bruce80

1. Planning and Booking

A few months ago, I would have called anyone who would actually consider such a trip a madman. That was a few months ago. Back then, I still thought that my monthly commutes between DUS and ZRH would finally come to an end, and that I wouldn’t really need any status with LH, LX or other *A carriers anymore. Well, things usually never work out, and suddenly I realized that the remaining flights on the aforementioned route would never be sufficient to renew or attain any *G status, neither with Turkish Airlines nor with Aegean. That’s when I decided that I would have to take another (paid) long-distance journey this year, preferably in order to renew my A3 status for another year. I weren’t quite sure on where to go or which offer to take, but then it finally came: LX were offering flights out of VIE to more or less anywhere in their network in F class starting at 2500 EUR. When I saw the offer, it was actually quite a no-brainer: I would have the opportunity to get another take on LX F (which is now almost as coveted as the AF first class product), I would be able to take a thorough look at the new concourse E lounges and, of course, I would collect enough A3 miles to renew my status for another year, even without having to take the 4 segments on Aegean or Olympic. Granted, many MR experts among you will now say „how could you spend so much money on such a flight just to extend your status“, but I think a MR just for the sake of status is not really worth it. It should at least be enjoyable, and getting to try a product that is usually as overpriced as LX F again for a quite reasonable amount of money is also worth something.

Well, like I said, this was a no-brainer, and I decided to take the shortest (and least expensive) route that would yield enough miles to renew my status, and that was the daily flight to DXB (with an onward-flight to MCT, but I realized that too late, or I would probably have taken the entire route; I’m not a particular fan of Dubai, but well, for a long weekend, it was ok). When I pulled up the LX booking engine, it showed lots of availability for VIE-DXB at the discounted rate, but there was actually a drawback: LX only allow you to book quite short connections at ZRH which seemed a bit tight even for someone who wouldn’t want to check out the new lounges. So I decided to try expedia.com for the first time, where you can actually book long-overlay flights quite easily. And as I have an apartment at my disposition in ZRH, I didn’t really have to think about spending a night at ZRH (which can be quite expensive) in order to fully enjoy the lounge offerings. I ended up booking a 724 stock ticket (which is a native LX ticket) from VIE to DXB via ZRH on the late-evening LX flight from VIE to ZRH (leaving at 7pm and arriving at 8:20pm) in business class (J) on a Thursday, with the flight to Dubai leaving ZRH at 12:25pm the next day (Friday) and arriving DXB at a quarter to nine pm in first class (A). The return flight would be taking place the night between Sunday and Monday, leaving DXB at 1:35am and getting me back to ZRH at half past 6 in the morning, with the connection to VIE leaving around half past 10 in the morning, this time on Austrian business class.

As I was planning to spend two nights in Dubai, I still had to look for a hotel. As my SPG points where threatened to expire, I chose to stay at the Sheraton Creek which I had already visited a few years ago for a lunch buffet and which was reasonably priced (at least for Dubai standards). Of course, I still needed a feeder to VIE which I looked up on LH.com. The flights from DUS to VIE were quite unattractive due to their departure and/or arrival times, so in the end, I chose an economy classic fare between FRA and VIE vv. which I booked with LH (220 ticket stock), but which was operated by OS in both directions. While the flights were reasonably priced, I discovered a major problem with LH’s „manage booking“ page. As the economy classic fare includes free seat reservation, I pulled up my booking in order to reserve seats, and I were able to select any seat (even exit row, which is subject to additional charges on OS even for status customers) while the „select seats“ page clearly displayed „your choice of seats is free of charge“. After saving my exit row choice for both flights, the booking page suddenly displayed „the fare has changed“ or something like that, and two 25 EUR charges had turned up at the price calculation. During the entire seat reservation process, nothing had actually indicated that my seat choice would be subject to additional charges, which is clearly illegal under german law. But instead of having my lawyer send a warning to LH, I simply accepted the fact (in the end, I cannot complain - I actually know that OS charge for exit row seats, but still..). In the end, I paid around EUR 3000 all-in for a long weekend trip, and I still think that it was worth it, not just for the sake of status renewal, but for the overall experience.

