In Amsterdam I have the chance to see Beethoven’s Fidelio, which is a bit of a mixed bag. Clearly, the music is simply beautiful and the acoustics in the auditorium of the national opera are stupendous. But the production is rather awful and so far removed from the original score that I’m convinced it has poor Ludwig turning in his grave.

Getting to the Airport

I check out of the Sofitel at 12h20. I cut across the canal and through a narrow lane which ejects me right in front of the entrance to the Rokin metro station of line M52.

I catch a southbound train to Amsterdam Zuid, which is the terminus on the line. Trains run every eight minutes, and it’s four stops to Zuid.

At Zuid I change to the national railway network. You need to check out of the metro station and then check in again five metres to the left.

The journey from Zuid to Schiphol takes six minutes and runs nonstop. The total journey time from the hotel is 40 minutes.

I make a brief stop at Albert Heijn on Schiphol Plaza to pick up some cumin cheese, and then I head for check in.

Check-In

The Lufthansa group checks in at Terminal 1, on row four. Check-in isn’t really busy, but there are three parties behaving as though the concept of a queue were totally alien to them. But the young ladies behinds the desk are very cool and no nonsense and quickly sort them out. One of them looks at me with one of those “if looks could kill” glares that is enough to cause young babes to weep. “Are you in Business Class”, she asks like she’s fully expecting a “no”. But I say “yes”, and it’s as though somebody flips the switch. She gives me a megawatt smile and tells me, “then step into my office, please”. She asks to see my ID card, and I mistakenly give her my Chipcard for Dutch public transport. We have a good laugh, she tags my suitcase and sends me on my way.

There is a separate queue to enter security. The fast track is rather busy, but there’s a young guy managing the queue, and he’s great. He directs me to another queue that is much shorter and tells me to trust him that it’ll be faster than waiting for the fast track line to move. Behind security, I follow the signs to the lounges.

STAR Gold Lounge

The STAR Gold lounge is located on part of what used to be the viewing terrace. It’s available to all STAR Gold members and everyone travelling in First and Business Class.

Strangely enough, there are hardly any yuppies-wearing-a-suit-with-white-sneakers (YWASWWS) around (mental note to self to come up with a better sounding abbreviation which, potentially, could be used as an acronym). I suspect they may have already migrated south for the summer…

As usual these days, my flight is running late. Although in this case, it’s hardly surprising, given that its turn around in Zürich was only thirty minutes to begin with. The aircraft was scheduled to arrive in Zürich from Venice at 12h00, and then to depart to Amsterdam at 12h30. According to flightradar24, though, the aircraft only landed in Zürich at 12h11, making an on tine departure for the flight at 12h30 impossible.

Boarding

Amsterdam is currently one big building site, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be done anytime soon. If anything, the construction seems to have expanded a little each time I pass through.

Boarding is from gate B35, which is just about the remotest contact stand in the entire Schengen area of Amsterdam airport. Passengers are surprisingly civilised and orderly, so when the gate agent announces boarding by zones, they actually do as they’re told. Alas, just as I remember to take some photos, the blinds come down. They only partially obscure the view. But still…

The Cabin & Seat

There are four rows of Business Class on this flight, for a total of twelve passengers. Originally, I’m on 1D, an aisle seat.

However, it turns out that 1A would have been occupied by a member of staff who has had to be offloaded for some reason. So, once the doors close, I move over to 1A.

We make the long schlepp to runway 36L for departure. We depart with a delay of fifty minutes. With a flight time of just shy of seventy minutes, we should be arriving in Zürich with a delay of thirty minutes.

The Meal

The meal is rather nice. Even if I don’t always like what they’re offering, I think most of the time SWISS make the effort to make their Business Class meals look presentable.

Today’s main dish is a lemon couscous with smoked salmon, served with crème fraîche and an avocado salsa. It’s rather a nice meal, actually.

There are two types of cheese, although I couldn’t say with absolute certainty what cheese it is.

With that there is a selection of warm bread rolls and crackers, served with butter.

And for dessert, it’s another panna cotta with strawberries.

To conclude, I have a mint tea, which is served with a small chocolate. On today’s flight, the crew forget to hand out chocolates in the Business Class cabin.

Arrival

We land on runway 28 and taxi to a remote stand. As we make the last turn onto our stand, the Business Class shuttle is just arriving to pick us up. The whole process is quick and efficient. Luggage delivery takes only eight minutes to start.

Conclusion

This was a nice flight wih SWISS. The service was good and the meal was rather nice. However, it is noticeable that SWISS’ online reliability leaves much to be desired these days. I think it generally does for most airlines, but the issues seems to be more acute with SWISS. In very general terms, I think that air travel has become more unpredictable since the end of COVID, and it doesn’t look like that will be improving anytime soon. However, with that in mind, perhaps SWISS should also know better than to roster its aircraft so tightly.