Today I’m reviewing SWISS’s short haul Economy in a brand new Airbus A320neo from London Heathrow to Zurich. It was a pleasurable experience. But a few small issues stop me from rating them a great airline. So please ready my Swiss Economy Review or watch my Youtube video below to find out if Swiss are worth flying with!
SWISS Overview and Ticket Details
Despite Switzerland being a relatively small country of under 9 million people, Swiss International Airlines serve more than twice that with almost 19 million passengers in 2019. They’re also owned by The Lufthansa Group (owners of Lufthansa, Austrian, Eurowings, Brussels Airlines and many more smaller subsidiaries). Their fleet currently has 86 aircraft in a variety of sizes. From the small Airbus A220 (my return to London City was supposed to be on one of these but it got swapped last minute to a Helvetic Airways Embraer E190-E2). Up to their largest plane, the Boeing 777-300ER. Interestingly, they’re also one of the few airlines that operates the Airbus A340. Of which 380 were ever built, but less than 72 remain in active service according to Simple Flying.
Now I booked a return flight from London to Zurich, departing from London Heathrow and returning to London City. I paid £176 for that return ticket on a standard economy fare plus £15 for seat selection on one leg. The only other direct options on this route were easyJet or British Airways. British Airways on average offer a slightly cheaper fare on this route for a similar level of service. Meanwhile easyJet are much cheaper for the base ticket, but if you buy many extras it would end up being a similar price.
Overall, Swiss are definitely one of the more premium-priced airlines in Europe. But prices are in line with other large flag carriers like BA, Air France or Lufthansa. That being said, they really try to upsell you on upgrades, carbon offsets, extra baggage etc. And the cost of those is massive.
For example, the cost of an upgrade to Business Class would have been £120 per person on the outbound and £180 per person on the way back. I was travelling with a partner so we would have spent £600 if we wanted to upgrade. And funny thing is, the difference it buying an economy vs business ticket was only about £100, so they charge more to upgrade to business compared to just buying a business ticket in the first place. They also try to sell you carbon offsets as the “environmentally friendly”. That would have cost us £240 if we wanted to fully offset out flights. The cost of any extras was just generally very high.
London Heathrow Terminal 2
Star Alliance airlines almost exclusively operate out of London Heathrow’s Terminal 2. So of course Swiss being a member are no different. Terminal 2 was originally built way back in 1955 but was demolished and reopened in 2014 and is, in my opinion, one of better airport terminals in Europe. We arrived at about 7:00am for our 8:40am flight and it was quite quiet. We didn’t have any checked luggage and had checked in online. So we headed straight through security (which took less than 5 minutes). Previously I’ve been here for a flight to Singapore on a Singapore Airlines A380 and it was also a very smooth process, but the bag drop queue was quite long (full review here).
I see Heathrow gets a lot of hate online, especially when it comes to connections. However, it’s personally one of my favourite airports. It’s really easy to get to from central London. Plus it serves so many destinations with loads of interesting airlines.
The Plane and Seat
Swiss only have 6 Airbus A320neos in their fleet currently, though this is likely to increase as they retire some older aircraft. Our plane specifically was registered HB-JDF and was only 1.5 years old. It has 180 seats in a 2 class configuration. Though “Business” class just uses economy seats with the middle seat blocked off, as is standard with European airlines.
One thing I like is that there are overhead displays which show the flight map (and adverts). That’s just a nice thing to have. But even better they show arrival info and connecting flight info, which is very handy if you have a connection.
The slimline seats are made from a comfortable leather, were spotlessly clean, and also provided good back support. Though given how thin they were I did find them to be too hard. The positive tradeoff for that slimness is that it does slightly increase legroom. An adjustable headrest would have been nice, but I found it to be fine without honestly.
Seatroom was actually a pleasant surprise. Seatguru.com says the seats have a pitch of 31-32″ and width of 18″. Whilst nothing special, it is slightly above average. Considering most European airlines will try to cram as many people as possible in and have 29″ or even 28″ seat pitch I appreciate Swiss for not following the trend.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the rest of the seat though. It doesn’t have either a power socket or USB port. You can even see by my right knee in the image above there is a square shaped cap which has a plastic cover screwed on where a power socket would usually go. Not such an issue on short haul flights, but it would be nice to have. Just using Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737 (which I reviewed here) as an example… They have both a power socket plus USB port and even a seperate tray to hold your phone/tablet.