This report is going to cover the following topics which I'll post as soon as I have prepared the respective text, image, and video material. I have only returned a few hours ago, so please be patient and check back frequently.

• FRA to ZRH via VIE, including the LH SEN Lounge A13 at FRA and the Concourse F SEN Lounge at VIE, as well as OS Economy Class FRA-VIE and LX Business Class VIE-ZRH
• All three LX Concourse E lounges at ZRH, with an emphasis on the FCL. This will also include video material.
• LX First Class A330-300 ZRH-DXB, also including video material
• A few notes on Dubai and the Sheraton Creek
• A summary of the return trip which more or less contained the same elements and doesn't really yield a full article.

bruce80

2. The Lufthansa Senator Lounge Frankfurt

Upon arrival at the Frankfurt Airport railway station, I took the trek trough the tunnel across the motorway, following the signs for Lufthansa First Class check-in. Those who are familiar with FRA might know that it’s sort of cramped into the far corner of the A check-in hall. As it’s currently vacation time in Germany, the F counters were surprisingly empty, and I were served immediately. Unfortunately the agent declined checking my bag all the way through to DXB, as „they aren’t allowed to do so when flying on separate tickets“. While it would have been convenient not to have to collect and re-check my bag at VIE, I didn’t feel like arguing (someone in a FF group on Facebook had advised me to insist on having them check it through) and accepted the agent’s reply. A baggage tag was quickly printed and I continued my way towards security.

Concourse A security has quite a few lanes (I had never departed from FRA in concourse A before), but the priority checkpoints looked a bit „crowded“ (at least when compared to the modest overall activity at the airport), as obviously, one of the body scanners had servicing in progress. Some agent called from the back that we should walk on to the right around the corner towards the non-priority checkpoints which had considerably shorter queues. The entire screening process only took about five minutes (including wait time) and I made my way towards the A13 Senator Lounge.


The SEN lounge as seen from the far corner

Fortunately, the lounge was quite empty when I arrived around 10am (once again, the lack of business travelers during vacation time was clearly noticeable) - I had only been here a few years ago in the afternoon on a short transit layover, and back then it had been quite crowded. As I hadn’t had any food yet, I decided to have a look at the breakfast spread. It looked quite average (just as you’d expect from an LH lounge), with toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, cold cuts, croissants, two or three kinds of jam and yoghurt, and the sad remains of a bowl of fruit salad on offer. Next to the main buffet, they had set up some kind of children’s „buffet“ with a choice of colored plates and cups (plastic), as well as cookies and gummy bears. While I’m not sure whether that’s the right signal to both kids and parents, the children’s buffet at least contained a stack of apples - however, the apples were placed too high for an average child to reach them, while the sweets were in perfect position for any small (or not so small) child to help themselves - just like in any supermarket.


"Children's buffet" from another lounge, but similar to the one in the SEN

Other than the usual food and seating, this particular lounge features an impressive (at least for a SEN lounge) array of additional areas and services. First of all, there’s a relaxation area with recliners in front of a wall with almost life-sized photographs of trees, as well as a rest area which is more or less sealed off from the rest of the lounge and features some kind of day beds complete with (very small) pillows and blankets. Smokers have a small cabin where they may ruin their health and then, there is a reasonably large work area in a partitioned-off area and four phone booths. As I still had to deal with a client, I went into one of the phone booths in order to call them, while everyone else obviously preferred to talk wherever they stood or sat. Of course, the lounge also has (quite spacious) bathrooms and a number of showers.

