Flight Review: Swiss (Boeing 777-300ER) Economy, Zurich to Los Angeles

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I found a great fare to Nice (NCE) from my home in Los Angeles (LAX). The outbound put me on Lufthansa through Munich, a solid economy-class experience on an Airbus A340-600.  The return had me on Swiss through Zurich (ZRH). How would the long flights over the Atlantic compare?

I got to the gate at 12:20. Nothing was happening and I wished the departure monitors hadn’t instructed me to go zum Gate, to the gate, because I could have used the extra time to get a snack. On the upside, Zurich airport Wi-Fi is provided for free for two hours and it worked great. It was easy to sign in using my Boingo Wireless credentials (a handy perk of the Amex Platinum.)

The very friendly gate agent said I still had the three empty seats next to me on the flight. Our 777, tail number HB-JNE, was waiting. It had been delivered in June 2016 and was therefore just 17 months old.

Boarding and Seat

Boarding was scheduled for 12:35. With fine Swiss timing, it began on the dot and I was at my seat in less than a minute. More than one passenger had trouble opening the overhead bins, which dropped down with a hydraulic piston, but they provided lots of space. Economy class was in the dense 3-4-3 layout that’s now become commonplace on 777s in coach.

The overall configuration is in three classes with 340 seats total: 8 in First, 62 in Business, and 270 in Economy with 32 inches of pitch and 17.3 of width, the latter measurements pretty standard for this airplane.

Of those 270 coach seats, there were many empty ones on this flight.  I had an entire four-seat middle to myself. While not exactly a sofa, the seats provided quality sleep when I lay across them.

Legroom was decent, and though my knees were closer to the seatback than I would’ve liked, I was angled so the squeeze didn’t feel as bad as it looked. The recline was excellent and actually made me comfortable (in Economy!), especially when combined with the fine-tuned adjustability of the headrest.

Service and Amenities

It took several minutes and several passes, and the AvGeek in me was delighted. We pulled away at 1:42 and by 1:50 wheels were up, 40 minutes after our scheduled departure time.

Not long after, Wi-Fi service became available. It was sold by the megabyte, with prices ranging from 9 to 59 Swiss Francs (about the same in $US). I had a great deal of difficulty connecting.

The system offered a very international selection of movies, with some reasonably recent releases, organized well and including a “Made in Switzerland” section and a “Flying Film Festival.” Audio offerings included music, audiobooks and podcasts.

For maps, the Airshow 3D gave some really cool perspectives and flight info, allowing me to pinch and zoom and swipe all over the globe. The 3D Earth map did a fine job of showing the true route of our flight, as opposed to the seemingly weird route that would have appeared on a flat map. (Long-haul flights follow Great Circle routings, which actually are the shortest distance between points on a sphere, but those routes appear distorted when projected onto a bi-dimensional map.)  

  

Food and Beverage

While this was not an awful meal, it was not good, and much of it was left on the tray which was cleared 30 minutes later.  Lights dimmed within the hour but food and drink options remained available. Oranges, candy, tarts and soft drinks (three brands of bottled water!) remained within easy grasp in the galleys and were later joined by sandwiches.

 I also spotted asparagus soup packets, but no spoons or hot water. A flight attendant was happy to get them for me when I asked, and I was happy to have the soup — more flights through cold weather should offer this.

Flight attendants came by often with beverages, and about five hours after the ice cream came a snack of hand-held pizza and cookie. It was pretty bad — dry and chewy and not hot.