Swiss International Air Lines Reviews 

My husband met me in Florence. I had booked his flights, and received email notification that “ I” could check in. I spent over an hour on chat assistant, trying to determine whether I should check him in or he could check himself in—I was already in Italy—and they could or would not offer any help, telling me that they could only communicate with the person whose email address was on file. (They had both mine and his.) At 1:00 am local time my husband was able to confirm that he was checked in. Due to multiple delays, he lost a full day in Italy.

We’re supposed to return home today. Our flight out of Florence has been delayed twice. We will miss our connection to Boston. Online options to rebook our connecting flight all depart at the same time, with only half an hour to get off the plane, get through the Zurich airport, and board the plane—IF there is not a third or fourth delay departing Florence. The one remaining option is a 21 hour trip, which would mean well over 24 hours since leaving our lodging, even before our two hour drive home from Boston.

Chat assistant has twice ended the chat with no help, then asking for a review of chat assistant (!).

Smaller gripes: no choice of food in the back of the plane; really cramped seating (I could not stand the bottle of water they gave me on my tray when the passenger ahead of me reclined, nor in any way reach something I’d dropped on the floor —and I am an average size woman.). Wi-Fi was not working on any of my flights.

I recently flew on Turkish Airlines, and the contrast in service, comfort, and food is stark.

Unfortunately, I had to cancel my flight for health reasons. Swiss showed no leniency in this case and deducted 20% of the fare as a cancellation fee. They did not accept a medical certificate either. Given that the cancelled flight will almost certainly be resold at significantly higher prices, I find their approach and standard response particularly unacceptable. This experience has left me deeply dissatisfied.

We booked flights with Swiss to Dubai, but due to the conflict it got cancelled. This was over a month ago now, and we haven't received any of our money back from Swiss. They keep telling us it's the agencies problem, and the agency keeps telling us it's Swiss problem. They are not even trying to help us, and are running us around in circles instead of giving us our refund, which they said they would do.

Update on my previous review:

I have received no response from Swiss, so I had no choice but to email Dieter Vranckc, the CEO of Swiss (found his email address on FB). The response I got was a one-off, 20 points credit towards my air miles. What an absolute insult……..what is 20 point worth, especially when I will no longer travel on that Airline? Also, I am entitled to a refund as it states in the Swiss Terms and Conditions:

“ To request a refund from Swiss International Air Lines, use their online refund form, where you can log in with your booking code or Travel ID. Refund requests are typically for unused tickets, flight cancellations, or involuntary seat changes, often processed to the original payment method”

My seat changes were involuntary; therefore, I am entitled to a refund for the seat reservation fee on the BKK-VIE leg alone, which was £156. I will definitely escalate this to the Citizens Advice Bureau.

SWISS AIRLINES IS A JOKE!

I have flown extensively and frequently, but Swiss is the worst thing that has happened to civil aviation in recent years. I suffer from heart valve insufficiency and have long legs. For me, an extra seat is not a whim; it is a matter of survival. Without it, the swelling is so severe that my legs simply won't bend afterward. Most airlines understand this. Swiss does not. This is a company completely devoid of any shred of humanity or basic respect for its passengers.

Booking an extra seat in advance is a mission impossible. Officially, Swiss allows this for medical reasons through their Service Centre, but in practice, getting through to them is a quest for masochists. You are rerouted to operators in India who work strictly off scripts and seem to have no concept of human compassion. Their job is to technically exhaust you until you give up and settle for a single seat. The online chat is a complete fiction, and the "managers" on Facebook are virtuosos at ignoring the problem.

At check-in, open blackmail begins: "There are no seats... but for $1,000, we can 'conjure' one up." In other words, seats exist; they are simply extorting money, using your health as leverage. Thousands of reviews on Trustpilot (rating 1.4/5) and Reddit confirm this: it is their standard tactic to trade in thin air and your desperation.

As for the economy class itself: Swiss has completely mutilated its Boeings and Airbuses, turning them into cattle pens. The seat pitch in standard economy is a miserable 28–32 inches. The seats are narrow Recaro slimlines that don't recline properly, and legroom is zero - your knees are literally bolted into the back of the seat in front of you. The paradox is that their European Boeings actually have slightly more space. Swiss has invented a new form of sadism: the longer the flight, the tighter they press you into the plastic. In this suffocating box, it is more comfortable to stand in the aisle than to sit.