Even though I weren’t particularly hungry at the time, I chose to have a small lunch before heading to the gate - I would be in the air during my usual lunch time, and I guessed the afternoon could get a bit long without food. The lunch spread, which had been set up around 11am consisted of soup (cocos-curry), three mains (vegetarian, don’t remember what it was, a fried rice dish and the ubiquitous sausages) and two specials (one seemed to be hot-dogs, the other one was some kind of pita bread with several toppings). While the food is usually self-serve, the specials will be prepared on request by one of the lounge food people. I chose one of the pita breads which was actually quite good. This was accompanied by a glass of „Ebbelwoi“, a local kind of apple cider. While I’m usually not too fond of LH’s lounge offerings, I appreciate the fact that they try to include some kind of local element. For example, they offer Löwensenf and Killepitsch in Düsseldorf, as well as „Maultaschensuppe“ in Stuttgart.


Lunch, accompanied by local apple cider

After finishing my lunch, it was already time to head to the gate in order to board the flight to Vienna. The flight would be departing from gate A40, which is the most remote gate in the A concourse (there's also a gate A42, but it's not in use). The flight information display said that one would need 13 minutes to get there from the lounge, but I made it in about 5. On my walk there, I passed by the A25 business class lounge (which I believe is the former Concourse A First Class Lounge) and decided to spend another 10 minutes there, mainly in order to take a look at it. While the lounge is a bit on the small side and the food choice was all but impressive (basically, they had meat loaf and cake), they have really good apron and runway views (much better than from the lounges in the main lounge complex), an attended bar also serving small snacks, as well as two closable nap rooms. Not bad for an LH business class lounge.


Apron view from the business class lounge


Closable FCL-style nap room in business class lounge


This is about to become a rare sight - Lufthansa Boeing 737

bruce80

3. Frankfurt to Vienna (FRA/EDDF -> VIE/LOWW)

Aircraft: Airbus A319-100 OE-LDD „Moscow“
Seat: 10A (Economy)
STD: 12:50 CEST (1050z UTC)
STA: 14:20 CEST (1250z UTC)

Upon arrival at the gate I noticed a few quite young guys in some kind of sports team dress hanging around the gate. While I didn’t really care about that, this would have some impact on my layover in VIE later, but I couldn’t know that at the time. A few minutes later, three or four names were called by the gate agents, and mine was among them. Well.. while it’s always embarrassing when your name is called on the PA, I wouldn’t mind being called for a complimentary op-up. Unfortunately, the call wasn’t about an op-up, but I had to report to the gate agents so as to have them check whether I would indeed be able to open the emergency exit (remember, I reserved exit row seats at an exorbitant 25 EUR per leg). The gate agents seemed to be as embarrassed as me, because they apologized and explained „well, we just have to make sure that we like your face“ while shaking their heads.

A few minutes past the announced boarding time, priority boarding was called, and I was among one of the first people to board the plane. The flight got quite full, and several announcements were made to remind people to also use the space beneath the seats in front of them as storage space. Of course, that wasn’t possible with my exit row seat, and I really liked the fact that they kept the overhead bins at the exit rows closed until someone with a seat in those rows actually turned up, while an FA was overseeing the entire operation.

After boarding was completed, I was still quite lucky to have a vacant middle seat in my row, with one of the sports people occupying the aisle seat. As I found out later, the sports guys were the Canadian U18 national ice hockey team traveling to a tournament in Bratislava. After everyone was on board, we pushed back with quite some delay and commenced a long taxi to RWY 18 where we also had to wait a few minutes for takeoff clearance. When we were finally cleared for takeoff 30 minutes behind schedule, we had a very long FLEX power takeoff run which was probably the longest I have ever had on any kind of A320 family aircraft.


Economy class in-flight snack


A319 exit row legroom (I'm 6'2" tall)

The flight itself was quite uneventful, at some point the FAs came around offering drinks and a choice of sweet or salty snacks (the choice being a small bag of crackers or Manner waffles), and we finally landed at VIE 10 minutes ahead of schedule (they obviously include lots of time reserve which is really needed out of FRA), while no thrust reversers were used - something which is basically the opposite to using FLEX power on takeoff, to save engines and fuel.

