Introduction: It’s The Journey That Matters
Plaza Premium West Lounge Hong Kong
Swiss 777 Business Class Hong Kong to Zurich
Swiss Business Class Lounge Zurich Terminal D
Swiss Business Class Lounge Zurich Terminal A
Swiss A321 Business Class Zurich to Geneva
Swiss Business Class Lounge Geneva
Lufthansa A321 Business Class Geneva to Frankfurt
Lufthansa Business Class Lounge Frankfurt Concourse A
Lufthansa Business Class Lounge Frankfurt Concourse Z
Lufthansa A380 Business Class Frankfurt to Hong Kong
Readers of this blog from last February know that I love skiing. I’m not necessarily so good at it (I haven’t been on a “true” black trail until this year…apart from that time where I almost needed to be taken away in a helicopter back in 2011, but I’ll save that story for another day), though it’s just really pleasing to be doing cardio and enjoying amazing views at the same time. At this time some of our friends were interested in going to Courchevel, France for the Chinese New Years, so naturally, our family decided to head there with them. I wouldn’t be spending too much time with the kids anyway, so I had no problem with dealing with that.
Val Thorens, France
Getting there was a great opportunity to get creative – I tried to pull up some business class options, and with eleven seats needed, we didn’t have too many options. While I found some pretty cheap Emirates fares, my family ended up going for a combination of Swiss business class and Lufthansa business class.
Swiss Boeing 777-300ER Business Class
I wasn’t too happy with that – the cost was substantially more than what I found for Emirates (it was at a pretty costly HK$26,000), and I had already gained a good idea of what Swiss business class was like – not that I didn’t really enjoy my flights beforehand from Hong Kong to Zurich and Zurich to Hong Kong, but given our limited opportunities to travel I do try to grasp for as many products to review as possible. However, it was the best option that we could have. Lufthansa didn’t have eleven seats to sell on both the Hong Kong to Munich and Hong Kong to Frankfurt flights, and Austrian’s schedule was off for our needs, as much as I wanted to try them. That’s why our family ended up booking these tickets and calling it a day – I just shut up, as I didn’t want to lose my first experience on the A380 in business class. 😉
Lufthansa Airbus A380-800 Business Class
I was happy on the lounge front, as I would be able to try out numerous lounges that I hadn’t tried before (Swiss and Lufthansa both have a myriad of lounges at their respective hubs, and I was excited to see what Swiss had on offer for their lounge in Geneva). It would also be my first time trying intra-European business class, so I was excited about that.
Swiss Airbus A320 Business Class
Lufthansa Airbus A321 Business Class
I don’t think our routing was actually that complicated, though I did manage to add a sizeable 12,000 miles to my trip (and earn KrisFlyer Silver status, for what it’s worth):
In terms of the lodging, we managed to secure the Chalet Totara near Pralong, Courchevel 1850, which even came with a private chef (Maxim was awesome, and one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met). I won’t be covering the lodging as such due to lack of photos and lack of details, though suffice to say it was an amazing experience. Don’t mind emailing me if you really want to know more about the chalet.
Chalet Totara Courchevel Attic Room
Bottom Line
I had a hell of a trip, and still have flashbacks from time to time on what a great trip it was. On the product front I “only” managed to try one new longhaul business class product, but that’s always a plus and good enough for me. 🙂
The pictures are actually already formatted up until the Geneva to Frankfurt installment, so I’m legitimately expecting a quick rollout for this trip report, despite having a pretty busy schedule over the next few days. I don’t think there’s a more accurate use of the notion “it’s the journey that matters” than as the title of a ski trip report, despite not talking about the actual skiing – I think the reason’s pretty self-explanatory, both on the skiing and flying front. 🙂
Cool!
Would love to hear more about the lodging. Can care less about another business class report.
@ John – This is ultimately an airline review blog, though I still try to talk about lodging as much as possible. The issue with this lodge was that pictures weren’t possible due to the amount of people that we had and thus I wasn’t able to take a full sweep. You bet on my next homestay with a smaller group, I’d be reviewing the lodging, though.