Swiss International Air Lines Reviews 

Abusive “junk fees” on hand luggage. Had to pay 70€ at gate cause my hand luggage suitcase was too heavy. I wasn’t allowed to repack in my backpack. It was mainly books I could have transfered. They didn’t want hear everything.

I hate this new trend of hidden fees, the stress it creates to fly. Simply show the real price from the beginning and stop charging junk fees for everything and nothing.

They created a new basic economy class, which is also expensive, and removed the 8k luggage. Every year it gets worse.
Disappointed i will try to avoid them

I booked via Opodo and specifically purchased extra baggage including a carry on & checked luggage.
When I arrived at the gate the woman named Aida & her colleague told me that I had to pay an extra £60 for my hand luggage & that it was not included on my ticket. Swiss Air changed my baggage allowance despite me paying for extra luggage when booking.
When I pulled up the booking to show Aida that the hand luggage WAS INCLUDED, she refused to read it & insisted that I call Opodo to make a complaint (this on Sunday night). She couldn’t care to even read & forces me to pay extra and rudely told me to claim it from Opodo.
So not only did I pay for my luggage but she forced me to pay again triple the amount and she refused to even read the proof. She had full authority to allow the baggage on but didn’t give a rats ass to do her job properly.

The level of service is worse than RyanAir

I travel regularly to and from London to Zurich on business trips and If I have to take Swiss airlines it’s the worst experience. Firstly they charge for any small piece of hand luggage which British airways will never do, secondly they keep checking passport multiple times. Staff are always quite rude and it is never a pleasant trip

I fly a lot, several times a month. And this is the first time I decided to leave a bad review as this is the WORST AIR COMPANY EVER.

I had my backpack which perfectly fitted dimensions for the hand luggage, presented in the website. I used it for Ryan Air, Wizz Air and EasyJet and never had problems.
They told me to fit it into the special shelf, but it was not fitting for 2 sm, a tiny part stayed above the shelf as the bottom of the backpack is slightly denser than the main area of the backpack. I was told to pay for the checked luggage as 1) my backpack does not fit those dimensions 2) I have too many pieces (a tiny cross bag, where I keep my passport only and a pillow for my neck…)

After I paid for checked in luggage, they even took my backpack into the luggage area of the aircraft, so I will have to wait for it after arrival. Thanks.

They are ready to delay flight in order to take your money.

Staff was absolutely bad, unfriendly and not ready to help, advise or support.

I will NEVER fly with this company again and will tell this to all the people who are thinking to fly with this company.

Also online check in did not work, but this is another story…

I live in Switzerland and am forced to use Swiss, they have a monopoly on flight slots at Zurich airport so there are often no alternatives. Between personal and business flights, I book at least 20 flights per year for my family and me with Swiss. They promote low prices which is misleading as the prices tend to be extremely high. Their customer services are non existent, on many occasions I have contacted them to change flights due to illness, deaths or simply change of plans but they refuse to show any flexibility and I have always had to book a new flight, they are full of compassionate emails to say how sorry they are to hear of the hardship but they never help, never provide any solutions, they are brutal to deal with. Today I am fed up again, my daughter studies abroad and after signing her up for the Swiss Student air fare program, I see that student flights are actually MORE expensive than regular economy flights which is ridiculous. They throw extra luggage allowance (not needed) and some ability to change the flight but the price is higher than a comparable economy flight. This airline does nothing for their customers!

Feels like only minors aka chidren work for that airlines. I just took two flights with them, of course delayed cause of ZH traffic control, connections missed. Both in the air and ground feels average staff age 18-20. As always checked every bag also with weight scale, i think is as low like Ryanair. I hate them and whole LH group cause it represents so good the bünzli culture...!

Always delayed!
Claim it’s due to earlier flights delays, which they are responsible for.
Make you go to the gate, tell you to board and then make you stand in a tiny room waiting for a bus…. then they will make you get on the bus and wait on the bus while the plane is being cleaned. Then once your on the plane they explain there are even further delays and tell us that we will sit on the runway for over an hour.

I have flown over 50+ times with this airline, it’s delayed about 90% of the time. The patronising staff say while at the gat “people need to come forward and check in their carry on, otherwise we will not take off on time” …… all while they are standing under a board that says delayed by an hour!!!! If you do not have space for all the bags in the cabin, stop selling people the tickets and taking the money!!

First wrong gate was displayed then on-board luggage allowance has changed, the cheapest fare does not allow small suitcases that can be placed under the seat. I got caught and was charged a whopping £66! Do NOT fly Swiss. Total ripoff.

Both of my flights were delayed, maybe you would be better off saying the flights are “sometime this afternoon” rather than providing a time.

