This series was another short trip to Veneto for work. For background and routing information please refer back to the LX 41 FR. This will be a short report on the hop over the Alps from Venice to Zurich.
Flight routing
- 1
- 2
- 3VCE-ZRH, LX 1661, Bombardier CS100, Business
- 4
After driving into VCE to return my car around 7:45am, I quickly checked in at the LH counters and cleared security. LX uses the Marco Polo Club like everyone else (reviewed here). The lounge has no hot options, but has a good selection of pastries. My breakfast offering of foccacia, croisants, and oranges with a shot of espresso.
I went out to the observation deck in the lounge to see a little 9U A319 heading back to KIV from the non-Schengen zone.
Our shiny new A220 arrives from ZRH and pulls into a gate in the Schengen zone.
With the arrival of the plane, I left the lounge to go down to the gate area.
SWISS, LX 1661
Equipment: Airbus A220-100 [HB-JBH, delivered May 2017]
Departure: 9:55 (ATD: 10:00)
Arrival: 11:10 (ATA: 10:50)
Flight Time: 0:50
My boarding pass for this flight.
Our 6-month old A220 prepping for the return to ZRH as a TK A320 arrives in the distance.
Boarding is orderly, but I decided to wait and board near the end. Entering the cabin, there are pleasantries and smiles from the LX crew. I take my seat in 1A. A view down my row. Since J is a pseudo 1-2 configuration on a 2-3 configured plane, the seats on the left of the cabin are more private since there are no seat mates.
The mini IFE screens on the A220s…
…the perfect size for a moving map.
As we push back on time, the TK A320 appears at the gate next to us.
We taxied over to the runway and were quickly on our way up over VCE on a sunny fall morning.
The Veneto countryside.
Today instead of banking to the left, we banked to the right to make a loop over the airport, which provided a nice aerial of Venice.
Sunrise over the Adriatic.
Given the short flight time, the crew was quickly into the cabin once we leveled off. The trio offered for breakfast was a cheese pretzel, fruit cup, and muesli. A very basic offering and the fruit was not very fresh. Drink service followed the distribution of trays.
The towering Alps below as we crossed into Switzerland.
Leaving the mountains, we quickly dropped into a cloudy Zurich as the cabin was prepared for landing.
A rainy day as we arrive into ZRH.
Final descent into ZRH.
After landing, we taxied towards the terminal crossing past a OU Dash8-Q400.
A 3U A333 is an unexpected visitor at ZRH.
Some spotters braving the winter weather up on the deck as our fate is now sealed for a remote stand.
We pull into our spot with a LX VIP bus on the ready.
Being in 1A, I'm quickly off onto the cold tarmac to seek the warmth of the bus, which quickly zips us off to the terminal before the paxbuses arrive.
This is where I'll leave off this series, thanks for stopping by!
Nice report, Swiss offers quite a nice business class offering on their EUR routes by the looks of things!
Hi Jett, thanks for stopping by. The LX product is middle of the road for the LH Group. Slightly more premium than LH, but not as good as OS (best catering). For this type of short ~200 mile route, probably little value for J over Y when *G.
You know I love me some good aerials and there are some great shots of Venice lagoon and the Alps in this one!
The A220 is a beautiful bird and the cabin looks really nice and spacious, but it there were definitely some missed opportunities when LX decided not to install any kind of in-seat power on these new aircraft. They've weirdly done the same with brand new A320/321neos. Also missing are Wi-Fi and wireless IFE, as you mention, which are now becoming standard for short-haul.
Visually the light meal looks quite nice, too bad it wasn't fresh. I do like that it was a mix of sweet and savoury, so a miniature version of a more standard meal.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Kevin, thanks for stopping by! Yeah, the amenities are very “light” on LX domestic, as you pointed out WK is ahead in this area, but with longer flights to warmer tourist destinations it’s likely more justified.
The catering is just kind of average, never thought of it as a sweet/savory. Obvious omission is any sort of meat for the continental breakfast.