But the main circle of hell is their treatment of mothers and children. Swiss deliberately torments passengers with infants. Children under two are forced to sit only on their parents' laps. Separate seats for infants are blocked, bassinets are in short supply, and bulkhead seats are sold off to anyone willing to pay extra. As a result, a 1.5–2 year old child screams on a parent’s lap for ten hours, while you sit compressed into your seat under this non-stop ultrasonic noise. This isn't a flight; it is a total disregard for safety and human psychology.

Against the backdrop of this squalor, they have reconfigured their Business Class for the "super-elite." All resources go there: champagne and lie-flat beds. It is a cynical strategy: create a facade to maintain their rankings and hide the fact that behind the curtain, they are transporting people in subhuman conditions.

The food is a disgusting slurry, with every penny pinched. While they clink porcelain in Business Class, you are thrown a portion that tastes and looks like rations from a homeless shelter. The check-in and boarding staff act as if they were recruited from a prison ward: rude, arrogant, and entirely lacking empathy. To top it off, you get chronic delays, lost luggage, and a lack of ventilation. It was unbearably hot on the plane, as if they were even trying to save money on oxygen.

After such a flight, you are left with a greasy feeling, as if you’ve been rolled in the mud. Swiss International Air Lines has clearly demonstrated that if you don't have the resources for Business Class, you are nothing to them. You are just a nameless unit of cargo whose dignity isn't worth a dime. This isn't an aviation service. This is a humiliating sorting of people by the size of their wallets, for which you are paying with your own hard-earned money.

I recommend it to no one. Better to choose a proper carrier. For those who have already dealt with them - write in the comments. This company deserves to be exposed.

Over two months now of trying to resolve an issue of being give false and misleading information as well as awful customer service in general. Even emailed the CEO Jens Fehlinger who has ignored- unprofessional and poor running of a company…

They were late on schedule. They made us check in our cabin luggage in the plane because supposedly there was no space, and the suitcase missed the connection. I took photos because there was actually plenty of room. They probably do it to speed up disembarkation to try to make up for their delay. But this was against service. Very poor service.

I’ve been flying with Swiss my entire life, but this experience is honestly shocking.

I made a booking and due to an autocorrect error, my partner’s last name was entered incorrectly. This is clearly a simple typo — not a name change, not a different person. I immediately contacted customer service, provided an official ID, and explained the situation.

Despite all of this, my request to correct the name was denied.

So let me get this straight: I paid for the ticket, I proved the correct identity, and yet Swiss refuses to fix an obvious system error? What exactly am I supposed to do now — travel with an invalid ticket or buy a completely new one?

This is completely unacceptable and, frankly, feels like a way to force customers into paying again for something that should be a basic correction.

After years of loyalty, I did not expect to be treated like this. Extremely disappointing.

To make matters even worse, they couldn't even tell me themself that my request was denied. I had to call in 3 times, get through their godawful AI screening (just to repeat the same information later to a customer service agent) and have been told they just see that the request is denied but cannot give me any further information.

SWISS' service has been rapidly declining in recent years, while prices have been steadily increasing. For us, this was the last straw.

The reason I have a carry on is so I can CARRY IT ON! 8kg weight limit is dumb. It’s carry on size and it’s the same weight in the cargo hold as it is in the overhead bin. Gate Attendant was a snooty jackwagon about it too. Bite me Swiss air. You suck.

Without a doubt the worst experience ever. The customer service culture is horrific both off and off the plane. Nothing seems to work: app, photo service, desk. They automatically put my 3 minor children and pregnant wife across the plane and despite admitting that this is both against Swiss transport law and airline policy did nothing to fix it and expected us to do it ourselves on the plane. Imagine separating a family across 12 rows because of a faulting booking system then doing nothing to fix it. I will never ever fly swiss or lufthansa again.

