.

I do hope that there will be a second phase soon where this lounge will be brought up to standards.

Carpacchio

Let's think through this from a business economics pov:
they just spent money to refurbish the lounge to ahdere to some internal standard / principles. As long as you don't take another airline / hub because of the nuisance in the lounge, why should they spend more money ?
Only if they lose in the long run money since first class passengers and other people allowed into the FCL take other airlines and that amount would be bigger than additional investment in the lounge, they might have a reason to invest more.

My 2 cents

San Gottardo

We all get that. But by that logic they wouldn't have needed to make such a nice Lounge in Dock E, a more modest one would have done (agreed they needed to do something). And clearly they do think of their new lounge as a step up, and it is regarding security control, furniture, etc.

Losing passengers: for me, on my "milk runs" I always preferred LX to BA or AF because I had a good lounge experience in Zurich. Now: the BA and AF lounges in ZRH are quieter than the LX First Class lounge, if I want to eat without feeling that I am in the middle of whirlwind I can go to the Swiss Chalet, Spruengli or one of the restaurants/bars downstairs.

And that is what I mean by disappointment: when the First Class lounge is less of a haven of quiet than the public restaurants or the otherwise frankly underwhelming contract lounges of non-home carriers.

worldclubber

shipsmail

The service/lounges in ZRH were my main reasons to connect via ZRH from Germany. Now this is going to change and I will go back to fly more via MUC and FRA. Another reason is the cancelation of the LX Flight in the early morning from DUS to ZRH. This flight has never happened while Scheduled for many months. I had to rebook 9 transcon flights, because I do not like to use EW in combination with an F ticket via ZRH.

chris63

CheckInPeach

I immetiately quit my HON membership after I saw the new lounge. ��

Jokes aside, I was there last week around noon and it was not dark at all. They have a window front facing outside, it was partly covered by curtains though, probably because of the construction site.

I agree though with most other comments. It feels quite small and if you are in a hurry, the buffet was much more convenient instead of now hunting staff to get you something. The smoker lounge is a nice addition though.

Charly61

almost 2 weeks have passed since san gottardo opened this thread. I am also wondering how so many things could have gone wrong with this lounge. what also astonishes me is the fact that there has not been any reaction from the SwissLurker, not even a sign that they have read the critisism. or is this the way they react (or rather not react) to the opinions of their valued customers ?

ced_lx

honestly if you are expecting an answer, you should contact SWISS through official channels.

San Gottardo

This *is* an official Swiss channel!

LX does have its official forum rep, with the handle Swiss Lurker, he does answer posts directly. Which is why this post has been opened with the prefix "Dear Swiss Lurker", to attract his attention and as a way to use him as a feedback channel into LX.