After arriving at the (remote) stand, a bit of confusion arose. First of all, an announcement was made to only use the front exit, and there was an elderly gentleman requiring assistance in form of a wheelchair. While the crew told him several times to stay in his seat until the wheelchair would be brought on board, he tried to get up and blocked the aisle several times. Finally, another announcement told the passengers to also use the rear exit, and about 10 minutes after arriving at the stand, everyone had boarded the two buses.

After arriving in the baggage claim hall (as I had been informed by the FRA check-in agent, it was impossible to check my bag through all the way to DXB due to different tickets), we had to wait quite some time for the baggage carousel to spit out the first bags from this flight. The first bags to come out were a huge number of equally huge bags which belonged to the hockey team. Only after the team officials had already assembled a solid wall of huge bags next to the baggage belt, the first priority bags appeared - it looked a bit like priority baggage came out last. In the end, I almost had to wait 45 minutes after landing before my bag was finally delivered. As I had planned to go to Vienna city center during my layover (having been to the VIE lounges a few times and not really liking them, I wanted to avoid having to spend more than three hours there) and still having to re-check my bag, it was getting a bit tight to catch the train into town.

bruce80

4. Austrian Senator Lounge Vienna (F gates, Schengen)

I haven’t mentioned yet that I feel that the new Terminal 3 (the so-called „StarAlliance Terminal“) is a total failure in planning and execution. While the architecture itself doesn’t look bad, it just feels quite tight and not really straightforward. Once you go landside on the arrivals level, it’s not exactly easy to find your way up to the check-in/departures level again, as there only are very few well-hidden elevators to take you there. Already being a bit familiar with the airport, I didn’t have too much trouble to walk up to the check-in area which, in my opinion, is also a bit confusing. In the end, I found the *G/Business Class check-in row, which is guarded by an attendant. The attendant eyed me critically, asking „are you traveling in business class, or are you a gold member?“ - I replied „well, I’m both, but actually, I’m checking in for a first class flight“. He looked a bit confused, but let me pass to one of the check-in desks where there was no queue.

I had to specifically ask the agent to check my bag through to DXB, as she didn’t seem to be too concentrated. She then asked me for an ID, and I handed her my ID, asking whether she’d be ok with that or if she needed to see my passport. The conversation went like „well, as long as you have it“ - „yes, in my carryon, I’d have to take it out…“ - „…and as long as you’re sure it’s valid“ - „yep, right until 2020“, and she finally printed my baggage receipt. She didn’t mention any ground service like lounges etc., and I actually wasn’t sure whether I would have been entitled to use the FCL at VIE (which is actually called HON Lounge, as there is no F class on OS). While LH and LX rules state that you’ll need to have an in- or outbound F/CL boarding pass for the same day, the Austrian website states that „access will be granted before the direct feeder to an F/CL flight“ which would have been true for my trip, even though the F leg would only take off on the next day. Well, I didn’t really care, as I had planned to spend the afternoon in the city center instead of a lounge.

After re-checking my bag, I made the mistake to leave the terminal on the departures level. If you want to go to the train station from there, you’ll be confronted with the impossible task of having to cross the departures driveway and find your way across the parking lot to the train station. I finally gave up, went into the terminal again, down to arrivals and made it onto the train in the last minute.


City Airport Train from VIE to Wien Mitte station

When I returned to the airport about 2 hours later, there was quite a queue at the non-priority security checkpoints (another thing I really don’t like about VIE’s T3 - the entrance to the airside terminal is located in a far corner where you probably wouldn’t look for it, and the signposting is also not very clear. I entered through the priority lane where there was hardly any wait, and proceeded to the F gates lounge complex.

