After landing, we sat out on the tarmac for about 20 minutes because another plane had been occupying our gate. Unfortunately, that spelled problems for us. Not only were we not escorted onto the plane - like you are on some other carriers when flying in first class - but we weren't even brought to the front of the line.īoarding began a few minutes later and I got my first glimpse of Swiss' Boeing 777-300ER, featuring a special Faces of Swiss livery, which you can see in the photo below - I was told that these aircraft have to depart from the D gates because the plane sits taller than the A340 and the E gates have not been updated to handle it yet. After an amazing experience at Swiss First Lounge E and what I expected would be an equally impressive onboard experience, this little detail was really disappointing. There was another passenger going to the same flight, so we were escorted to the elevators and down to where a luxury Mercedes van was waiting to take us over.Īfter a five-minute drive, we were escorted to our gate and unbelievably, left to stand all the way in the back of the group, with hundreds of other passengers standing around the gate since boarding hadn't started yet. Around 12:30pm, the Swiss First Lounge check-in agent came to get me for my transfer to the D gates. Despite it being an earlier flight, I opted for the LCY departure since the airport was more centrally located and significantly smaller, which would mean less time waiting at the airport.īoarding was scheduled for 12:35pm, 40 minutes before our departure time.

My options were to either fly from London's Heathrow Airport (LHR) at 8:40am or London City Airport 50 minutes earlier at 7:50am. I started my trip at London City Airport (LCY), then I connected in Zurich (ZRH) and flew from there to Los Angeles (LAX) aboard the 777-300ER. For more details about my booking process for this trip, check out my review of Swiss' Airbus A340. For my return trip, this time from Zurich to Los Angeles, I booked myself a flight in Swiss' newly updated first-class product aboard the Boeing 777-300ER. (All photos are by the author).Īfter recently flying in first class from San Francisco to Zurich aboard Swiss' old Airbus A340, I'd gotten a good sense of the carrier's overall soft product. got a chance to test out Swiss' brand new Boeing 777-300ER first-class product on a flight from Zurich to Los Angeles (LAX). Following a brief connecting flight from London City Airport (LCY) to Zurich (ZRH), TPG Contributor J.P.

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