Swiss Airlines

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Received an email from Swiss International Airlines this morning announcing that starting January 27, 2011 their flights between Montreal and Zurich would be operated by their "new" Airbus A330-300.

Why does this matter? The interior of this plane is absolutely stunning, and their service is top notch! This is a pretty bold statement to be making seeing as I have only flown on this plane, operated by Swiss once, in 2009. For that flight my wife and I were in First Class between New York and Zurich, and although that might skew my feelings about their product, it was the best all around experience I have had in the air!

Swiss is promoting in the email I received (attached at the bottom of this post) their new business seats that are on this plane, and from talking to people who have flown in them, they are some of the best in the business. Couple that with better than average food, a great IFE system, and friendly flight attendants, and I would say you have a great combination.

In economy, the seats are a little bit slimmer than those we are used to, which is supposed to give you a bit more leg room. I didn't wander that far back on my short flight to Europe, but I did notice that they have seat back TVs and power at every seat.

Google & Tripit ItineraryAlthough my wife Joanne and I left Winnipeg yesterday afternoon for a whirlwind trip that will take us to Europe, Asia and back through Europe over the next 23 days, I really feel like our trip is only just beginning.

We left Winnipeg with a quick stop in Chicago for a beer ( Goose Island Honker's Ale) and an overnight in New York. Today we had breakfast at Whole Foods, did a little clothes shopping, had a quick trip to Central Park, then the 5th Avenue Apple store to pick up Snow Leopard. Currently we are sitting in the Swiss Airlines First Class Lounge at JFK awaiting our flight to Zurich.

And although, the past 24 hours would be an entire trip for many people, I feel ours is about to begin because of our first long-haul flight is about to board. The whole purpose of this trip was for me to attend DrupalCon in Paris, but because of new rules from Aeroplan, for a small amount of additional miles over just a trip to Europe, we were able to book a trip to Asia in First class, with a stop-over in each direction in Europe. Additionally the rules allow you to have connections on-route which are less than 24 hours, so this 23.5 hour stop in New York was possible.