Upon entering the SEN lounge (once again, I didn’t bother to ask about the FCL), I realized that it was very crowded with only a few seats left. Fortunately enough, I was able to grab the last of the armchairs at the window, as the standard seating may look fancy, but is anything but comfortable. I then realized that there were virtually no power sockets around, until someone opened a covered hole in the floor below my seat, et voilà, there were power sockets. Not really obvious, but good to know.


Fancy but uncomfortable seating in the SEN lounge


Lounge seating area


View from the window armchairs

I then had a look at the buffet, where the selection wasn’t too extensive, but had some good-quality dishes on offer. There were two kinds of soup (cream of red pepper, vegetable broth), three kinds of salad, and some kind of vegetable curry with rice.


Cream of red pepper soup


Salad from the buffet


Vegetable curry

I didn’t stay too long at the lounge and made my way to the departure gate F36 (once again, one of the two most remote gates in the terminal where there are way too few seats around the gate area) well in time.


Lots of mint-green signposting in concourse F - don't really understand the purpose

bruce80

5. Vienna to Zürich (VIE/LOWW -> ZRH/LSZH)

Aircraft: A321-200 HB-ION
Seat: 1F (Business)
STD: 19:00 CEST (1700z UTC)
STA: 20:20 CEST (1820z UTC)

Boarding commenced a bit late when priority passengers were called, and I quickly settled down into my pre-reserved seat 1F. Usually, I don’t really like the front row because you’re always looking at the bulkhead wall in front of you, but when I tried to reserve the seats on the LX web page there seemed to be a technical problem (my selections weren’t saved properly, and suddenly it looked like the entire plane was already full - so I had to call the LX service center to confirm my reservation, and 1F was the only seat they were able to offer me). After boarding had been completed with a business class load of 6 passengers out of 16, the aisle seat in my row remained vacant, just as the seat behind me. This would mean free access to the lavatories as well as the possibility to recline my seat (I never recline my seat on this plane configuration when there’s someone sitting behind me, as I think this is very rude on a one-hour flight). As our scheduled departure time approached, the PIC came up on the PA to inform us of a 10 minute departure delay due to the „traffic situation in ZRH“, while the usual packed refreshment towels and water bottles were distributed to the business class passengers.


A321 front-row legroom (I'm still 6'2" tall...)

As I’m a regular guest on LX’s intra-european business class, I know very well that those flights can be hit or miss, and it quickly turned out that this flight would be a hit, mostly due to the very engaging and professional attitude of the staff member serving us. After departing a bit late, we were served a small meal consisting of a main, cheese and dessert, accompanied by a bread roll from the basket. As the meal was one from the „SWISS Traditions“ program which are usually the best meals served on those flights, this one was once again really good. During the entire service, all passengers were consequently addressed by name, the water was refilled, a second bread roll was offered and my wine was even refilled twice, without asking. This was really good service, and definitely one of the best flights in LX continental C class I’ve had so far (and I’ve had quite a number).


SWISS Traditions meal

As we were approaching Lake Constance, the captain came up on the PA again, switching on the seatbelt signs and warning us of bad weather during descent. And indeed, we were approaching quite a wall of clouds. The weather itself actually wasn’t too bad (while still a good idea to fasten the seat belts), but a lady seated across the aisle really didn’t look happy and at some point even started retching. While passing through the clouds, we even seemed to have caused a lighting strike which also seemed to scare the living daylights out of some fellow passengers.

Upon descent, the flight connections display came up on the monitors, and I was surprised that even my next-day connection was displayed there - I never realized that they only display actual connections of on-board passengers, and I was a bit astonished about how many people obviously had even longer overlays than me (the list broke to a second screen page which isn't displayed in the picture).


Flight connections information before landing

The autopilot was disconnected only about 500ft above the ground (you can clearly hear the warning sound in the front rows) and we touched down on RWY28 only a few minutes behind schedule (which is, by the way, unusual, as RWY28 is usually only used as the primary landing runway after 9pm due to local restrictions that I never really understood). After touchdown, a few passengers clapped, while the weather really hadn’t been that bad - quite a compliment for 10 seconds of manual flight..

