Swiss Airlines 777-300ER Business Class Review: Singapore to Zurich

Rating: 4/5 (Pleasantly surprised. Despite the outdated hard product configuration, I still found the seat super comfortable and food & service great)

Route: SIN-ZRH (LX177 depart 11:30PM arrive 6:15AM+1 day)

Price: 87,500 Air Canada Aeroplan Points + ~$140 USD. Note this was the cost for this flight AND for my next flight from Zurich to Newark in United’s 767 Polaris Business Class. This is why Aeroplan miles are one of the best currencies to hoard (and super easy to access via bank transfer partners like Amex / Capital One; I transferred from my Amex Platinum): I got 24 hours in lie-flat business class on a ticket that would’ve otherwise cost $5k one-way

Introduction

This flight surprised me. Look anywhere online and you’ll find tons of complaints about Swiss Air’s outdated business class product. To be fair, their configuration is quite old, and there are some “middle seats” where you have to step over your neighbor to exit to the aisle. Also, their cabin is not private at all. Nowadays, the industry standard for business class is (a) direct aisle access at every seat and (b) privacy, either through large partitions or in some cases, slidable doors. Swiss currently lacks both.

Needless to say, I actually enjoyed this flight a ton. Maybe it’s because my expectations were so low, but I found the seat quite comfortable and decently private. On top of that, the service and food were extremely good on this flight. Service can be spotty on European carriers (similar to the US players), but this flight had an awesome crew.

As long as you can find a seat where you don’t have to step over anyone, then I think this seat is perfectly acceptable for long-haul business class. Not industry-leading by any standards, but decent. Also, note that Swiss is starting to roll out their new business class product on select routes / newer aircraft, with the goal of every aircraft having the new product by 2030 (we’ll see how that actually goes…).

I booked the following itinerary using 87,500 Aeroplan miles transferred from my American Express Platinum Card and ~$140USD (below in CAD since Aeroplan):

In this post, you’ll find:

Ground & Lounge Experience at Singapore Changi (SIN)

I love Changi airport. If you have extra time, I’d highly recommend carving out 2-3 extra hours of additional time to explore the Jewel. The indoor waterfall is legitimately insane and there are tons of shopping and food options in the surrounding mall. Note that the Jewel is landside and open to the public to eat and shop.

If you need a place to dump your bag for a bit while exploring the Jewel, there is a bag storage facility with reasonable prices on the bottom floor:

Lounges are good as well at Changi (priority pass has decent representation in the terminals, and of course tons of airline-run lounges). I came to the airport around noon for this flight, which meant I had ~11 hours to kill. I had the chance to check out the Changi Lounge at the Jewel, and also the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer Business Class lounge in Terminal 2. Both were nice, but I’d recommend spending most of your time in the Jewel if it’s your first time through here. Airport lounges are everywhere nowadays, but Changi and the Jewel is one-of-a-kind.

After spending all day in Changi, it was nearing midnight and was time to head over to the boarding area. The airport is strange in that security is done at each individual gate. I’m not sure why it’s done this way (seems counter to Singaporean efficiency). But note once your flight is ready to board, you go through your gate-specific security then you wait in this holding “pen” to board.

Boarding was standard – First Class / HON circle members were invited to board first, followed by business class. My flight for today was pretty much entirely full.

Swiss Airlines Seat & Service Review

Swiss gets a lot of hate for their business class configuration, but I think it’s totally fine as long as you don’t have a seat where you have to step over someone. Here’s the premium cabin seat configuration on their 777-300ERs:

This configuration has 320 seats total spread across 4 distinct cabins:

8x First Class Seats in a 1x2x1 configuration

62x Business Class Seats in a 1x2x2 or 2x2x1 configuration (alternating)

24x Premium Economy Seats

226x Regular Economy Seats

Here’s the view of the business class cabin upon boarding:

Here was my home for the next 13 hours: seat 11D. Although the cabin feels very open while boarding, I was surprised that it felt decently private while seated. I chose 11D because it was one of the only aisle seats left and I was flying alone and didn’t want to have to awkwardly step over anyone.

Note that there are nice “throne” seats in the 1-2-2 / 2-2-1 configuration. Swiss charges extra for these ($100-$300 depending on the flight). I thought about booking one of these but figured it wasn’t worth it given this flight was almost entirely at night and there would be no views.

Here’s the seat while sitting down. It definitely feels more private once you’re seated.

In Swiss style, their amenity kits are in Victorinox branded (maker of Swiss knives among other things) and are in unique metal cases.

The cabin design is very Swiss – wood paneling, simple colors. I think it looks good.

The seat tech is a bit old – it features the old school seat control remote. Note within the console also sits the seat controls for reclining the seat.

Prior to departure, menus were distributed to all passengers. The meal service on this flight was one main dinner meal, and then an optional breakfast if you were awake. For the breakfast menu, they hand out a checklist-style menu and you can also elect whether or not you want to be woken for breakfast by a flight attendant.

13 hours to me is the perfect amount of time for an overnight business class flight. It’s perfect to eat dinner, watch a movie, get 8 hours of sleep then be rested for breakfast and landing. Compare that to US to Europe transatlantic flights where you only end up getting ~3/4 hours of proper sleep once the meal services are complete.

For breakfast, I opted for some tea, muesli, and an Omelet.

First up though was the main dinner service, which ended up being one of my favorite airplane meals.

I chose the the Beef tenderloin for my main course.

The beef tenderloin was probably the best piece of beef I’ve had in the air. Steak can be tricky to nail 32,000 feet in the sky, but this one was done perfectly (at least for a plane).

The in flight entertainment system was decent but is showing its age. The entertainment selections available were fine but nothing special.

After dinner, I was getting quite tired given it was well past 1am Singapore time. I was slightly worried the seat would be too tight to get proper sleep in, but I found it super comfortable and got a clean 8 hours of sleep (an achievement on any flight) despite being 6’2.

I woke up with around 3 hours to go. Breakfast was served around 2 hours before landing. This meal was also really good.

A flight review wouldn’t be complete without checking out the bathroom. This one was fine and clean enough. My favorite is still Finnair’s A350 with the bathroom window.

After breakfast, we made our approach and landed into drizzly Zurich.

Conclusion

Overall, I was surprised by how good Swiss’ business class was, despite the hard product being a bit outdated. While I wouldn’t go out of my way to fly them (say like I would for Air France), the seat was comfortable and food and service excellent. Hard to ask for much more on a 13 hour flight booked with miles. Next stop – the Swiss business class lounge at Zurich Airport.