Review of SWISS flight Geneva → Munich in Economy

Hello everyone! As promised I will review my GVA-MUC-LUX trip. I went to Geneva for an industry conference. The trip was lovely with great weather.   I will attempt to build upon my experiences on my CLT-EWR-AMS trip that I reviewed last week. My company paid for the flights and I did have a free checked bag but I just elected to use a carry on Ebag.  So sit back, buckle those seat belts and enjoy this review of Swiss 1120 to Munich.  

TAble of Contents

1. Flight Info                            6.Seat
2. Check In                               7. IFE
3. Getting to Airport             8. Food/Drink
4. Arrival/Security                 9. Flight/ Landing
5.Boarding

1. Flight Info

Airline: Swiss Airlines International (LX)
Aircraft: A220-300
Registration:HB-JCO
Delivered: 2018
Route: GVA-MUC
Flight Number:1120
Seat: 5C
Departure Gate: A6
Departure Runway: 22
Scheduled Departure Time: 6:30
Actual Departure Time: 6:36
Scheduled Arrival Time: 7:40
Actual Arrival Time:  7:29
Landing Runway: 26L
Arrival Gate: K04
Scheduled Flight Time: 70 Minutes
Actual Flight Time: 53 Minutes

2. Check in

I logged on to Swiss.com 24 hours prior to departure. I had zero issues checking in. I was able to select seats for both my Swiss flight GVA-MUC and my Lufthansa MUC-LUX flights. Prior to check in, I had to go to each airlines website to select seats. I had booked my flight as part of a conference so I could choose standard (not exit or priority) economy seats for free. You would typically have to pay. It was nice to be able to also double check my seat on the Swiss site for the Lufthansa flight. This is a perk of both carriers being part of the greater Lufthansa group. Once check in begins, you can choose any economy seat for free. I moved up as far as I could and secured a seat on the left side of this A220-300 as that is the 2 side of a 2-3 set up. I had a really short layover in Munich so I wanted to position myself as close to the front of the cabin as possible.

2. Getting to the airport

I stayed at the Ibis Hotel Geneve Centre Lac. It is a decent hotel that close to everything. One area of concern is that it is in the rather small red light district. However, I must say that it is safe for families to walk around. Any "window girls" are hid in back alleys and the ladies who pick up clients off the street are respectful and did not try to strike up a conversation unless you seem interested.  I left my hotel at 4:24 to make my way several blocks over to the train station. The walk was nice as very few people are out or still up at that point. I arrived 3 short minutes later and made my way to platform 3 for the 4:44 train to GVA. Most hotels give guests a free Geneva area transit card that is valid for trips to the airport. Always ask for one!  The train station was dead at this time with nothing open. The train arrived on time. It was pretty crowded but I easily found  a seat for the 5 minute journey to wonderful (I say wonderful) GVA. We left at 4:44 and arrived at the airport train station at 4:49.

4. Arrival/Security

Once arriving you take a pair of escalators up a level to ground floor. From there you can walk inside and then up another set to check in or go up in the train station to a higher level and take a covered walk way. Once in the check in area, I headed up another flight of steps to the security area. I did not check a bag but check in lines seemed normal and were dominated in this area by Star Alliance and Lufthansa Group carriers. 

I arrived at 4:55 to security and it was a mess. Long lines and it was chaotic to boot. Multiple lines would merge into a larger line. Plenty of airport workers were on site but they seemed at a lost. Once you make it to the x-ray machine you also find out that the security agent has to scan your boarding card too. This slows things down. All in all I was out of security at 5:09. Only 14 minutes but I could easily see where it could be much longer. GVA is too big of an airport in too major a world city to have these issues. The airport and check in/security seem outdated. This is in stark contrast to Zurich airport which is a very modern/sleek/well designed airport. 

After security you enter into a smallish atrium with limited food options. It is nice to not walk through duty-free (unless you like that sort of things). After checking the big FID, I turned left toward the A gates immediately off of the atrium. Decent amount of seating but from prior experiences I know this area can get really crowded later in the day. I shortly arrived to A6 after just a few minutes. A6 is a bus gate…dang it. One nice thing about 99% of U.S. airports is that you never have to take a bus  (IAD I'm looking at you!). Gates A6 and A7 share an area down a floor from the main departures area. The area had decent seating but I could see it full if both flights were scheduled at the same time. I was on a A220-330, so not exactly a small plane as Swiss can fit around 145 passengers on it. 

GVA does have wifi but it is a pain to log on too. You must enter a code which is sent either via text, from scanning your boarding pass (can't do if you have a mobile pass), or from using your passport (could not figure this option out). I chose the text option and once logged on, it seemed like decent Wifi. 

5. Boarding

Boarding began at 5:58 with priority passengers loaded onto the bus first. They were able to sit in a special roped off area as to respect priority when boarding the aircraft. All other passengers were called shortly after. The ride to the aircraft was short and soon were on sitting HB-JCO waiting to go to MUC. I had no issues finding overhead space for my bag.

6. Seat

I had plenty of leg room and being 6 foot that is saying something. The two small dual pockets were rather useless. A phone could fit in and a passport but that's it. The cabin was very sleek and clean as I have come to expect on Swiss.

7. IFE

Swiss A220-300 do not have power at the seats nor do they have wifi. The small screen overhead was used for the safety video and the route map. You could browse through the duty free guide or the Swiss Airlines magazine but other than that you were left to fend for yourself.

8. Food/Drink

Shortly after takeoff, FA came by with breakfast. I have yet to figure out why they serve breakfast on some flights and not others. The magical cutoff on some airlines is 30 mins, but for Swiss and Lufthansa it seems to be hit or miss if you get fed.  On this flight we gad a wonderful roll with apricot jam. A water was handed out as well. This is what I'm talking about. On this flight I got food and just water. On a similar length flight from LUS to ZRH I got a full beverage trolley but no food. Good luck on your swiss flight and beverage/food service. Of course at the end, wonderful Swiss chocolates were passed out!

8. Flight/Landing

At 6:20 boarding was complete. GVA only has 1 runway and traffic was very light this time of day. at 6:26 we pushed back and were airborne at 6:37. We climbed through clouds and turned right towards Germany. Black forest on the right/Swiss alps on the left. The flight was uneventful. Light bumps at times. Decent cloud cover so the alps were covered except for the tallest peaks.  At 7:29 we touched down on 26L. The taxi was very long. It felt we were going all the way to downtown Munich! We finally parked at T2S (K/L gates). 

Bonus!

As you know I didn't stay in MUC! I had a flight to catch and this time to LUX! Please see the next report as a continue of this journey.