Review: SWISS Business Class 777-300ER San Francisco to Zurich (SFO-ZRH)
Review: SWISS Business Class A340-300 Zurich to Hong Kong (ZRH-HKG)
Review: Cathay Pacific The Wing Business Class Lounge Hong Kong HKG
Review: Cathay Pacific The Deck Business Class Lounge Hong Kong HKG
Review: Cathay Pacific The Pier Business Class Lounge Hong Kong HKG
Review: The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong HKG
Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class 777-300ER Hong Kong to Mumbai (HKG-BOM)
Review ANA Business Class 787-9 Mumbai to Tokyo Narita (BOM-NRT)
Review: ANA The Suite Lounge Tokyo Narita NRT
Review: ANA First Class Tokyo Narita to San Francisco | NRT-SFO
YOUTUBE: SWISS: San Francisco to Zurich
YOUTUBE: SWISS: Zurich to Hong Kong
YOUTUBE: Cathay Pacific: Hong Kong to Mumbai
YOUTUBE: ANA: Mumbai to Tokyo Narita
YOUTUBE: ANA: Tokyo Narita to San Francisco
SWISS flies a 777-300ER every day in the evening from SF to Zurich and all the Lufthansa group carriers share a check in counter at SFO, so our flight was accepting check ins for this flight, and th Munich flight that leaves a few hours after.
And here’s a look at our lovely 777-300ER to Zurich. As a business class passenger, you can use the excellent Polaris Lounge here at SFO as long as your ticket on SWISS is a Business basic or Business flex fare. Business Lite fares are no longer allowed access into the Polaris Lounge.
Boarding eventually began with Group 1 for Lufthansa’s ultra elite HON Circle Members and First class passengers, followed by Group 2 for Star Alliance Gold and Business Class Passengers.
SFO-ZRH
Boeing 777-300ER
The 777-300ER has a small business class cabin ahead of the 2nd door with just a couple rows, and then the main section of the business cabin is behind the second door.
In the
On the window side, you have a staggered layout with alternating rows of pair seats and what is commonly called the “throne” seat.
The middle section has a staggered layout of 2 seats in each row.
And then my seat is 9A which is one of the “throne” seats.
This seat has a lot of different storage spaces, which is great; however, the biggest issue I have is that there’s not a lot of personal space at this seat. You are kind of walled off on all sides and I’m not a very wide person to even occupy space like that.
The headphones and hangar are right next to you if you need to hang any larger coats or jackets. The crew will collect them from you during boarding and keep it for the duration of the flight.
The bedding was quite basic with just a pillow and a blanket.
The foot cubby is also incredibly narrow as you can see here.
And just when you thought you covered all the storage that this seat could have, there’s more!
The seat controls are right next the armrest and are pretty intuitive but be careful to not accidentally click on a few of them.
The TV screen is average size I’d say for a business class seat. The Lufthansa group airlines are definitely a little behind when it comes to tech but its functional enough
The tray table also comes out of the side of your seat like what you see here.
And there’s a little rubber band for you to keep smaller electronic devices like Ipads and phones which I think is pretty cool.
The crew came around with pre departure beverages of SWISS’s signature elderberry drink or champagne and I went for the latter.
They also gave out the menu cards, however for Lufthansa group overnight flights, the breakfast menu is separate and it’s a card you have to fill out stating if you want breakfast or not, and if you do, what are all the items you want on your tray.
A part from that the rest of the menus are business as usual, and we’ll take a closer look at them once we get up in the air.
Eventually, we began our taxi to the runway and took off from the usual 28L.
SWISS always has a nice themed opening to their menu.
After we crossed cruising altitude, the crew went around and took meal orders for HON Circle and Senator members first. I’m neither since I have 1K status with United but I certainly can appreciate them prioritizing their loyal frequent flyers.
The crew that took my meal order was friendly but I didn’t get any greetinf. First question was imediately “what would you like for your first course” and then followed by main, that’s it.
About 40 minuted after takeoff, the crew came around with the drinks on a cart. They gave chilled nuts and I went with champagne for my drink.
The crew came back around after that and brought our first course out.
The halibut wasn’t too flavorful on its own but it was refreshing and the purees it came with certainly helped.
The salad was decent as well. I always love seeing the color green on my plate.
The trya also came with condiments for your starters and bread.
The crew also offered another round of drinks, and I went with the SWISS white wine on this one. They offered a small tasting pour before giving me the whole pour which was a nice touch.
Main course was a beef which was tiny. I mean look at that serving. The polenta block was bigger than the beef portion. It certainly didn’t help that the beef was dry and flavorless for the most part. The polenta was also beyond bland and tasteless. The vegetables were lightly salted at least.
Dessert was a berry tart and that was flavorful & decent and went well with the sweet cream that it was served with.
I also got some port wine to go with the dessert which was quite nice.
To wrap up our meal the crew came around with lindt chocolates.
This meal was nicely presented but quite forgettable for the most part.
After meal service I went to freshen up and the lavtory was piled up with a few decent amenities.
SWISS does have wifi on their 777-300s and this was the wifi plans. For an overnight flight, I simply would not be willing to pay that much for wifi if it was not a work trip.
The seat reclines into a fully flat bed and again, with only the most basic of amenities.
I do have slightly wider shoulders and so the seat felt narrow when trying to sleep on my back. I can imagine plenty of others who would have to sleep on their sides to make this work.
After getting some decent hours of sleep in, I woke up for breakfast. The crew started checking in on people who were awake about 2.5 hours before landing and offering breakfast.
I went for the SWISS breakfast on my card, which was a great idea considering that I was decently full from dinner still.
The croissants were warm and soft and lightly crunchy so they were very enjoyable.
The cheese was a swiss cheese and brie with ham. All were light and perfect.
The menu said that they had plain yogurt, but vanilla yogurt is not plain. Any chobani yogurt that isn’t plain yogurt is a sneaky source of added sugar so its very much a good call to avoid it.
The sun was fully up and it was afternoon where we were as we made our way rapidly towards Zurich.
I ended the meal on some green tea which was just right.
The crew also returned the jacket that they had collected from the hangar earlier.
Descent began into Zurich as we were flying around some nice cumulous clouds.
Switzerland truly is, in my opinion, the prettiest country in the world and approaches like this do wonders.
Overall, SWISS Business is just ok. The food was fine and nothing memorable, the amenities are ok, the service was ok, and the throne seats are private but not the most comfortable seats. This sums up the entire experience as just ok at the end of all this. The one thing that SWISS had well was the timing of this flight. I would’ve happily taken United but that flight leaves in the afternoon which is not very well timed for the work day in the US.