Flight Report : LX 139 Hong Kong - Zurich

15 December 2023 The world of aviation fare pricing turns up some anomalies every now and then. No, this is not an error fare, but during my research for Christmas in London, I noticed Swiss had some interesting pricing combinations. First, the outbound was a steal at only HKD $1554 with a transit in Zurich, which is a very manageable small airport and worlds better than Frankfurt. I still fondly remember the horrors of rushing from one end of Frankfurt's airport to the other to catch my connection. With a checked bag, it was only another HKD $440 more. The return flight was more interesting. The price was around HKD $5000 with a 2-stop itinerary, which wasn't very appetizing. Focusing on 1-stop journeys, Business came in at $14,222, which was cheaper than Premium Economy and under $4000 more expensive than Economy. While Swiss does offer lie-flat beds, I've read some less than stellar reviews about them. At this price, perhaps it is worth a try for such a long transcontinental flight. Decision made. Economy outbound and Business inbound on Swiss. The London connection times are also reasonable with a fairly short flight. A main reason why Lufthansa and Swiss came on my radar is because they still fly the A340 out of Hong Kong, a rare bird these days and a favourite since the window seat is only 1 away from the aisle. With the mixed itinerary, I was not able to score free seat selection for my outbound Economy flights. Online check-in opened 23 hours before departure and I was able to score window seats for both my long and short flights. But I noticed the boarding passes are not immediately sent out by the system, and I had to wait quite a long time to see them come through. With a 10:50pm departure, I had time to eat dinner at home before setting off for the airport. The airport buses are running late into the evening again but the app showed delays. Not risking my chances, I decided to take a taxi to the Airport Express station to avoid any surprises. Setting off at 8:30pm, the taxi driver double checked I wasn't heading straight to the airport, because there are crazy traffic jams and a standstill trying to reach the terminal. Sure enough, as the train pulled into the airport, I saw a sea of red lights outside on the highway. Swiss occupies both sides of the aisle at area F. There was a staff on hand to direct people around, with bag drop-off on the left side and regular check-in on the right. There was a bit of a line with less than 2 hours to go, and the agent weighted all my hand baggage then said the case plus personal item would in total need to fit within 8kg. I had flown other airlines before, which did stipulate the hand baggage would need to be 7kg but the personal item is not a part of that. Luckily, my checked bag was well under the limit and the agent offered to check my hand carry case for free so I only need to haul my backpack onto the plane. The Christmas travel season has just started, but I noticed the decor this year to be a bit more subdued around the city. The tree in the arrivals hall wasn't too big. Air-side, I caught sight of another Christmas tree - this one with a luxury corporate sponsor but still small. My flight would depart quite close to security today at gate 11. The city's news outlets have been buzzing about 2 mainland-made airplanes visiting Hong Kong - the C919 and ARJ21. I scoured the windows to see if I can spot any of them in the dark, and was unsuccessful. Both Swiss and Lufthansa fly their A340 jets to Hong Kong and are parked next to each other tonight. The gate area was quite busy with a lot of people seated. It has been quite some time since my last flight with Swiss. That was a short 5th freedom between Dubai and Muscat before the pandemic. Boarding was timely and the seat looked smart with the darker colours. A pillow, headphones, and blanket were already placed at each seat. It was a full flight out back with many foreigners and their families on board, presumably heading home for Christmas holidays. The TV was large and the touch screen was quite responsive. However, the IFE selection wasn't extensive, and wouldn't be enough to satisfy a long 13+ hour flight. Amongst the TV shows, each selection only had a few episodes, and the boxed sets didn't look any better. However, despite the small library, I found some international content including Cantonese movies. We pushed back 13 minutes late at 11:03pm and took off towards the east. The flight path was a bit odd as we veered south to avoid flying over Kowloon, then looped back north once we were east of the suburbs. With Russian airspace closed, we would fly part way through China and the Central Asian states, then go south and around Caucauses and avoiding the Ukraine conflict to reach Zurich. As we looped around heading north, I could spot the bright airport island in the far distanc and crossed into Shenzhen. The Pearl River Delta has many large cities and each has its own international airport. Shenzhen's is right on the riverside and easily identifiable from my left window. Not long after, I saw Guangzhou's airport. The clouds then rolled in and it got quite bumpy for a while. I wasn't planning to eat at this late overnight hour anyway but the turbulence sealed my decision to skip dinner entirely. I was able to recline a little and doze off for the next many hours, and the skies calmed down after we passed Chengdu. China is a huge country, and it felt like half the flight was over its airspace. I tend to not be able to sleep much on planes regardless of class due to the noise while the nice headsets get in the way when I sleep. By the time I gave up, we were 3 hours from Switzerland on this long flight and somewhere over Turkey. On one of my bathroom and stretch breaks, I noticed two huge blankets were wrapped around the back doors, something I've never seen before. With many people in Economy, I didn't expect the lavatories to be in prestine condition, but who would be silly enough to wear just socks into here in the first place? Over 10 hours into the flight and feeling it has been a lot longer than that, it was time for breakfast. Having not eaten dinner , I was quite hungry by now and ate the whole thing quickly. Afterwards, the crew came to distribute chocolates, a nice touch to finish the meal. I could barely see the ground as we came in and was surprised we met the minimums. We landed at 6:09am and pulled into the E gates. The temperature hovered around freezing and it was very foggy. The sun had not yet risen and it felt like a world away from Hong Kong's warm winter. As I stepped into the air bridge withouth my jacket (it's in my checked luggage), the gush of wind felt VERY cold! Swiss offers quite a good hard product with a comfortable seat, sufficient legroom, and coupled with courteous crew. The only downside with this airline is the lack of IFE selection, but otherwise it was a good overnight flight. Now I have an hour to transfer to my next flight to London : LX 316.