Award Booking

Swiss is a member of Star Alliance and a Skytrax 4-star airline. In 2018, it ranked No. 12 in the world and trailed only Lufthansa among European airlines. This redemption used 80,000 United miles, which I wanted to burn before any devaluation. Since it was peak summer travel season, there were not many options. I figured connecting in Europe and trying Swiss would be a pretty good choice. The full itinerary was LX15 JFK-ZRH and LX196 ZRH-PEK, both operated by A330s.

When selecting seats, the first priority was definitely the two rows right behind first class. Fewer people usually means a quieter cabin. Also, during boarding, economy passengers walk through the rear section of business class, which can be noisy, so it is best to switch into Row 4 or Row 5 if possible. However, Row 4 and Seat 5,000 were either blocked or paid seats, so they could not be selected in advance. The issue with 5A and 5B is that storage space is very limited, with only a small shared area in the middle. At the same time, if the person in 5A wants to get out, they will definitely disturb 5B. For my wife and me, the best option became 5D and 5G. After checking the seat map over and over, we finally managed to switch our first segment into those two seats two days before departure, which was very lucky. After arriving at the airport, we asked whether the second flight could also be changed to one of the first two rows, and in the end they assigned us 4D and 4G, which was ideal!

JFK Swiss Lounge

Our flight was at 9 p.m. We finished check-in around 6 and headed to Swiss’s own lounge.

The lounge offered dinner. The chicken was quite good, and one of the tuna salads was also pretty decent. The soup and the artichoke, though, were a bit hard for us to appreciate.

I do not know much about wine, so I just drank whatever was there. The brownie was pretty good.

The lounge was extremely crowded in the evening. The restrooms were also fairly basic and cramped, but surprisingly there were shower facilities. We did not need them, so we did not try them.

New York to Zurich (JFK-ZRH) LX15 Business Class Review

Since this was my first time redeeming miles for business class, it honestly felt like a country bumpkin going to the big city for the first time.

Business Class Seat and Cabin

The first thing I did after boarding was take photos. The most luxurious business-class seat is probably 4A, which has plenty of storage space.

The window seats 4,000 and 5,000 are also good and are well suited for solo travelers redeeming awards.

We redeemed 5D and 5G, which have two storage surfaces. Compared with neighboring 5A and 5B, they offer much more room.

The seat itself was very spacious. I did not feel that the built-in massage function did much of anything.

Massage seat controller

Overall cabin view

First Class Cabin

While first class was still fairly empty, I quickly took a few photos.

Amenity Kit

The amenity kit came in a metal tin. It seemed to be the same brand as Swiss Army knives. The contents were pretty minimal: a toothbrush, toothpaste, lip balm, earplugs, an eye mask, and a pair of red “happy socks.” There was also face cream available in the lavatory for self-service.

Food and Drinks

Next came the important part: the food and drinks. After boarding, they served champagne along with the menus for dinner and breakfast.

In the end I chose the steak, and my wife chose the seafood. The seafood was pretty good. Everything else was fine, but nothing especially memorable.

For breakfast, the croissant and smoothie were pretty good. The Danish pastry was not very tasty, and the yogurt was just the common Chobani you can find in supermarkets.

Final Thoughts

As for the food, maybe because this was an evening departure, dinner was served all at once. The crew also did not come by very often to top off wine or other drinks, and no additional snacks were offered. That said, the seat was very spacious, and it was quite comfortable to sleep fully flat. Since this was our first time enjoying business class, we were already extremely satisfied. Once we try more products in the future, we’ll come back with some comparisons.