The Wolf

At the time I arrived from HKG in F with a colleague, and we had two more colleagues in C. Our C guests were flatly denied entrance to the FCL with us although same as us, they had a same day *A boardingpass. Maybe I met the wrong LD at the wrong time, but the way I remember it is that LX rules differ from those of LH.

Nick Art

Yes, ime they are more lash, i.e. no stupid only on the same flight rule. As mentioned I asked both lounge present supervisors back in september and the answer was a clear yes for all outgoing or ingoing star alliance bp holders.

PeanutYYZ

I skimmed the thread but couldn't find many reviews of the renovated A lounges. I'm flying out of ZRH A gates tonight but should be at the airport in plenty of time to go over to E if desired. I'll have access to the SEN lounges. What's the consensus these days on A vs. E lounges? I know that previously E was considered far superior to A, but I'm not sure if that changed with the renovation of A last year. For what it's worth, I don't care at all about the whiskey in the E SEN lounge; I care more about (a) food and (b) crowding.

Fabo.sk

E all the way. A lounge is nice, designwise, but it's overcrowded (honestly no idea how the planners managed to create a lounge that is so much undersized already at opening), and F&B is not the worst, but nothing to write home about either.

I would go for E definitely even in absence of Whisky bar (and as such, this also applies to A biz vs. E biz) for reasons of

• more space
• the balcony
• better food options

worldclubber

If it's crowding and food what you care about and do not fly out just before the late evening international wave, then E is (almost) the only way to go.

If the weather is nice enough for the patio to be open, doubly so.

Enjoy!

PeanutYYZ

worldclubber

PeanutYYZ

My flight was delayed (ZRH was having to deice, which I don't think they anticipated!) so I ended up having time to peek inside the SEN Lounge in Terminal A after spending most of my time at the one in Terminal E. I'd been to the one in E once before, but I'd never seen the one in A (including pre-renovations).

Long story short, the recommendation to go to E was spot on! Compared to A:

• E is a much larger lounge space (or at least feels that way)
• E had many fewer people while I was there
• as a result of the two points above, E had plenty of seating to choose from that felt private; A felt like being in a college cafeteria (except with nicer furniture)
• E had a manned reception desk; A had an automated boarding pass scanner gate
• the food offerings in both were very similar, with a slightly larger menu to choose from in E
• E cooked individual portions of food to order at the live cooking station; A was cooking big batches of food and then ladling them out to people
• E had individually plated desserts; A had big bowls of the desserts that you could portion out onto your own plate

I was able to use the e-gates at passport control for A->E but didn't see any gates available coming back the other direction. I ended up chatting with a border police officer who I guess was handling flight connections, because she seemed confused when she asked "where are you coming from today?" and I said "oh, I was just here to use the lounges".

Thanks again for the recommendation! I'll stick with E in the future unless I have a short connection at the A gates.

LXA350

Since the overcrowded situation at the SEN A lounge is just as bad as before the renovation, which doesn't even let you enjoy at most parts of the day the upgraded facility is there any update when the SEN bistro (former F lounge A) will be ready and what for amenities to expect?

tajee165

YuropFlyer

Assuming you mean 8pm to 12am (16hrs) next day:

Lounge access on arrival without a same-day departure is NOT possible unless you're SEN/HON. There were some cases where it was granted, but that's down to luck. Wouldn't count on it.

Assuming the weather is nice, I'd definitely head into town. 8pm arrival would still allow for dinner (rather than some food at either the airport or in an airport hotel..) since you'd probably be in a restaurant around 9pm.

And a 12am departure means you're literally getting the whole morning to explore ZRH. With boarding pass in hand, departure from E gates means I'd take a 11am-ish train from Zürich main station to have enough time for lunch at the lounge. Your departure is 12.50am to be exact, so you'll have about 1hr in the lounge (more than enough for lunch)

Definitely do NOT book the transit hotel. Unless you want your whole family to hate you

The shower at the lounge, while being quite OK, is nothing I'd take over a (reasonably good) hotel shower in the morning. And with a bit of bad luck, there will be a lengthy queue for the shower, thus besically not allowing you to even take one.

So in short: If weather is trully bad (or you're transitting in winter from a warm place to a warm place through ZRH and lack clothes), you know ZRH very well already or the layover is really just the night, I'd go with a hotel nearby the airport.

Otherwise, and especially with 16hrs in ZRH, I'd head downtown and maximize your time outside the airport.

Oh, and regarding the food offerings in the lounge: Don't expect too much. Sometimes they do have some decent dishes (it varies a lot, quite unlike most other airport lounges which are same-same every day), but it's more like a (glorified) canteen rather than a real restaurant. Unless we're talking the First class lounge (which we aren't )

edit:

You violated FT rules by crossposting!!!!

Lounge ZRH [merged Q&A thread]

And obviously giving more informations there.. go figure!

tajee165

PeanutYYZ

Dumb question: What's the fastest route out of the airport (back to landside) from FCL A? Do you have to go out towards the gates, down the escalator, and walk along to baggage claim and then out that way? Or is there a shorter route?

djskynet

Hi all

I have a 80 min connection in ZRH later this week coming from YUL and departing to another Shenzhen country. I'll be arriving in E and departing from A, all in business class. I am quite familiar with ZRH so do not worry when it comes to making the connection that said I am hoping to take a shower. Does the A lounge have showers? If so, I am better off accessing the E lounge and then go to A to board my flight or use the A lounge?

Thanks

YuropFlyer

Head directly to the A shower. E lounges often have a queue for the showers, never seen a queue at A lounges (since the remodelling, at least).

Oh, and it's Schengen, not Shenzhen. Even though they do have very nice lounges too in their network