Review of SWISS flight from London to Geneva in Economy

Background:
This series covers a recent trip out to Geneva for the weekend. See Part 1 for the full background. As a reminder, the routing was:
Part 1 – LAX-LHR [AA 108, Boeing B777-300ER, Main Cabin Extra] – Here
Part 2 – LHR-GVA [LX 355, Airbus A320, Economy] – You are here
Part 3 – GVA-LHR [BA 725, Airbus A319, Euro Traveller] – Here
Part 4 – LHR-LAX [BA 269, Airbus A380-800, World Traveller] – Here
This report will cover the flight from LHR to GVA aboard an A320 with sharklets. The lounge visit will be to the LH Senator Lounge at LHR T2.
Pre-flight:
After getting off the wild bus ride from T3 to T2, we head upstairs and head towards transit security. There was nobody in line so we were quickly through.

We did OLCI with LX so had mobile boarding passes, which were checked before we were released back into the terminal.

With only 45 minutes before boarding, we scrapped the plan to go to the B pier to use the SQ Lounge and instead stayed in the A pier to use the LH Lounge. We didn’t know what gate we were assigned yet, but guessed it would be from the A gates since there were some LH planes leaving from this area. The LH Lounge is upstairs next to the EI Lounge. Entering, the agent swiped my OZ card and handed us access cards to the Senator Lounge.

The food looked to be identical in both the Business Lounge and Senator Lounge, but the Senator Lounge was significantly quieter.

After the lack of food on the AA flight we just got off of, we were glad to see that Do&Co was in charge of catering for the LH Lounge. The shrimp curry and Greek salad were both excellent. The beer selection was mediocre, but the quality of the food made up for it.

After gorging ourselves, we left the lounge at 13:50 since we were scheduled to board at 13:55.

The pair of LX A320s down below. Ours will be the fancy one with sharklets, the other one will operate the flight to ZRH and was running 30 minutes late.

Shiny new LX A320 awaiting us.

The lobby in T2’s A pier.

The waiting area at our gate.

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SWISS, LX 355
Equipment: Airbus A320 [HB-JLT, delivered March 2013]
Departure: 14:25 (ATD: 14:41)
Arrival: 17:05 (ATA: 16:56)
Flight time: 1:15
There was some confusion since boarding for both the flight to GVA and ZRH were boarding from Gate A18R and Gate A18L at the same time so there a mess sorting out what line to get in. We boarded with the business class and *G passengers. Our boarding passes both flashed red. The agent handed us new boarding passes explaining that due to an aircraft swap, they needed to move us back one row.

Down the jetbridge we go.

The captain and 2 FAs welcomed us on board in French and then English as we turn in the cabin.

Our seats in Row 6, there were 5 rows of J on this flight. The middle seat would remain empty, one of the few empty seats in the plane. I noticed something when doing OLCI, as a *G there were no seat restrictions. But when Ms. NGO85 was looking at the seat map at the same time, she only had a choice of ~10 seats. LX seems to give special treatment to *Gs.

A look back as we settle in.

Row 6 is a flex row and we have very good legroom as a result.

Seat details.

A look down our row.

The sliding cabin separator with overhead monitor.

The seatback.

Seatback contents.

The safety card for this A320.

Inflight magazine with the US route map.

Also some real estate listings in the magazine, probably out of my price range…

Our fancy sharklet.

Cargo is loaded as boarding continues.

Good catering is nearby.

Once boarding completed, the captain gave his introductory remarks in French and English before returning to the cockpit.

We had to wait for the flight to ZRH to leave before we could push back. The safety video played while we wait.

We push back with a 4U A320 next door.

With the pin out, we are free to begin our taxi.

The land of BA.

Our sibling takes off in front of us as they head back to ZRH.

We align onto 27L.

BA B772, SA A343, and Concorde behind us.

T2 traffic as we rumble down the runway.

Lifting up over T2, T3, and T5 offering great aerial views of LHR.

The English countryside.

We disappear above the clouds.

As soon as we level off, the FAs close the curtain.

As we leave England, the inflight service starts up.

We are handed a pretzel by a friendly FA and drink orders are taken. I didn’t really care for the butter in the pretzel, but the catering was appropriate for a 75 minute flight.

Crossing into France.

After the trash was collected, the FAs came back through offering the LX chocolates from a basket.

We began our initial descent as we passed Auxerre and approached Dijon.

Snowy French towns just north of Switzerland.

Turning towards Lac Léman.

The snow covered Alps ahead.

We turn towards Geneva as we cross past Rolle.

A layer of fog was above the lake making it hard to see the towns along the water.

Snow capped mountains in France.

Final descent.

We touch down ahead of schedule. The landing was incredibly smooth to where you couldn’t even feel the contact with the runway.

We taxi into GVA and pull into one of the B Gate piers for non-Schengen flights.
BA A320.

U2 A319.

We come to a stop just in front of the main terminal.

Deplaning was quick and the captain and FAs were in the galley thanking passengers.

A last look at our plane.

Heading towards immigration, which only had 2 lanes. Nonetheless, we were quickly admitted into Switzerland with a “merci” from the officer.

Exiting towards duty free stores and the baggage claim.

In the baggage claim, you can get a free 80-minute transit pass for Geneva. You just press the button and it gives you a ticket. This is a very nice feature of GVA to offer free public transportation.

We took the train for the 5-minute ride to Gare Cornavin where we walked to our hotel. I’ll leave off this series here as we begin our stay in Geneva.
***Hotel Bonus***
We stayed at the Eastwest Hotel in a duplex suite. The first floor was the living room and the second floor had the bedroom. It was a well-appointed and comfortable room just a 5-minute walk from the train station.