Food & Drink
The free inflight service is pretty much what you would expect from a mainline European airline. 10 minutes after takeoff the cabin crew handed out a bottle of water. Then about 30 min before landing (not sure why such a delay) they passed out these Swiss chocolates. They were delicious and I like that they add a Swiss touch to the service. A choice of drink and snack would have been nice, but I don’t really mark them down for not offering it. But at least you actually get something, unlike budget airlines such as Ryanair or Wizzair.
Business class passengers do get a full meal service, and from what I’ve seen online it looks quite good and even includes warm bread. Though if you want something more substantial in economy you’ll have to pay for it. The in-flight menu is quite extensive though, and reasonably priced, which I’ll cover in the next section.
Service and Everything Else
As you would expect there is an inflight menu and duty free shop. And surprisingly it was quite good and most of it was reasonably priced. Plus there were a few nicely Swiss-themed items. Like chocolate Swiss Army Knives, A charcuterie board that came with 1 of 7 different Swiss-themed wooden platters. And even a metal keyring made from a piece of a retired Swiss Airbus A340. You can also pay for everything in Miles and More if you want. Though the redemption rate isn’t great.
They do become slightly absurd with what’s on offer though. The most expensive item I could find was a limited edition Breitling watch which you could either buy for either CHF 7,950 or a whopping 2,226,000 miles. It’s cool that you can buy something like that with Miles… I guess. But firstly, you only get 0.36 cent per mile in value which is terrible. And secondly, who the hell is saving up over 2 million Miles and more just to buy a watch?
The cabin crew meanwhile seemed good. I didn’t really interact with them apart from saying hello and good bye, but no complaints.
Zurich Airport
We landed smoothly at Zurich Airport and disembarked the plane quickly after parking. It didn’t seem too busy, but as we headed to passport control there was a giant queue. As you can see from the picture below, the queue was so long it extended out of the actual immigration hall and down this long corridor. To be fair to Swiss border control, the queue did move quickly. But the sheer number of people meant it still took about 20 minutes. That’s still not as bad as the last time I was at Geneva airport though where the queue was even longer and took around 40 minutes to pass. Maybe I’ve just been unlucky so far, but in my experience Swiss passport control is a mess.
Also, this didn’t affect me but walking through baggage reclaim was a bit worrying. They had the most lost luggage of any airport I’ve ever been to. (and that includes passing through Heathrow in 2022 during the height of their lost luggage crisis). It seemed like every bit of free space was crowded with these carts (below) stacked with luggage. The picture below is just one of the many piles in the airport. I also saw a lot of people queuing at the lost luggage desks. Not sure what the issue is but this makes me caution against bringing checked luggage through Zurich.
Final Thoughts
Overall I was impressed with Swiss’s A320neo Economy Class. My only real complaint is that the seat was too hard, but on a 1 hour flight that’s fine. Also the immigration queue at Zurich was long, but that’s not Swiss’s fault. The new Airbus A320neo was really nice and clean. The legroom is pretty good and the chocolate was tasty. The flight was also perfectly on time and the cabin crew did a good job making it a welcoming flight. On this route at least Swiss are usually the most expensive option with British Airways being slightly cheaper but offering a similar level of service. But overall I would say Swiss is slightly better and definitely worth flying if you’re going to Switzerland, and thanks for reading my Swiss Economy Review!
More from me…
If you enjoyed my Swiss Economy Review feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:
- Malaysia Airlines Economy A350-900 – Great food on a 13 hour flight
- No1 Lounge at London Gatwick South – Surprisingly good
- Singapore Airlines Economy from London to Singapore – As Good as People Say?
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- The Platinum Card – You Receive 50,000 Membership Reward points after spending £4,000 in the first 6 months: https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/fREDEGMhtY?XLINK=MYCP
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