This time, I didn’t have to collect my bag and quickly proceeded towards the train station in order to head to my second home in Zürich after a very enjoyable flight.

ABax

Great trip report, thanks for sharing! I'm looking forward to reading about LX F - it's got to be one of the more aspirational (and difficult to redeem-for) products out there.

bruce80

Yep, I guess it definitely is. When you do a search for "SWISS First" on YouTube, you will hardly find any result, quite contrary to, for example, the huge result list for BA first. But no wonder..

bruce80

6. The LX lounges concourse E

The next morning, I got up relatively early and arrived back at the airport shortly before 8am for my 12:25pm departure, as I wanted to have enough time to visit all three of the new lounges in concourse E.

As my mobile phone (where I had stored the mobile boarding pass for the upcoming flight) was exhibiting some strange behavior including not connecting to the mobile internet, I first proceeded to the dedicated SWISS First Class check-in area, which is reserved exclusively to LX and LH first class passengers as well as HON Circle members (there are also „normal“ first class check-in counters which may be used by *G members). I asked to get a printed paper boarding pass in case my phone wouldn’t recover from the issues, and then proceeded to the Heidi Train to take me to concourse E. I am well aware that F passengers are entitled to a car transfer from the A FCL, but I didn’t really see the point of that and had never before used the Heidi Train, so decided to proceed to the E gates on my own.

Most of the lounge impressions are covered in the video below, but I’ll still provide some additional and more in-depth comments here.


After arriving at the lounge, I was handed over to a waiter, who welcomed me to the lounge and asked me whether I would like to have breakfast first. I couldn’t reply more than „Well, actually, I first need to…“ until she started suggesting me an entire array of possible activities, which were, unfortunately all work related: „…place a phone call? Do some work? Send a fax?“ I was able to interrupt her and told her about my connection problems with my phone, and she immediately took me to the boardroom, telling me that I could get everything fixed there and also connect to the complimentary wifi, and that she would return soon with some water. It didn’t take long to figure out that my phone’s problems were actually caused by the carrier, and I proceeded back to the main lounge area and chose a seat in one of the semi-partitioned off „suites“ (that’s what I call them lacking a better word).

The entire lounge is actually quite small, but still provides a very good level of privacy due to the many partitions around the seating areas (at least as long as it doesn’t get crowded - the LX website says that there is space for up to 80 passengers, but I as soon as there are more than 20 to 30 people in the lounge, you’ll have to share a table or a suite with someone else.

When you enter the lounge from the reception, you’ll walk straight towards a small bar where they display a number of champagne bottles and glasses, to the left there is the „wine humidor“ (which looks much more impressive than it actually is - it’s not like there are a hundred different types of wine, but only a few choices, as most of the bottles are actually the same wine), and to the right there is the main seating area. If you continue further into the lounge, you’ll have the attended bar straight ahead, with some kind of american diner style seating to the left, and beyond that, behind another partition, there’s the à la carte restaurant. It was all extremely quiet, and the maximum load that I’ve counted during my stay there was 9 passengers, while everyone was served by two waiters (one of which actually wore a name tag identifying him as the „restaurant manager“)

When you choose to take a seat in one of the „suites“, you’ll get a low table with a sofa and two armchairs on both sides, as well as a cupboard with an individual TV set which is usually muted. As the remote control for the TV can also be found in the cupboard, you are free to switch channels or even turn up the sound, nobody will actually care (unless you exaggerate, of course).

Something that I found quite unusual for any lounge was that the staff members were actually quite chatty, and I had some conversation with the waiter, the restaurant manager as well as the receptionists, who provided me with some interesting background information (so, if you want to know something, just ask in this thread, I’ll try to answer all questions as long as I know the answers).

