v-orange

Friday was my first time on Swiss flying from Zurich to Chicago- and I will never fly Swiss again! I do not know why they claim to have the "best trans-atlantic service" and who was reviewing them- but overall comfort was the worst of any airline I have flown in the past 3 years!
The seats were as uncomfortable as they can be! The recline was less than 2 inches and the seat pitch and seat width was far less than what Swiss web site advertised for A330! My knees were touching the seat in front of me and I am not a tall guy.... even on Continental which in my opinion has the tightest pitch for transatlantic flights on B757 I usually feel more comfortable!Add to that the fact that they only allow one piece carry-on(and this one piece can only be a small computer bag!!!!), and the time to get the bags from the belt in Chicago was horrible- 45 minutes after landing-I would rate them the WORST transatlantic service.
Yes, I am sure many of the people on this board would come to the defense of this airline- please let me know if I am off the mark here...

fly747first

I have flown Swiss many times and while I agree that the airline does not have the best international First or Business Class, Swiss does have a very competitive international Economy Class.

It seems to me that you are just going out of your way to criticize Swiss. FYI international Swiss Economy has a seat pitch of 32 inches on A330 aircraft, and 32-33 inches on A340 aircraft compared to Continental's international Economy that has a seat pitch of 31 inches on B757/B777 aircraft and 32 inches on B767 aircraft. I don't mean to sound defensive, yet it is insulting for you to say that Swiss' seat pitch is less than Continental's when it is a FACT that Swiss offers more leg room IN ANY CLASS OF SERVICE that Continental does (exemption being CO's B767s that match Swiss' seat pitch at 32 inches in Y Class). As the Continental's Platinum member that you are, I'm almost positive that they assigned you an emergency exit row seat, which have a lot more leg room that the standard CO's Y Class seats.

Granted, Swiss A330s aren't as new as the A340s, but they are still a lot more comfortable than Continental's seats. The seats themselves have a very elegant blue color, a fantastic entertainment system (on Continental's 757s the seats do not have a personal IFE unit), and Swiss cabin crews are significantly more efficient, professional, and refined than Continental's.

Perhaps next time you should fly United on one of their 767-300s from Zurich to Chicago, that will make you realize what a good product Swiss has.

JohnnyUMF

This seems like more of a problem of not being familiar with a variety of Euro carriers. SWISS is cramped in Y, but so is LH, BA, IB, etc. At least SWISS has decent meal/bar service and PTV's, and nice crew as far as I've met.

What's interesting, and I cant back this up by any fact, but SWISS Y, while always feeling cramped for legroom, seem to have a very nice recline/tilt feature...maybe it just feels that way because of the reduced legroom.

I would say based on my experiences that the A340 is of course the flagship in Y, but overall Y is still going to be cramped, especially if used to exit rows, etc.

v-orange

It is an interesting comment as I do fly UA a lot and their Economy Plus beats everyone else's offerings. Somehow, I care more about seating comfort than about being given a hot towel several times during the flight, but unable to move my legs for 9 hours!
as for Continental comments, I can agree with you- but only can tell you how I felt in the flight on Swiss A330. I expected that Swiss would be more comfortable than CO- but was not the case. I know that Swiss advertised 32-33 inch pitch- and I know I did not grow up in the last year..... something tells me that Swiss does not have 32-33 inch, and in fact the recline was the smallest I ever experienced!

fly747first

UA Economy Plus is not available to most Y class pax, so most suffer from the dreaded 31'' seat pitch. Since you have no status on Swiss, you were given a standard Y class seat, they do have a number of seats with more leg room reserved for their top frequent flyers. Now that Swiss is merging with Lufthansa, you might be able to use your LH-Senator status to get a better seat when flying Swiss.

