Edelweiss Air - Business Class YVR-ZRH
Oct 1, 2015, 6:58 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: New York/Vancouver
Programs: AA Plat
Posts: 77
Edelweiss Air - Business Class YVR-ZRH
How I got onto this WK flight was more-or-less a mystery. I was looking for a ticket that goes to either Rome or Milan. To be honest, I was never in Europe before.
I used Google Flights to search revenue ticket spaces, and got BA J on around 2800CAD, but I did not book them due to reluctance. (My original plan is to fly YVR-LAX-JFK on AA and then JFK-MAD on IB, but the price of the first leg went nuts) Thus five days passed and Google flight gives me $3500 for Air Canada. No matter what, I need to get there and I don't want to be stuck with coach. Miles is not an option just simply because I don't have enough of them.
I then booked YVR-YYZ-FCO-YYZ-YVR all on A333/B787 from aircanada.com. Nevertheless, Air Canada gave me an error message aand a number for me to call. I was on the phone with them for two hours and secured a Lufthansa flight YVR-MUC-MXP-YYZ-YVR. However, eventually the agent told me the flight is not available as only two seats were reserved for fare bucket P hence my booking was waitlisted.
I called them again, about cancelling the ticket and refund it to my credit card. And then I was on Google Flights again, arguably for booking another Air Canada flight. Despite putting much efforts in it, no flight at $3500 would be bookable.
Then I went on Google Flights again, this time I saw something called "Edelweiss Air", and it's booking site gave me swiss.com. It does look like very reasonable fare at $3569 per person, so I immediately booked 3 business tickets routing YVR-ZRH-MXP-ZRH-YUL-YVR. I thought this would give me a great buck of Altitude Qualifying miles at least enough for me to requalify for Altitude 50K again, but it ended up not giving me any AQM at all. Tip: Edelweiss is not a part of Star Alliance despite being a part of Lufthansa Group and a subsidary of LX.
It's two days after I found out that WK would not earn me any miles, I don't want to pay $1200CA change fee, and ended up taking the flight.
I made my own electronic boarding pass and it worked..
Edelweiss(along with almost every other carrier) uses the Plaza Premium Vancouver lounge, and it's decent for a contract lounge. Everyone there speaks Mandarin, which I really like.
Edelweiss, operates an A330-300 to Vancouver.
http://773.im/foto2/IMG_1609.JPG
I boarded through a unrestful boarding experience(as everyone wants to board first, and priority boarding did not seem to value a lot to LH ground crews, and by the time that I boarded an old lady stared at me for boarding before her)
I quickly settled into my seat 1A, which has a bottle of Canadian water, an amenity kit, a pillow and a blanket waiting for me. I was greeted by inflight service manager Peter and asked if I want a pre-departure newspaper and beverage. I accepted both newspaper(which has a selection between 8 German language ones and WSJ, I chose WSJ of course) and the pre-departure beverage(between water, grapefruit juice and champagne, I chose the juice option).
http://773.im/foto2/IMG_1621.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/IMG_1624.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/IMG_1626.JPG
I tested the flat bed function(as it's about an hour before departure), which seemed to be a lie-flat seat with 175 degrees of recline. Not 180 degrees, but decent enough.
Meal orders were taken, their menu is available online at https://www.flyedelweiss.com/DE/info...tbound-s15.pdf They already changed it but it was similar to this one.
The seat featured an IFE between 14 to 16 inches which was inituitive and features the same content of what LX offers. Note that they are HD and touchscreen, unlike the 12.1 crappy screen that LX offers.
http://773.im/foto2/567.JPG
Note the headphone WK gives its passengers. It costs around $250/unit and they are nearly identical to the ones I regularly use.
http://773.im/foto2/591.JPG
The meal service began as soon as the aircraft reached 15000 fts.
It started with an amuse bouche, which is a pumpkin cake with proscitto. I asked a coca-cola to be served with it.
http://773.im/foto2/594.JPG
And then table was setted up. I was given six still-warm dinerwares.
http://773.im/foto2/595.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/596.JPG
And then there comes the appetizer after about 15-20 minutes. It was delicious.
http://773.im/foto2/599.JPG
After another 15-20 minutes, my main course was served, it was a grilled salmon-steak served with potatos, which was arguably the best salmon that I have ever eaten.
http://773.im/foto2/601.JPG
After around 35 minutes, I was finally served my cheese plate, which was excellent as well. After my completion of such, table was cleaned up.
http://773.im/foto2/602.JPG
Nearly 2.5 hours into the flight, the meal service was completed following the dessert. I was still not full, and excuse me for the partially eaten dessert.
http://773.im/foto2/603.JPG
I decided to get some shut-eyes after completing the meal(it's an overnight flight anyways), so I made my own bed, and tried to sleep. Unfortunately my seat was not operating correctly and its massage function was out of control. The pillow is apparently too low to be my liking. I raised the back a bit to make it more accomidating, sadly it did not work and its firm bedding was not very amicable. Due to these facts, I only managed to sleep for approximately 2 hours and woke up before even leaving Canadian airspace.
