Review of SWISS flight San Francisco → Zurich in Business

This was my long-awaited flight since I always wanted to try SWISS 777-300 business class. As their short haul and long haul economy product are really great, I expected this also in their business class cabin. But my expectations were not met…

Previous flights on our journey to three weeks vacation in Chile:
Paris (CDG) - Toronto (YYZ) - here
Toronto (YYZ) - Santiago (SCL) - here
Santiago (SCL) - Toronto (YYZ) - here
Toronto (YYZ) - San Francisco (SFO) - here

SFO

As I mentioned in the previous report, we arrived at SFO in the morning on Air Canada Dreamliner and their tragic ground handling let us stay on the tarmac for a whole hour waiting for coming to the gate!
After the arrival, before we left the airside area, we went to the Polaris lounge for a moment, as we headed to San Francisco for a few hours and we wanted to grab something to eat.
If you are flying Air Canada from SFO you should be advised that even it is the Star Alliance carrier, their boarding passes are not accepted in Polaris lounge!
In this hour in the morning, when most Aisa flights left, we were greeted by the nearly empty lounge and I was very impressed by its design. I simply loved it!

Had something small from the buffet and went outside to rent a car. What surprised me about SFO is that even this is a huge airport, everything is so simple. It took us only a few minutes to get from the gate to the lounge and from there to the train which stopped directly at the car rental desks. Very convenient and fast! I did not expect it but I really liked SFO!

United Polaris Lounge

As mentioned before, I simply fell in love with it! First of all, I have to say that the design is absolutely superb, very stylish and even there were many flights leaving in the evening, the lounge was far from crowded. Maybe this is caused by the fact that this lounge is situated directly after the security and some people may not see the entrance…

First, we stopped at the bar and had perfect cocktails - Paper plane for me, Ginger Scotchman for my travel companion and a glass of champagne. The serving at the bar is slightly chaotic as there are many people waiting and there is only one barman serving all of us. But if you have time, it is really not disturbing.


Right after that, we headed to the dining area. The menu has not changed from the opening which might be bothersome to those traveling often. We decided to go for:
Shrimp cake

Seafood cioppino - this was marked as the main course but it felt more like the warm appetizer so after that, we decided to have also the burger

Delicious burger

And typical disaster by their desserts. They call profiteroles the ice cream sandwich and it is disgusting as the tiramisu was.

All in all, we really liked the dining area, the food was tasty, every dish came with wine pairing, the staff was very friendly but the desserts were really bad and overall the Air Canada Signature Suite was far more superb than this United Polaris.

Before heading to the gate we had a shower. The process was very quick, we did not wait

LX39

We arrived at the boarding gate area which was very crowded. There was ready for boarding another 777-300 of Air New Zealand on the opposite side of the area so it was very full. People did not know where to go, where is the business class queue…all in all, boarding was a mess.
I find it pretty weird if they put Business Class and First Class passengers together when the cost of their tickets are many times different! Also, I do not understand why they give preferred boarding to people with the need for assistance and families with children. Disabled maybe as they have to be transferred on wheelchairs and they need space when boarding, but families? I hate this policy. They should strictly prefer First Class followed with J cabin. Families can board with those classes they paid for!

Upon arriving on board we were greeted and went to our seats in the 15th row. I booked more than half a year in advance and already nearly all seats were booked or available to pay. SWISS requires passengers in J to pay for throne seats. Very interesting but there is much more. Where there is in heridge-bone seat space for one, in SWISS we are fitted two. With just a tiny storage space it looked really cramped. And yes, they have a nice stylish design that makes you feel great but…this seat arrangement popular by LX and OS is pretty bad.

Welcome onboard by name? Forget! Nobody introduced themselves, nobody knew our names, nothing. Amenity kit and poor blanket awaited us on our seats.
Welcome drink, Menu distributed.

We left SFO quickly and was ready for the diner. That beginning with champagne and nuts…

…followed by tuna appetizer…

…and delicious steak which was completely rare. Fortunately, I ate delicious meals in United Polaris Lounge because I nearly did not eat it. If they asked me, I would say medium. But this was so great and rare…

And the dessert? Cheesecake with absolutely no ideas of anything more than being just a cake…

Toilets were very busy and I was wondering why LX puts only 3 of them serving so many people in their premium cabin.

The day was saved by breakfast. On longer flights you get a full service, on shorter (like NYC) you will fill the form for them.


And the arrival exactly on time. Like swiss watches…