Why SWISS short haul Business Class makes BA Club Europe look good

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Prins Polo says:

  1 Feb1 February 08:35

  Is the comment re wardrobes correct? I thought they’ve been removed, at least on some aircraft (I don’t think there are any eg kn ex-BMI a/c).

  • Rob says:

    1 Feb1 February 08:50

    Wardrobes are staying in some form AFAIK.

• AspirationalFlyer says:

  1 Feb1 February 09:08

  Interesting review but I’m not sure it reflects my last flights on Swiss in short-haul business class, which were born very good. On the outbound from London, I managed to enjoy a couple of cocktails in the United Lounge – it’s a bit of a trek but was a very pleasant experience. On the return flight, I was given several glasses of pre-departure champagne and very attentive service throughout the flight. The food in both directions was unmemorable, but I always set my expectations low on short haul services. It was definatley worth the extra £50 or so each way I paid. I’m travelling with Swiss again in March, and I’m looking forward to it.

• Tom C says:

  1 Feb1 February 09:21

  I actually prefer Swiss J over BA J, having flown them in paid business quite a few times – 6 last year alone. The food generally is a lot better than BA, I prefer their lounge in T2 and I do love their chocolates, where on one flight they gave me an entire unopened box to take with me. As Volker said, picking my seat without status is decent, but most importantly for me is something you didn’t like: the lack of a tray. I like the middle seat simply being empty, as my partner and I can sit next to each other and have plenty of space to dump all our things on the end seat.

  I just wish the European airliners would bring back the decent seats again. Russia is still one of the last remaining pillars of decency – not something I expected to write today. I flew Aeroflot and S7 in J on SVO>GOB, an hour long flight, and both had the old style, spacious seats. You even had a separate business class bus pick you up/collect you, and seeing that I was the only passenger in J, it was pretty efficient.

  • CV3V says:

    1 Feb1 February 16:15

    Vietnam airlines are similar, decent seats, separate bus for business class, perhaps its a communist party thing!

    • Steve says:

      2 Feb2 February 11:55

      Maybe they don’t have gazillion shareholders to squeeze every penny for, to maintain the all mighty infinite growth and returns.

• Marcw says:

  1 Feb1 February 09:26

  SWISS is not the best airline – it’s like Luftys expensive low cost (I mean operational low cost – not LC as we know it). My experience with them has not been great: three bookings, and on two of them cancelled flight to Zurich once from Lhr (last Christmas) and once from Bcn (a few years ago). However was both times rebooked into Lufty, with similar arrival times to final destination.
  There isn’t a problem in the short haul Business Class in Europe, as long as the fares are reasonable. Last winter: return Italy to the Canaries in Business with IB/IBS for £300 (while economy was £190).
  Also I guess it’s not fair to comment on how bad the food is, without knowing what’s offered during the other time slots. Perhaps lunch, afternoon and dinner is way better than the Ba offerings. The on average Swiss food is better – however From the few reports on Swiss short haul business class, the food doesn’t look very good, More like a snack/tapas oriented meal, than a proper meal.
  On overall, from my experience and what I’ve read in the net, SWISS does not have a better short-haul product compared to BA. Even though in economy you get “free” food, I prefer BoB: it allows me to choose what I want (when I’m hungry), and not some unappetising bread roll. That’s me! Sorry, I know many of you prefer something free even though it’s tasteless or unappealing.

• Carl says:

  1 Feb1 February 09:39

  I was really impressed with the quality of Swiss’s short haul business. In my experience the food and wine has been a far superior and the service level has been leagues ahead. I actually didn’t think too badly of Club Europe until I tried what Swiss had to offer.

• Andrew C says:

  1 Feb1 February 09:44

  Their website makes it clear this is not meant to be the case:

  > We guarantee that on the entire European fleet, the neighbouring seat will remain vacant to give you even more privacy.

  Very interesting to hear this was not your experience.

  • Carl says:

    1 Feb1 February 10:16

    This also happened to my wife on Swiss short-haul business class, albeit about 7 or 8 years ago.

• Gerry says:

  1 Feb1 February 10:05

  My daughter and I flew with Swiss from Dublin -Zurich in business to connect to long haul. It was cheaper to do this than fly BA economy from my home airport Edinburgh to my destination.
  I have no status with Swiss, but seat allocation on booking is great – row 1 both directions – but you are right about seat 1C sticking out a bit. Aircraft was full in economy, only 4 in business with 2 staff keeping us comfortable. We left late morning and were given lunch which was superb and far better than that produced by BA on our way to Dublin. Wines were very nice too.
  I am surprised at your experience but hope that was a blip as my experience was far better.

• czechoslovakia says:

  1 Feb1 February 10:17

  Rob — Afraid that ain`t a real SWISS breakfast. I`ll do 3 to 4 segments with SWISS in business a month (first leg always plane returning to Zurich, but NOT having spent the night away) and the main component is completely different. I`m guessing that what you got was provided by a 3rd party local catering firm. SWISS short-haul business breakfast is various cold cults, grapes, fruit compot, croissants – Very nice indeed. No excuse though for SWISS serving that though – reminds me of the episode of Blackadder when they pretended to be chefs “How do you manage to get that must “Custard” out of one small cat, Baldrick?”
  Made the mistake of 1C myself once – never again!
  LH has a better solution in row 1 in that the table is built into the bulkhead, so no need for the narrow seat with fixed armrest as in Swiss.
  The C series is much better. 2 x 2 layout and no-one next to you “Cruz?”)
  Private minibus shuttle in Zurich for Biz pax is a huge plus too, and the lounges there are great.

  • Jamie says:

    1 Feb1 February 22:49

    Is the C-Series not 2×3 rather than 2×2?

    • Czechoslovakia says:

      2 Feb2 February 07:08

      Confused the Helvetic E190, sorry. Yes, C is 2×3. Lovely plane. 1a the place to be.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.