I wandered at flat position for about 1.5 additional hours before finally giving up. The flight map showed my position above atlantics.
http://773.im/foto2/606.JPG
I watched this Spanish film, which was not-even-close to popular and watchable.
http://773.im/foto2/613.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/614.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/615.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/616.JPG
After completing the movie, breakfast service began. The breakfast consisted some traditional continental breakfast items and its yogurt was the best I have ever eaten.
http://773.im/foto2/629.JPG
One hour later, the captained began the final descent into ZRH.
http://773.im/foto2/643.JPG
Upon arrival, this chart welcomed me.
http://773.im/foto2/646.JPG
I (and of course all my travel companions) boarded the ZRH metro and headed for immigration.
Overall, the service was excellent at least compared to Chinese and American carriers. Drink refills were consistant, all flight attendants were amiable and attentive. Inflight snacks has an excellent spread as well(such as chocolates) but I cannot find a picture of such. Definitely worth my 5800 Altitude Qualifying Miles in exchange of delightful service and an excellent meal(compared to AC).
If you don't care about your mileage earning rate, take Edelweiss, it's like LX but even better(younger FA, better food selection and generally more attentive service due to the curtailed cabin size). However their mileage earning rate is not very generous, and they does not seem to release any of their award spaces.
Sorry for crappy images, I never posted any image on the forum before, and don't quite know how to make them medium-sized.
I used Google Flights to search revenue ticket spaces, and got BA J on around 2800CAD, but I did not book them due to reluctance. (My original plan is to fly YVR-LAX-JFK on AA and then JFK-MAD on IB, but the price of the first leg went nuts) Thus five days passed and Google flight gives me $3500 for Air Canada. No matter what, I need to get there and I don't want to be stuck with coach. Miles is not an option just simply because I don't have enough of them.
I then booked YVR-YYZ-FCO-YYZ-YVR all on A333/B787 from aircanada.com. Nevertheless, Air Canada gave me an error message aand a number for me to call. I was on the phone with them for two hours and secured a Lufthansa flight YVR-MUC-MXP-YYZ-YVR. However, eventually the agent told me the flight is not available as only two seats were reserved for fare bucket P hence my booking was waitlisted.
I called them again, about cancelling the ticket and refund it to my credit card. And then I was on Google Flights again, arguably for booking another Air Canada flight. Despite putting much efforts in it, no flight at $3500 would be bookable.
Then I went on Google Flights again, this time I saw something called "Edelweiss Air", and it's booking site gave me swiss.com. It does look like very reasonable fare at $3569 per person, so I immediately booked 3 business tickets routing YVR-ZRH-MXP-ZRH-YUL-YVR. I thought this would give me a great buck of Altitude Qualifying miles at least enough for me to requalify for Altitude 50K again, but it ended up not giving me any AQM at all. Tip: Edelweiss is not a part of Star Alliance despite being a part of Lufthansa Group and a subsidary of LX.
It's two days after I found out that WK would not earn me any miles, I don't want to pay $1200CA change fee, and ended up taking the flight.
I made my own electronic boarding pass and it worked..
Edelweiss(along with almost every other carrier) uses the Plaza Premium Vancouver lounge, and it's decent for a contract lounge. Everyone there speaks Mandarin, which I really like.
Edelweiss, operates an A330-300 to Vancouver.
http://773.im/foto2/IMG_1609.JPG
I boarded through a unrestful boarding experience(as everyone wants to board first, and priority boarding did not seem to value a lot to LH ground crews, and by the time that I boarded an old lady stared at me for boarding before her)
I quickly settled into my seat 1A, which has a bottle of Canadian water, an amenity kit, a pillow and a blanket waiting for me. I was greeted by inflight service manager Peter and asked if I want a pre-departure newspaper and beverage. I accepted both newspaper(which has a selection between 8 German language ones and WSJ, I chose WSJ of course) and the pre-departure beverage(between water, grapefruit juice and champagne, I chose the juice option).
http://773.im/foto2/IMG_1621.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/IMG_1624.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/IMG_1626.JPG
I tested the flat bed function(as it's about an hour before departure), which seemed to be a lie-flat seat with 175 degrees of recline. Not 180 degrees, but decent enough.
