I intended this to be a review of Swissair, but it may turn out to be more of a requiem. The Swiss airline known in past years for its high level of service and almost impeccable safety record (except for one flight that exploded in 1998 over Nova Scotia) ran out of cash this week, and two days ago grounded its entire fleet of aircraft, leaving 19,000 passengers stranded across Europe with useless, unreimbursable tickets. Swissair's stock dropped in value by 97%. (Incidentally, they were having serious financial and management problems long before the terrorist attacks.) As of today the company has received a $281 million loan from the Swiss government which will enable it to resume a partial flight schedule as it attempts to restructure and avoid bankruptcy.

We flew to Rome over the Labor Day weekend on Sabena, the Belgian airline that Swissair owns 49.5% of (and which also faces an uncertain future), and back to the U.S. on Swissair. On both legs, we were upgraded to Business Class because Economy was full. I've only flown to Europe three times, and twice I've been serendipitously upgraded to Business. Let me tell you, Business is better. It would be hard to imagine what sort of perks First Class was getting that we weren't -- foot rubs? Free navel piercing? Complimentary Matisse lithographs? Cocaine? Kids under 12 getting to steer the plane?

The service on Swissair was absolutely exemplary. We were fed and beveraged, on average, about every 20 minutes, and the flight attendant serving our aisle couldn't have been sweeter.

The seats in Business Class deserve special mention because they recline almost to beds, and come with a remote control panel that looks like it could launch a missile. There must have been 12 separate sections to each seat that could be moved either together, or independently of each other. Each seat also has its own video screen. My only beef with the onboard accoutrements was that the blankets caused extreme static in my hair. Oh, and the video games are completely lame, and I am bad at them.

The Security

Security at Rome's Fiumicino Airport on September 16th was fairly tight (policemen with automatic weapons), but Swissair allowed me to carry my needlenosed pliers on board. We flew Swissair's regional partner Crossair to Zurich, during which the cockpit door remained open for the entire flight.

At the Zurich airport my needlenosed pliers came within a hair of being confiscated by a burly and unamused female security guard, who conferred with about five co-workers before allowing me to keep them. Then she subjected me to a full body frisking behind a curtain. I thought this was due to the pliers, but everyone received this special spa treatment.

The stainless steel knives with the dinner service were replaced with plastic knives. I was disappointed since I wanted a full place setting for my home collection, but I contented myself with a lovely fork.

The Food

You'll forgive me for dwelling on the food, but it was among the best we had during our entire Italian sojourn. I wish I could buy these as little microwaveable entrees.

The meals began with an antipasto plate, small but superb: a grilled scallop, a tiny marinated vegetable shish-kebab, an almond-stuffed olive. All the ingredients tasted fresh and full of flavor. For our first course we had a choice of sautéed scallops and cucumber salad with ginger dressing, or thinly sliced veal marinated in herbs with a tomato and mozzarella terrine.

Main course offerings were beefsteak with a red and yellow pepper coulis, corn terrine and broccoli with almonds; grilled John Dory and sautéed red mullet enhanced by a Pernod sauce with creamed fennel, spinach with sun dried tomatoes and a lentil and leek compote; cep mushrooms and pears in a cream sauce on a bed of fresh noodles; and turkey Grenadin in a cream and onion sauce with a pumpkin puree, french beans, and turnip. I chose the turkey, which was tender and succulent. The turnips had just a hint of bitterness, which offset the slight sweetness of the pumpkin.

The cheese course featured Gruyere and Brie with crackers, grapes and nuts. Dessert was either honey mousse served on a peach puree with red currants, or chocolate truffle cake with Chantilly cream. Five minutes after the dessert plates were cleared away, a new and different flight attendant (the Swiss chocolate flight attendant) came by with a box of Lindt chocolates.

Half an hour after the chocolate, they wheeled an ice cream cart down the aisle, with big waffle cones and caramel ice cream in a big bin! I thought we had crashed and gone to airplane heaven, but when I pinched myself with my needlenosed pliers, I felt the pain.

A few hours before landing, they served the "light meal:" either Provencal style rice and prawn salad with courgette, dried beans and tomatoes in an herb vinaigrette, or Swiss salad of veal sausage and Emmental cheese in a creamy mustard dressing. Dessert was marinated blackberries with Panna cotta.

The Lost Luggage

Our flight from Rome to Zurich took off late, and I had a bad feeling about the luggage making the connection with us at Zurich. The bag checker put bright orange "Short Connection" stickers on our suitcases. At Zurich instead of taxiing to the gate, we disembarked and loaded onto buses, which gave me an even worse feeling, even though the flight attendant had assured us we would have plenty of time to make our connection. The buses took forever to fill up, and when we finally got to the terminal I darted through it like a gazelle (well, OK, like a gopher) with the rest of our party trailing behind. I told the Swissair gate personnel that we had luggage coming from a connecting flight and that I was concerned about it getting on the plane. "No problem," I was told. "It will make it on the plane."

Of course, it didn't.

(It arrived on the next flight, thankfully, and was Fedexed to me in a different city. Man, I had some shit in that suitcase I did not want to lose.)


The Travel Delay

We were scheduled to leave Rome on Sept. 15th, but because of the mayhem going on in the skies over America we anticipated a delay of several days, and we spent a fair amount of time on the phone in our hotel trying to figure out how soon we could fly out. It didn’t help that rumors were swirling everywhere: no international flights were being allowed into the U.S.; the American carriers were being allowed in first; the backlog of travelers already in European airports were being flown out first; the people with reservations for that day were being flown out first. The information desk at the Rome airport was singularly unhelpful; when we asked them if our flight was leaving on time, we were told it was. It turned out they were just looking at the screen that lists the intended flights, not the flights that will actually take off. This was the same irritating screen we could access from our hotel room, that showed flights to the U.S. that we knew without a doubt had been cancelled.

We learned from this experience that it pays to be persistent, and to talk to people in person rather than by phone if at all possible. On Sept. 14th we put ourselves on three waiting lists, to fly out the 16th, 17th and 18th, and we went back to the hotel grateful that at least we had a shot. On the 15th, we returned to the Swissair desk at the airport and not only got confirmed seats for the 16th, but confirmed Business Class seats at no additional cost.

Thanks, Swissair!



Recommended: Yes