As I hadn’t had breakfast yet, I proceeded to the restaurant area, and was promptly presented the menu. Unfortunately, I only had the german version of the menu, so I’ll just give a rough translation to english instead of posting the original pictures of the menu:

BREAKFAST

FIRST

Birchermüesli served with a choice of bread, jams, cold cuts and fresh fruit

Egg dishes

Egg Benedict, Omelett, scrambled egg, fried egg or an egg cooked to your liking, served with bread, toast and butter

Granola
Vegetable sticks, natural or fruit yoghurt, herbed white cheese, orange juice

English Breakfast
White beans, Cipolata, bacon, turkey ham and Rösti

CLASSICS

Caesar Salad
With chicken and Croûtons

Club sandwich
With chicken or roast beef, egg and fried bacon, chips or french fries

Beef Tartar
Served with roasted toast and butter

Variations of smoked fish
Smoked hot and cold, served with horseradish

COLD APPETIZERS

Caipirinha char
with spicy avocado cream and caviar, preserved lemon and marinated Edamame beans

Summer Salad
With cantaloupe melon, thin sliced Bündner raw ham and fennel grissini

Veal tranches
with tuna cream, crispy capers, cherry tomatoes and whisky

Swiss buffalo mozzarella
with Trevisano, mango pearls and red basil pesto

HOT APPETIZERS

Fluffy Potato Butter Milk Foam
with potatoes, radishes and leek

Lemon Cheese Ravioli
with lemon-thyme sauce

Acquerello Risotto
with Letscho and smoked capsicum powder

Tomato Essence
with its ravioli

MAINS

BBQ Plate
with pulled pork, spare ribs, smoked pork filet slices, sweet corn and baked potatoes with sour cream

Rabbit filet
with polenta soufflé and spicy tomato salsa

Seared Mackerel
with lemon-cucumbers, Risoni and herb salad

Oriental Style Okras
with couscous-parsley salad and Labneh

DESSERT

Yellow Nectarine
cooked sous-vide, served with creamy mango parfait and crispy chamomile meringue

Creation of Birchermüesli
with yoghurt-cassis macarons, marinated apple slices, wild berry ice cream and oat cookies with sesame

Citrus Fruit Tart
with grenadine and vanilla-tarragon sorbet

SWISS cheese board by Rolf Beeler, Maître Fromager
served with home-made fruit cake and compote of dried fruit

I chose the Muesli from the breakfast menu to start, along with a latte macchiato and a glass of orange juice. After that, I had an Egg Benedict, which was actually an Egg Florentine, as the ham had been replaced by spinach. Both dishes were very tasty and well presented. Actually, the BBQ plate caught my eye in particular, and you can actually order any item from the menu (even in combinations not on the menu) at any time of day, but I really didn’t want to exaggerate.

As the terrace was closed due to rainy weather (the roof above the terrace is not fully closed, everything outside will get wet when it’s raining), I told the staff that I’d have a short look at the two other lounges, and promised to return before my flight would be leaving.

I went downstairs to the main concourse (while the business class and Senator lounges share a common reception, the FCL has its own entry further down the hall) and checked in with the agent at the two other lounges. I was already anticipating weird looks from the agents when turning up at the „low class“ lounges with my F boarding pass, but at first, she didn’t even seem to realize, but was instead trying to get a verification on the Aegean Gold number in my record. Just as she was about to ask for my physical card, she hesitated a moment, and then said „Oh, wait a moment, actually…“ - I replied, yes, I know, I’m just coming from the FCL, but she didn’t seem to get it: „You are actually entitled to visiting the FCL!“ - I repeated, yes, I’ve been there, and now I want to take the opportunity to also look at the two other lounges, as I’m usually only departing from the A and B concourses. She finally seemed to understand my intentions, and told me „well, feel free to roam around every lounge here!“ and I proceeded into the business class lounge first.

