After an excellent two-week stay in Croatia, I stayed in Paris for two days before heading off to Scandinavia for another two weeks. My stay will take me successively to Stockholm, Copenhagen and Gothenburg.

After a first night at the Moxy at Charles de Gaulle (no article, you’ve already had several about this hotel (see below), here I am, ready to leave for Stockholm via Zurich on Swiss.

Here is my air routing for the next few days:

A reminder of the series of articles about this trip.

Ticket booking

Unsurprisingly, it was with Lufthansa Group and Swiss in particular that I found the best fare for this trip, especially as I needed an “open jaw” fare (arriving in Stockholm and departing via Gothenburg), which is generally more expensive. A 4-segment business flight at around 400 euros, as usual with LH Group.

The Lufthansa Group offers numerous rotations to Stockholm and Gothenburg, which gave me great flexibility in my choice of schedules, but I ended up choosing Swiss over Lufthansa for two reasons: a cabin (in the A220) that I prefer and, above all, hot meals on flights lasting more than 2 hours !

Which is why I have once again disqualified Air France : more expensive, less service and a cold meal on the return flight from Gothenburg (Stockholm is one of the few medium-haul destinations to still have hot meals), fewer frequencies and, what’s more, a Gothenburg-Paris operated by Embraer without neutralizing the adjacent seat and arriving at Roissy 2G.

For domestic flights, I’ll be taking economy tickets (SAS Go) on SAS, but we’ll have time to talk about that later.

Anyway, let’s begin our journey.

Check-In and ground experience

Once again, online check-in has not been possible due to COVID formalities requiring document checks. This didn’t bother me too much, as I had luggage to check-in, the only drawback potentially being the length of the queue as all passengers had to report to the counter.

Roissy is still quiet in this September when you head for 2B/2D in the morning.

During the health crisis, work continues… to be unfinished…

A little more crowded as I get closer to the check-in counters. You have to like walking, because arriving via the CDGVal, I had to walk to the far end of 2B to check-in before returning to board at 2D…

As we reach the counter, my fears are confirmed: the queue is impressive.

Fortunately, there aren’t many people in the priority queue and 2 minutes later it’s my turn… Except that in front of me is a family of 6 with a ton and a half of luggage and obviously not very organized when it comes to their travel documents.

I go to the next counter and in 2 minutes everything is sorted. I love it when a Swiss agent congratulates me on my organization and the fact that I’ve anticipated the regulatory side of things by filling in all the forms in advance…

I walk away and finally turn around after a little distance: 3 or 4 passengers have passed by my counter while the family continues to jam up the other one.

Anyway, it’s time to head for the departure lounge.

Here again, the priority lane works wonders and 3 minutes later I’m “air side” even though the controls are quite congested.

This is followed, as everywhere else, by the obligatory crossing of the duty free area to reach the boarding hall.

It’s still early and my boarding gate is empty…

And here I am in the lounge.

Le sThe Sheltair loungealon Sheltair

I won’t go into too much detail about what is the only lounge in the 2D terminal: I’ve already told you about it when I left for Croatia.

The lounge is as sad as ever, and the offer as limited. Let’s just say it has the merit of existing.

I’ll leave him without regret and head for my boarding gate.

Boarding in Paris

The plane is on time and waiting for us.

Boarding started on time and went so smoothly that I forgot to take photos. It doesn’t matter, because what’s new for me is the business cabin on this Swiss A220.

The cabin of the Swiss A220

So I’m almost the first to enter.

As always with Swiss, the cabin is sober and premium-looking.

The seat is quite slim, but nothing like the comfort of the old NEK seat still widely found in the Lufhansa Group fleet: much more comfortable.

Unlike Lufthansa and Austrian, who have chosen Geven ESSENZA seats to replace the “old” NEK (Lufthansa Neue Europakabine) seats on their A220s, Swiss has opted for ZIM Unique seats, which look great too. OK, it’s not a Turkish Airlines medium-haul business, but for a European airline it’s very good.

A movable but “solid” partition separates the business from the economy.

Also, unlike Air France, Swiss has decided to equip its A220s with individual mini-screens that display safety instructions and geovision.

As for legroom, it’s good without being exceptional. This is often the problem with row 1: there’s no seat in front to slide your legs under, just a partition!

Finally, I’d like to add that this A220 is in 2-3 configuration, with the center seats neutralized on the 3-seat block and one seat neutralized on the two-seat block. See my comment on the Air France Embraer.

Flight and service on Swiss

When I settle in, a bottle of water, a refreshing towel and a disinfectant towel are already laid out on the seat next to me.

There are 4 rows of business class on this flight and the aircraft will be full.

We leave on time and head for the runway.

We pass a few Air France aircraft parked at remote stands.

The safety instructions are displayed on the screen, and it’s much nicer (even more professional) than seeing a cabin crew acting like a dummy in the middle of the aisle. There are no small savings, but I don’t understand why all airlines don’t take this option.

We take off and I enjoy the view of 2E-L and 2E-M before passing over 2G, aka Guantanamo.

This aircraft is really very pleasant and quiet.

The service starts very quickly. And here’s today’s meal!

No surprises from Swiss. It’s generally good, and their hot croissants don’t look as much like chewing gum as some of their competitors’.

In general, I find that breakfast trays are the worst that airlines serve, especially in Europe, but this one stands up well without being exceptional, but makes me regret the one from my last Paris-Vienna flight, admittedly on a longer flight.

As usual, the service at Swiss ends with chocolates.

But it’s already time to prepare for landing.

The Swiss crew

Not much to say about such a short flight. Very professional and pleasant, as is often the case with Swiss.

Landing and arrival in Zurich

The Zurich countryside gradually appears below us.

We hit the ground and quickly head for our parking spot.

A few minutes later I’m in the terminal, heading for the lounge before catching my connecting flight to Stockholm.

Bottom line

An uneventful flight on Swiss, which above all allowed me to discover and appreciate the comfort and silence of the A220, which is truly the most pleasant medium-haul aircraft on the market today.

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