Today, or rather this evening, I‘m on my way to Zagreb. Croatia Airlines operates two daily services from Zürich, with an evening departure at 19:55. I’m coming to realise that Croatia Airlines has quite a bad rep among its compatriots. When I mentioned to my Croatian colleague, let’s call him the athletic J., that I would be travelling with Croatia Airlines to Zagreb, all I got was a rather menacing sounding grunt, followed by a full list of arguments why Croatia Airlines is a source of major overall suckage. Similarly, when I told our Croatian exchange student M., she simply rolled her eyes and gave me a polite but somewhat revealing “oh dear…”. I don’t know if they’re really that bad. Admittedly, after my last experience with them on a flight from Paris to Zagreb (link) in 2022 in Business Class, I’m not sure I would be willing to fork out the cash for a Business Class ticket on Croatia Airlines again.

Getting to the Airport

I catch the train at 17:54 from Winterthur. And it‘s another one of those horrible trains that shake about violently.

At least the train is not at all busy.

It occurs to me on the train to the airport that I hardly ever travel from Zürich anymore. It‘s not an intentional decision or anything like that. I guess it‘s more that nowadays, flying from my hometown airport in Basel is perfectly adequate to meet most of my travel needs.

Check-in

Check-in for the flight opens 36 hours before departure. Croatia Airlines has three Economy Class fares. I’m flying on a FlyOpti fare, which is partially restricted. With this fare, my Senator status exempts me from having to pay for an advanced seat reservation in the standard Economy Class cabin.

However, Croatia Airlines also has what it refers to as Economy Comfort and which identifies the first two rows of the main Economy Class cabin. On these two rows, the adjacent seat on a pair is kept empty for some extra space. For the fare I’m travelling on, these seats can be selected at check-in at an additional cost of EUR40 – regardless of frequent flyer status. I figure I might as well give it a try.

The SWISS Senator Lounge on the A Pier

Zürich is very quiet this evening, which is nice because it means that security is a breeze and pure bliss. No queue, no pesky kids with their peskier parents, and even the staff are in a good mood.

The Senator Lounge is located on the upper level of the airside centre. And here too, it‘s very quiet. I figure I might as well get some food, seeing as I‘m not expecting to be fed on Croatian and it‘ll be late by the time I reach the hotel.

Boarding

Boarding starts on time at 19:25 from gate A56, which is a bus gate. The flight this evening has a very light load. I only count thirty passengers or so on the bus, which means not even 50% seat load.

As I pass the gate, the ground crew tag my hand luggage and tell me to just drop it by the stairs to the aircraft for collection once we arrive in Zagreb.

The Cabin

I am seated on 4F, which is a window seat on the starboard side of the aircraft.

The seat pitch is quite good. I‘m still glad though that I forked out the EUR40 to keep the seat next to me empty because the seats are very narrow.

The Crew and Service

There are two female cabin crew on this flight. There isn’t really anything much to say about them. They seem friendly enough, but in their interactions with the passengers they are rather reserved. The cockpit crew makes several announcements during the flight. However, the only one I can understand is the first one, before they start the engines, in which they inform us of the flight time to Zagreb – which is just over one hour. All subsequent announcements are drowned by the noise of the engines. We take off on runway 28 and then make a wide 180 degree left turn over the city of Zürich to point us in the direction of Zagreb.

The Meal

As soon as the fasten seatbelt sign is turned off, the crew spring into action with the service, which consists of a small packet of crackers and a cup of still water. It says the crackers are with fresh cheese. But I think something was lost in translation because there’s definitely nothing fresh about the crackers. I assume what they meant was that they are made with fresh cheese as an ingredient. The snack and water are complimentary. There is also a menu in the seat pocket with additional snack items and drinks for purchase. However, no announcement is made about this, so I’m not sure if perhaps the items on the menu are only available on longer flights.

Arrival in Zagreb

The flight is very noisy but otherwise uneventful. Eventually, we land in Zagreb at 21:11, four minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival time. Here too, everything seems very quiet.

Getting into the City from the Airport

The last bus to the city has already left by the time I exit customs, so I grab a taxi to drive me to my hotel by the main station at Glavni Kolodvor. At this time of night, the journey takes about twenty minutes. During the day, and especially in the rush hour, it can take as much as one hour.

Conclusion

Okay, so about Croatia Airlines. There isn’t really anything I can fault them with on this trip. They were the best option for my trip to Zagreb and the service was reliable and punctual. There was nothing outstanding about this flight, but there wasn’t anything to complain about either.