Review of Edelweiss Air flight from Zurich to Tampa in Economy

4 Engines 4 Long Haul

Hello and welcome to another Flight Report!

This is the 2nd FR from my trip to the USA and will follow on from the last one with a long haul across the Atlantic. This is only my 2nd transatlantic flight (the first being a rather nice hop to Canada on Austrian two years ago) and will be operated by the rare Airbus A340-300. When I first booked this trip, my main aim was to fly the A340-300 specifically on Edelweiss, and a roundtrip flying Stockholm-Zurich-Tampa was the cheapest option. For context, other options to Tampa or other destinations cost around €1000+, a lot more than the SEK6167 (€545/$560) I paid for this trip.

I should also mention that the return portion never happened as the airline cancelled my return flight around a month before departure. I called them asking for a reroute and guess what the agent told me the 'fastest' option was? It was a train from Tampa to Chicago (yes, really) before a Swiss flight to Zurich. I have no clue why that was even an option, let alone the fastest one (why not the Swiss flight from Miami? Hell, even a United flight to Chicago would've been fine). For those unaware, that train takes around 48 hours on average. Needless to say, I didn't fancy taking a train for 2 days straight, so I went for a refund. 

Anyway, this will be my first time flying the A340-300 in 10 years - my last was a very memorable and nostalgic flight on a Finnair A340-300 in the 'Unikko' livery. I did fly Lufthansa's A340-600 back in 2023 (spoiler: it was disappointing) so I'm very curious how Edelweiss compares on a similar flight. 

I aim to offset all of my CO2 emissions from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard.

Zurich Airport (ZRH)

You join me right after my flight from Stockholm in the Schengen 'B' gates. 

Annoyingly, the gates aren't displayed until 2 hours 30 minutes before departure (for long hauls). Now normally, the airport will tell you the area the flight will depart from so connecting passengers know where to go at least. However, this isn't done here so I'm kinda stuck in the Schengen gates for a few hours until the gate is displayed. 

View of the apron with an Air Baltic/Swiss A220 heading to London and the A321neo that brought me here from Stockholm. 

Finally, after 2 hours of waiting, I found out that our flight will be departing out of the 'D' gates. Zurich has a rather unique layout as the non-Schengen gates are on the floor below the Schengen 'B' gates, allowing flights to both to depart next to each other. 

The airport actually has a dedicated non-Schengen terminal (the 'E' gates), which is where most heavies depart from. 

Terrible view of the apron from here. 

However, at the end of the building, there's an elevated gate (basically the same level as the Schengen gates but separated) with nice views of the taxiway/runway. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure there's also a spotting deck accessible from the B gates. 

A Swiss A330-300 heading to New York (JFK).

And here's our plane arriving from Cancun (CUN)! 

Some information about our plane:

Type: Airbus A340-300
Registration: HB-JMD
First flight: 29 October 2003
Age: ~21 years
Config: C27/Y287

A very economy heavy configured A340, she was initially delivered to Swiss before being transferred over to Edelweiss in September 2018. 

The flight

Flight time is around 11 hours 30 minutes and here's our route: 

Boarding started 30 minutes late and as usual for the USA, you have to stand in another line to get your boarding pass stamped before boarding. Normally, I'd expect the agent to ask some questions or something, but for me, he didn't say a word, stamped my boarding pass, and sent me on my way. 

View of the wing on the jet bridge.

The eats onboard. 

Photo of the IFE (which we'll look at later) and the tray table. 

On each seat is also a pillow…

… and a blanket, pretty standard. 

The legroom is rather average. However, the seats felt cheap to me, they were creaky and had cheap plastic everywhere. The cushioning was also fairly hard, which made it rather uncomfortable for an 11-hour flight. 

First views out of the window. 

Having gone through a reconfiguration in 2018, the seats/IFE is rather new. The only sign that we're on a 20-year-old plane is the overhead panel. 

The crew also came around with an antibacterial wipe and a set of earphones. 

Pushback 50 minutes late due to a minor technical issue. 

Taxiing past the observation deck. I'd love to come and plane spot Zurich one day. 

Going past an Emirates A380 parked at the non-Schengen terminal. 

Takeoff! Bye bye Europe! 

Nice views as we climb out of Zurich. 

Shortly after, a snack and some drinks were handed out. 

Over Western France. 

In a race with a Delta heading to New York (JFK) (we're winning, by the way). 

