With a ten hour layover in Zürich, I took to wandering around the city.  The weather could have been far more cooperative.

After arriving in Zürich from New York, I stopped by the Swiss Arrivals Lounge before heading out to explore the city.  I took a quick shower before enjoying the breakfast spread.

In the late morning, the lounge had three other non-employees in it.

My trip to Asia last year involved a terrific long-haul flight from Zurich to Bangkok on Swiss, spurring me to choose their business class product again for my flight to Europe.  While it’s definitely hard to find fault with a lie-flat bed in the sky (especially compared to being in the back), Swiss features a two meter long bed, making a good thing–a lie-flat bed in the sky–even better.

Swiss 15
New York Kennedy (JFK) – Zürich (ZRH)
Thursday, March 28th, 2013
Depart:  10:24PM
Arrive: 10:44AM
Duration:  7 hours, 20 minutes
Aircraft: Airbus A330-343X (HB-JHL)
Seat: 5K (Business Class)

As I was settling into my seat, one of the flight attendants came by to offer reading material.  When I visit German-speaking countries, I’m generally pegged instantly as an English speaker.  This trip and this flight proved no different.

The menu read as follows:

As I was planning on visiting the Swiss arrivals lounge in Zurich, I chose to skip breakfast on board to sleep in.

In traveling.to tradition, the flight show:

Drink service was slow to start after takeoff, but the meal service followed rapidly afterwards.  Even from an outstation, the food served was fresh and flavorful.

I had ordered a vegetarian meal in advance, so I received the Swiss gratin from the menu.

The cabin crew left the lights on for about 30 minutes after the meal service ended, but I was still able to catch 5 hours of high-quality sleep–as far as transatlantic redeyes are concerned.

With my flight to Switzerland departing just after 10PM, I timed my arrival to JFK around 8:30PM.  With vast swaths of flights bound for Europe around that time, Terminal 4 was best described as a sea of humanity.

Once past the teeming security lines, I went upstairs to visit the Swiss lounge.  The long, narrow layout left the front entrance feeling a bit crowded, but afforded terrific views of the tarmac.

The evening menu read as follows:

In mid-March, I found myself with Good Friday off without a trip to go on.  As I became spoiled last year by $440 trips to Europe, I wasn’t thrilled by the $1000 coach fares available for a simple weekend trip.  With a huge stash of United miles sitting around awaiting a devaluation in hand, I booked an award trip to get there.

I had the good fortune to see Swiss business class availability open up shortly before the trip for my outbound flight, so I tweaked my trip to give myself an extended layover in Zurich before heading to Munich.

While much has been discussed about free one-way trips to Hawaii on coach award itineraries, Hawaii to Europe business class awards have a small step-up from the continental United States from 50k miles one-way to 57.5k miles.  Compared to building a standalone, premium cabin award to Hawaii at 40k miles one-way, the add-on was a bargain.

Overall, the air travel for this trip ran 100k United miles and $134 in taxes and fees.

Starwood has opened up registration for their double take promotion for summer 2013.  As the name indicates, they’re offering double Starwood points on all stays between May 1st and July 31st, subject to a few hotel exclusions.

As an additional kicker, stays during the promotion booked with the Android or iPhone mobile apps earn an additional 500 point bonus.

Hat Tip: Loyalty Traveler.