thefilipinotraveler

I see. That´s good to know

MarkP24

If I land in Zurich in E from a flight from the U.S. and depart to an intra Europe flight in A, will I need to clear customs and security, and if so, can I use the E SEN lounge after entering Schengen/ clearing customs and security as I'd like to see the famous whisky bar, or willI need to stay in A since that's where my departing inter Europe flight is?

supine

You could visit the E lounge before going through passport control. You would just need to leave for A with enough spare time.

MarkP24

So after landing in ZRH from the U.S. I don't need to go through passport control immediately? Wouldn't they require me to go through passport control first?

bawm

No, the entire E satellite is outside of Schengen. Arriving from the US you also don't need to re-clear security, so you can head directly to the E lounges. After that, following the signs to the A gates, you will take a 2 min train ride to the main terminal, where you'll need to go through passport control before having access to the A gates (& exits).

Flying Machine

and… The Lounge in E is way nicer than in A

MarkP24

Just curious, so why is there an arrivals lounge if passengers arriving from the U.S. can just use the lounge in the E gates upon arrival?

YuropFlyer

What we're discussing here is a passenger arriving from a Non-Schengen "clean" arrival country and CONNECTING to a Schengen country, making the E SEN lounge an easy "quick" lounge to visit.

Passengers ending their travel in ZRH can not enter the E lounges (unless they're holding SEN/HON status with LH's M&M program)

The Arrival lounge is for passengers ending their travel in Switzerland, and is landside. You need to clear immigration (if coming from outside of Schengen) and customs to get there, and then get airside again through security.

In the past, the Arrivals lounge had some better features than the other lounges (relatively decent breakfast options and plenty of showers) thus it was often also suggested for passengers connecting in ZRH, in case they could enter Schengen, as an alternative to the E lounges, which have mediocre food (similar to A lounges), and often LONG waiting lists for showers.

MarkP24

Gotcha. Thanks for explaining that!

stargold

Even for those arriving from “non-clean” countries, i.e. DXB, it was still very easy to go to the lounges in E after clearing the transit security within E, no need to go back to the main terminal.

Once you’ve finished with the lounge, you can take the Heidi train back to A (make sure to follow Transfers A/B rather than Arrivals) and clear passport control there.

cfischer

A gazillion reasons. The E lounge could not handle the requests for 'taking a shower' - they are not equipped for that. It would overcrowd the E lounges with departing and arriving J pax 'at the same time'. If you have checked luggage, you don't want to leave that on the belt while you visit the E lounge. The arrival lounge is specifically set up for the needs of arriving pax with a small but decent breakfast spread and a lot of showers - it makes a lot of sense for a premium airline to offer this at their hub.

MarkP24

Makes sense. Thanks!

FLYMSY

I was in the renovated ZRH Arrivals lounge a few days ago. There is new wood flooring and new furniture, however, the layout is basically the same. Food is the same. The original mens restroom is the same, but, as I didn’t need a shower, I don’t know if the shower rooms were updated. As far as I can tell, new flooring, new furniture and new desks for the lounge agents are the only major changes.

kai.lileboo

Disappointing experience in ZRH Schnengen lounge Saturday 7th May and Monday 16th May, at 2030 both times. Empty lounge, disappointing food, a few pieces of fruit, no cold cuttlery, magazines, humid towels, ice cream and newspapers are gone. Uninterested staff, very tiny selecction of salads. It was clean and at half gas. I managed to get 2 gluten-free bread pieces, however all other hot food had gluten inside. I understand they cannot cook for each of us individually, but had they have chees and ham or vegetables (which some time ago were all available) that would have made a difference.
The man at entrance asked me from which airline was my card from!!! He was also not helpful at all when the flight had almost 2 hrs delay!

clubeurope

Hello! I've got a flight flying LHR-ZRH-BEG coming up soon.

Assuming both the Heathrow and Belgrade flight arrives and departs at Gates D, is it possible to visit the lounges at E? or travel freely between Gates D and E, vis-a-vis? I'm a Star Gold with SAS, and my nationality does not permit entry into the Schengen zone w/o a visa.

Many thanks!