Last view of Europe as we head into the Atlantic - this is Devon/Cornwall in England. Beautiful weather today, unlike the past month (I live in the UK). 

Anyway, let's have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket. It includes:

- A safety card
- An air sickness bag that's also a donation bag
- A duty-free catalogue that also has some snacks you can buy onboard. 
- An inflight magazine (rather rare for European carriers these days). 

Lunch was served around 2 hours after takeoff. 

And here it is. The options were chicken or vegetarian. I went with vegetarian (it's worth noting that the vast majority of passengers, at least around me, went with chicken). It was vegetarian tortellini in tomato sauce. Along with it was a radish salad, mango cake, and fresh bread handed out separately - it's so nice to get actual, nice bread rather than a cheap bun you'd normally get. The crew also came around with extra bread, which was nice. It was a very nice meal with good portions, absolutely no complaints from me. 

Deep into the Atlantic crossing now. 

A few hours later, the crew came around with some ice cream - it's been soooooo long since I had ice cream on a plane haha. 

And let's have a look at the IFE: 

There's a good number of Western and Asian films (most of them borrowed from Swiss). TV shows are also available but it's not great content wise. IFE screen is fast and responsive. 

And here's the moving map. We are (most definitely) not heading to Vienna. It's quite funny watching the 'distance to destination' tick up slowly as if we're hopelessly lost. This error is mostly likely because of the earlier technical issue (the captain mentioned having to 'reset' the plane because of it). 

The map also has adverts that appear for 2-3 minutes every once in a while. This is the first time I've seen ads on the map and it's really annoying. 

Oceanic crossing complete! Over Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Unsurprisingly, a ton of clouds over this part of North America - if there's one place that has worse weather than the UK, it would be Atlantic Canada. They get snow, fog, and crazy winds as a daily occurrence, mad respects to all the people that live with that kind of weather for a good portion of each year.

Quick photo of the lavatory around 6 hours into the flight - very clean.

In typical Atlantic Canada fashion, the second we leave, we get beautiful weather again. This is Massachusetts, by the way. (I have friends in Nova Scotia and making fun about their weather have been a regular occurrence for me haha). 

The crew also came around again with butter bread and ice tea (with no ice). I'm honestly not used to getting so much food. The catering and crew have been absolutely amazing on this flight. 

A couple of hours later, the sun started to set over North Carolina. 

Around 2 hours before landing, a small dinner was served. 

It's a cold meal consisting of roast potato with zucchini along with some apple cake. Once again, the bread was fresh, and the crew came around with more later on. While I would've preferred something a bit more than this for an 11-hour flight, I really can't complain considering the amount/quality of food served today. 

Approaching the eastern coast of Florida. 

Shortly before descent, the crew came around (once again!) with some ginger biscuits. I've lost count of how many times they've passed through the cabin already. 

Some gorgeous views of Orlando and Tampa during descent. 

On final with an… interesting… road (why are the lights blue??).

And finally, welcome to the USA! Parked next to a British Airways Boeing 777-200 heading to London (LGW).

Tampa International Airport (TPA)

Walking to immigration. 

Immigration took around an hour… which is normal for the USA, even for citizens. My bag was already taken off the belt when I got there. 

And here's the confusing part… this is my first time in the US so I'll take you through my thought process as I navigate around the airport. The first thing I saw after baggage reclaim was a sign for baggage reclaim (and terminal). I thought that it was for transfers (like, I'm at the terminal, right?) but I soon realized that it was the only way to go. 

After a bit of walking, here's the shuttle for baggage claim (like… I just came from baggage claim?!) and the terminal (is this not a terminal?!).  

Wait, the US has baggage claim in the non-secure area?! Is that not a problem as anyone can walk in and grab a bag? It takes a lot of getting used to, especially as all other countries have baggage claim in the secure area. I'm also not the only one confused by this, there was also another group of people who were just as confused/lost as me. 

And here's the domestic baggage claim… right next to the exit. I still don't understand why they'd have to have a sign for baggage claim in the international area since it just confuses people. (Also how hard is it to have a sign for 'exit' or 'arrivals'?) 

Finally, here's the pick-up area. 

Anyway, thanks for reading this FR. I'll be staying in Tampa for a few days before heading onward. Feel free to check out the plane spotting bonus at the bottom and I'll see you in the next FR!

Take care!