Meal orders were taken, their menu is available online at https://www.flyedelweiss.com/DE/info...tbound-s15.pdf They already changed it but it was similar to this one.
The seat featured an IFE between 14 to 16 inches which was inituitive and features the same content of what LX offers. Note that they are HD and touchscreen, unlike the 12.1 crappy screen that LX offers.
http://773.im/foto2/567.JPG
Note the headphone WK gives its passengers. It costs around $250/unit and they are nearly identical to the ones I regularly use.
http://773.im/foto2/591.JPG
The meal service began as soon as the aircraft reached 15000 fts.
It started with an amuse bouche, which is a pumpkin cake with proscitto. I asked a coca-cola to be served with it.
http://773.im/foto2/594.JPG
And then table was setted up. I was given six still-warm dinerwares.
http://773.im/foto2/595.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/596.JPG
And then there comes the appetizer after about 15-20 minutes. It was delicious.
http://773.im/foto2/599.JPG
After another 15-20 minutes, my main course was served, it was a grilled salmon-steak served with potatos, which was arguably the best salmon that I have ever eaten.
http://773.im/foto2/601.JPG
After around 35 minutes, I was finally served my cheese plate, which was excellent as well. After my completion of such, table was cleaned up.
http://773.im/foto2/602.JPG
Nearly 2.5 hours into the flight, the meal service was completed following the dessert. I was still not full, and excuse me for the partially eaten dessert.
http://773.im/foto2/603.JPG
I decided to get some shut-eyes after completing the meal(it's an overnight flight anyways), so I made my own bed, and tried to sleep. Unfortunately my seat was not operating correctly and its massage function was out of control. The pillow is apparently too low to be my liking. I raised the back a bit to make it more accomidating, sadly it did not work and its firm bedding was not very amicable. Due to these facts, I only managed to sleep for approximately 2 hours and woke up before even leaving Canadian airspace.
I wandered at flat position for about 1.5 additional hours before finally giving up. The flight map showed my position above atlantics.
http://773.im/foto2/606.JPG
I watched this Spanish film, which was not-even-close to popular and watchable.
http://773.im/foto2/613.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/614.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/615.JPG
http://773.im/foto2/616.JPG
After completing the movie, breakfast service began. The breakfast consisted some traditional continental breakfast items and its yogurt was the best I have ever eaten.
http://773.im/foto2/629.JPG
One hour later, the captained began the final descent into ZRH.
http://773.im/foto2/643.JPG
Upon arrival, this chart welcomed me.
http://773.im/foto2/646.JPG
I (and of course all my travel companions) boarded the ZRH metro and headed for immigration.
Overall, the service was excellent at least compared to Chinese and American carriers. Drink refills were consistant, all flight attendants were amiable and attentive. Inflight snacks has an excellent spread as well(such as chocolates) but I cannot find a picture of such. Definitely worth my 5800 Altitude Qualifying Miles in exchange of delightful service and an excellent meal(compared to AC).
If you don't care about your mileage earning rate, take Edelweiss, it's like LX but even better(younger FA, better food selection and generally more attentive service due to the curtailed cabin size). However their mileage earning rate is not very generous, and they does not seem to release any of their award spaces.
Sorry for crappy images, I never posted any image on the forum before, and don't quite know how to make them medium-sized.
Last edited by ueutyi; Jun 14, 2016 at 5:50 pm Reason: photo reupload
Oct 2, 2015, 11:28 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: New York/Vancouver
Programs: AA Plat
Posts: 77
Oct 3, 2015, 12:18 pm
#9
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: MRY - CNX - TXL
Programs: UA 1K / *G / Marriott PE / Expedia Gold+ / Hertz PC
Posts: 7,058
https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/mar...spx?ItemId=650
Oct 3, 2015, 12:47 pm
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: New York/Vancouver
Programs: AA Plat
Posts: 77
I think it depends by the *A program you are in, you can earn UA miles if you book the flight through UA.com
https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/mar...spx?ItemId=650
https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/mar...spx?ItemId=650
No PQM for WK001-WK499, only WK500-WK969