Everything was good adviced and we got helped very Nicly by the crew and the crew where very helpfull thanks swiss air for nicely Brining me to my destenation

I was at Heathrow on the 31st March 2026 travelling to Uganda but my bag was overweight, fair enough. Then a woman at checkout got me out of the queue and then the interrogation started. You have to weigh your bag. We are going to charge you if it's overweight. The man was kind... we'll get on board free of charge... the Asian woman acted as if I was a wanted international criminal... shouting loud at me when I told her checkin just told me to go... "I don't care what checkin told you". Then she tells her male colleague.. "He can't go free, it's 20kg". Which was a lie... it was 19kg. I told them I could go and bin some of the items then come back... she refused saying... you won't make it back.. you must pay the penalty or we unboard you...
Later I confronted her attitude and then she played victim as if I was the one being rude.
All in all, they wasted the time I could have reduced the weight, fine me £108 for the extra two packs of bath soap which cause the excess weight that I could have just put in the bin. The yelling was the worst.. they could have just been polite because I wasn't there to cause any trouble and I certainly hadn't commited the worst crime in the world to deserve such disgusting attitude.
This happened at Heathrow Airport. Absolutely disgusting behaviour... I thought may be it was because of my race but I couldn't fully understand why that Asian woman and her other female colleague were especially rude despite my calmness and politeness. As a little revenge, I kept giving her bank cards with zero funds which kept bouncing back up until she almost gave up the I have her a card that had some money on. Nasty crazy rude people... NEVER FLY SWISS AIR AGAIN. Even the flight was horrible, service was medieval and everyone was dull... no smiles... nothing. It was as if they really hated their jobs.

I had a very disappointing experience with Swiss Airline staff that left me feeling unfairly targeted. During boarding, I was singled out as the only passenger asked to check in my cabin bag due to alleged weight concerns, and when I questioned why I was the only one while others were not, I was told it was because of the weight; however, after agreeing to have my bag weighed, it turned out to be within the allowed 8 kg limit. Initially I did not think too much of it, but when I experienced a similar situation again on my return trip, it became difficult to ignore, and being singled out like this twice was upsetting and made me feel uncomfortable and unfairly treated

I flew on flight LX65 from Miami to Zurich. This was my first and last flight with Swiss.

I am a star alliance silver member, so I’m not any ordinary traveler. When traveling with any airline I expect respect and courtesy. I can choose to fly other airlines and I will.

During this flight, I sat in my seat at 35H. Normally I fly business class but this trip was for leisure. When I sat in my seat I plugged in my usb cable from the monitor to my iPhone and noticed that the usb port is dead. It does not power anything. I tried my neighbors seat and it worked. I then got up and cordially and politely mentioned it to the flight attendant. I asked her if at some point I could be reseated and I asked if the flight is full. She said “none of the of the PDs are working right now, they’re all off” I said but mam my neighbors works, she said let me see, so when she came I showed her. When I showed her that others work she became nasty and said let’s finish the boarding, then I asked to speak to the purser and she says “that’s me” then I said well then I need your name and she refused to provide me her name. This is unacceptable behavior, she turned away so I could not see her lapel.

This woman had a nasty attitude, why ask to see if other USB ports work when your answer is that you basically don’t care, I will never accept this level of disrespect. I went back to my seat from where I am writing this email. Now I cannot purchase the full flight Wi-Fi package because I have no way to keep my phone powered on for the duration of the flight.

Great job Swiss air

I flew with them 4 times this year. For half of the flights, the plane was overbooked and I was put in waiting list. It is though not a low cost carrier, and paying 400chf a 2h flight, to be waitlisted, is unacceptable. I won’t fly again with them.

I flew with Swiss Air from Zurich to Sao Paulo on 26-03-2026. I have nothing but praise for the absolute professionals who were the cabin crew. On boarding, they were very welcoming. There was one male crew member who was charm itself and was great with his interactions with passengers who sought his help. I can't remember his name but he was lovely. I became ill during the flight. They cabin crew came to my aid quite swiftly. I was given clean clothing to change into and was allowed to sit somewhere left stuffy. Before landing I was repeatedly asked how I was feeling and did I need anything. On disembarking, I was wished a speedy recovery. Swiss your cabin crew on that flight were amazing and deserve some commendation.

I have had a dreadful experience with this disgusting airline

ONE STAR IF I COULD GIVE THEM LESS I WOULD

I'm extremely disappointed as my bag was lost because of their utter incompetence and greed whilst over calculating the weight that they could carry

ITS DISGUSTING!!!

Charge a fortune, treat customers like luggage, luggage like garbage, and give you one measly chocolate in return. Easily the worst airline for the price.

I would love to book a flight but I keep getting errors on the app and their website and when I did manage to get to the last step the price dramatically increased. thank you for nothing swiss

The flight was delayed 5 hours and I lost my connecting flight and I arrived at my final destination more than 7 hours late. I asked the airline for compensation, since the delay is not considered an extraordinary circumstances under Regulation EC261/2004. The company rejected this compensation and I was not informed of my customer rights.