It's hard to believe you because I have flown many times in Swiss First, Business, and Economy, and being 5'8'', I have always felt I have more room on Swiss than on Continental. What's next, you are gonna say that CO offers more room in Business Class, too? lol

ziplaufwerk

I agree, this is not acceptable, BUUUUUT is this a Swiss problem? Of course it isn't - you should complain about the ORD ground service, shouldn't you?

airoli

While I agree that the seats in Economy on the LX A330 are rather uncomfortable, I do not think that they advertise false specs on their website. And please note that you should really compare LX Economy to UA Coach and not "Premium Eco" or whatever they call it. As an LX Status Holder, I always get assigned exit row seats with them too, and those are so comfortable that I am still alive and well after a 11h flight yesterday. (Well, maybe the pleasant surroundings of this Cabana at the Wing have something to do with it as well... )

fly747first

Well said!

flysurfer

Everybody with *S status or traveling on a full fare Y/B ticket gets E+ seating. And if the flight isn't sold out, general pax have a chance to get it, too. So, IMHO, it's very fair to compair. This is a FF forum after all, and LX will eventually be a part of *A, so everybody who has status on LX will get E+ for free.

If you choose to buy a cheap coach fare ticket on a carrier belonging to an alliance where you have zero status, can you seriously expect getting superior service? I don't think so.

IAN-UK

Look - long-haul economy is NEVER going to be comfortable. Sleeping with strangers not of my selection and climbing over them to go queue for the lavatory in the night isn't my idea of fun. Plastic cups, paper plates and pasta YET AGAIN is not a dining experience I'd chose. Single-service for drinks and meals in Y makes for a full drop-down table, but it isn't very relaxing. Food quality has deteriorated, but is often better when provided by out-stations. Remember when we got peanuts with our drinks ? -

Swiss has gone downhill in terms of service in the two cabins I know well. But not so far downhill to dip below most of its competitors. The Y-seats can be VERY uncomfortable, even on the A340 - there's not much point in arguing about the odd inch-or-so of advertised seat-pitch: comfort is subjective. SWISS A340 C-seats have the irritating almost-flat condition much commented on in other threads.

The most recent service cut I found is in Singapore, where SWISS have lost the super-nice SATS premium check-in facility.

The in-flight entertainment system on SWISS is very good, though they still manage to hijack it with promotional videos. Last week we had to sit through the dreary film about the Alps five times: two of those times when the video was repeated in consecutive showings.

Having status is nice, but even the those who own it will occasionally find themselves out-ranked for emergency exits, or denied bulheads by baby-carrying families.

Bretteee

V Orange I agree with you but you should have asked before you left. I also flew CO 767 on GVA to NYC route. The seats are a lot more comfortable and they have 32" pitch vs 31" on LX.

The crew were nice on both. The earphones on CO are the pits while on LX they are normal ones. They gave newspapers and magazines on CO while on LX they had none.

On LX some of the food is unedible but at least a little is edible. ie. the piece of cheese and the bitsy witsy cakes are always good. On CO everything was unedible and disgusting. Only edible part was the mashed potato going and the sticky boiled rice on the return. We bought our own sandwiches on the return.

And Newark is dreary / depressing / dark at night.

Quite frankly I now avoid both CO and LX. I prefer to connect on AA via Zurich or Brussels.

Bretteee

>>I know that Swiss advertised 32-33 inch pitch- and I know I did not grow up in the last year..... something tells me that Swiss does not have 32-33 inch, and in fact the recline was the smallest I ever experienced!>>

You are correct. LX 330 is 31" pitch. Not only that. The seats are "narrower" on the A 330 vs. Boeing.

There are very few airlines with comfortable bearable seats left in Y transatlantic. Only Turkish, El Al, Continental 767, American (they are reconfiguring aicraft), TAP. Maybe a very few others. Most are the pits.

And I just read that AF have 30" legroom!!!!!!!!!! It's getting to be quite a challenge finding a bearable airline on this route in Y.

Bretteee

>>I have always felt I have more room on Swiss than on Continental. What's next, you are gonna say that CO offers more room in Business Class, too? lol>>

Depends on what aircraft on CO you are talking about. B 767 I have to say was fine. But their B737 is a disaster. And their 777 are cramped.