Having seen both lounges one right after another, I have to say that, much like the A and D lounges, there are only minimal differences between business class and Senator. While the layout of the business class lounge seems to be a bit more straightforward than that of the Senator lounge (probably due to the very restricted space), both lounges feature several seating areas, an array of fully enclosed office cubicles (which are much more private than the relatively open workspaces in the A lounges), and a relaxation room with recliners. Food- and buffet-wise, both lounges (even the business class lounge) features FRANKE touchscreen coffee machines (like those found on the lower level of the A SEN lounge) with lots of different coffee specialities to choose from. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are the same as in the old lounges, as well as the usual snacks found at the buffets (actually, both selections were better in the new lounges right at the beginning, but they have back-ported the extended offerings to the old lounges). The new element in both lounges is the food station, where hot food is prepared on request. I’m not entirely sure what the exact offerings were, but the staff seemed to be preparing egg dishes for breakfast.

All in all, while the new lounges feel much more airy than the quite dark old ones, the differences between old and new lounges are more about details, not about the entire lounge concept. Oh, wait, well, actually, there is a major difference concerning the Senator lounge, and it’s definitely the highlight of the new lounge complex: The Whisky Bar.

While the bar at the A lounges is usually staffed by people who don’t seem to know much about what they ought to do there, it’s an entirely different matter with the new SEN lounge bar. The staff member who attended the bar when I visited wore a sign identifying him as a „Chef de Rang“, and obviously, he was a professional, just like the staff in the FCL. This is actually something that makes a huge difference, as the attitude and knowledge of the staff members are the most important factor to the quality of almost everything - just like I had experienced on my inbound flight from VIE, and like I would notice once again on the upcoming flight to DXB. I talked to the bartender for a while, and he explained some background on the whisky selection. Even though I had originally decided not to take any drink there, he finally convinced me to try at least one, and I had him recommend something to me, while we had some general conversation about the new lounges in general and whisky in particular. While we were talking, I told him about the ongoing discussion of whether to go to the E lounges just for the sake of it, even with an A departure. He clearly said that he would do so every time he’d have enough time, but that people had actually missed their flights over the whisky. I promised to pop back soon, and left the lounges again.

Having seen all three new lounges, I can conclude that while the business class and SEN lounges aren’t exactly revolutionary, they are a very nice addition to the existing lounges. It’s more like an evolution of the existing lounge concept, and while I cannot really comment on the quality of the dishes served from the food station, I think that it’s still better than Knorr and Hilcona, even though the food quality in the old lounges seems to have improved a bit over the last few months. The FCL, on the other hand, is something completely different from the old one in concourse A, and it’s a huge step forward. The old lounge is particularly lacking privacy, and the concept of providing more or less secluded spaces within the lounge is a huge improvement in this respect. Also, the professionalism of the staff is outstanding - take, for example, the Concorde Room at LHR which basically offers the same amenities, restaurant, bar, sleeping rooms etc., the main difference is the staff. When you have to queue at the bar to get a drink from someone who doesn’t even say „hello“ while the waiters run right past you, it’s something entirely different. With the new F lounge, SWISS might even stand a comparison to LH’s offerings, even though the latter will probably still win.

Still, there’s one final statement to make. Many early reviewers have criticized that they cannot see any particular „swissness“ in the design of the new lounges. I clearly have to disagree, I mean, what’s „swissness“ when it comes to design? In my experience, you’ll find much less imitated, kitschy designs in Switzerland than, for example, in Germany or Austria. Swiss design tends to be very simplistic and straightforward, just think about the minimalistic LX aircraft livery, or the famous SBB clock. And I think there’s a reason why a font face that has been one of the most widely used fonts in the last 60 years bears the name „Helvetica“. Hence, to me, the lounge design appears to be very swiss (while even incorporating some elements from the cabin interior), and it also blends in nicely with the exposed concrete elements in the E concourse. Very well done.

roadwarrier

Wow! This is so comprehensive. I look forward to the rest.