I am Swiss. BUT:
SWISS air lines belongs 100% to Lufthansa in Germany. SWISS considers itself the premium airline in the alliance - in their perturbed self-admiration and - I should add - arrogance of Swiss, who think they do everything better.
If you have flown Lufthansa Business you know what real customer/passenger service means: heartful, attentive and involved plus great food and great chocolates without the ever ending self-prise of SWISS. Lufthansa proves how flying should be.
SWISS on the other hand: rude and unmotivated staff (IAD-ZRH last Sat/Sun). Super uncomfortable Economy class: knees touching the front chair before they recline (as bad as an European short-distance flight). Food cheap and definitively without any care. The staff just hates their job and are in their constant supervision mode, tell people what to do (and yet toilets are better not used towards the end of the trip - stewardesses are definitively not doing "dirty" jobs). They forget ordered menus, English spoken as it might have been ok 20 years ago. Oh, an upgrade to business would have been between 2900 and 3600 CHF from a 1600 CHF economy ticket! They really lost touch with realities.
I do hope Swiss is integrated completely into Lufthansa and Lufthansa takes the lead on the training program. Then there is hope otherwise you might as well fly LOT where at least you pay less with a similar experience.

Food was ok because I had savory breakfast which I hate unless it’s eggs royal/Benedict. The seats were very narrow. I had a passenger next to me who snored as an ogre and punched me they did nothing during the flight nor they gave me any compensation. I also told them that any other airline would have found a real solution.

Absolutely fantastic service by Esuthu Duntsu-Duntsu at Cape Town International. Caring, efficient and welcoming

Swiss, never again.

My recent experience flying with Swiss Airlines on the Switzerland–Portugal route was honestly one of the most disappointing travel experiences I’ve had in years.

What makes it even worse is that I regularly fly this exact route with EasyJet, usually using the most basic fare option with only a backpack as a personal item — and I genuinely never experience the level of discomfort, suspicion, and unnecessary stress that I experienced with Swiss.

I chose Swiss expecting that, even on an economy/light fare, the service would still reflect the reputation associated with Swiss quality standards. Instead, the experience felt surprisingly hostile and far below what I would expect from an airline positioned as premium.

The baggage policy is essentially the same as EasyJet’s, despite Swiss aircraft clearly having more available space. Yet passengers traveling on the basic fare are treated with unnecessary rigidity and almost with suspicion.

Staff insist on checking backpacks in sizing frames that somehow seem even smaller than EasyJet’s, despite the large amount of space available under the seats. What made the experience even more unpleasant was the excessive rigidity regarding small personal belongings. Although my small leather purse was clearly just a document holder and could easily have been ignored or visually assessed without issue, I was still required to force it inside my backpack because the fare technically allowed “only one item.” The approach felt unnecessarily strict, inflexible, and completely disconnected from common sense.

The overall feeling given to passengers is extremely unpleasant — as if anyone choosing the lowest fare is automatically trying to cheat the system or take advantage of the rules. Instead of professionalism and customer care, the atmosphere feels judgmental and unnecessarily hostile.

And the worst part: Swiss is not cheap.

Not only was the ticket significantly more expensive than a low-cost airline, but the itinerary also included a connection with more than 8 hours waiting at the airport, turning what should have been a simple and routine trip into an exhausting and unnecessarily long experience. Meanwhile, EasyJet usually offers me direct flights with far less stress.

Another very unpleasant detail was the boarding process itself. On every flight segment, my boarding pass repeatedly showed “boarding denied/impossible,” requiring additional checks. Regardless of the technical reason, this creates a very uncomfortable feeling for the passenger — as if you are constantly being treated as suspicious or problematic.

Throughout the entire journey, I genuinely felt that passengers traveling with the basic fare were treated with disdain. After years traveling this exact route, I can confidently say this was the worst travel experience I’ve had between Switzerland and Portugal.

It is honestly shocking that an airline carrying the image and branding of Swiss quality can deliver an experience so much worse than airlines that openly position themselves as low-cost carriers.

I am writing this review while still inside the aircraft, before takeoff, because the level of frustration and disappointment has been genuinely remarkable.

Shocked at being forced to pay for underseat baggage, I thought swiss airlines were not one of the cheap, predatory airlines.

Staff were completely unsympathetic, very poor.

It seems they have introduced a new, bottom tier, of economy ticket that costs about the same but included (practically) no baggage. Perhaps if they attached warnings to this to stop people being caught out I would understand, but the fact that they don't makes me feel like they are treating the customer with utter contempt.

I enjoyed the free swiss chocolate onboard, a shame it will be the last one I ever have.

Avoid this money grubbing airline. I flew as part of a group. Most of the group had purchased Premium Economy. I was in Economy. Swiss will not give you an advance seat assignment unless you pay $65 per seat. You are supposed to get a seat assignment at check in for free, but instead they put everyone who had booked Premium Economy but not bought a seat assignment on a waitlist. They would not give my friends their boarding passes until the flight was ready to board. They were very stressed as a result, many of them elderly. Why did this happen? Because Swiss Airlines had a special offer. Come see the desk if you were in Premium to upgrade to Business Class at a reduced rate. So they overbooked Premium, knowing they could upsell some of these people to Business. Only when that was completed would they take my friends off the waitlist and give them boarding passes. I think Lufthansa Group in general may be doing this, not just Swiss. There are other issues, too. Difficulty contacting the airlines by phone and even chat. Chaotic boarding in Economy, when they have ALL the groups board at the same time. Why assign boarding groups to begin with? How far these airlines have fallen! That the Swiss, famed for their efficiency, should have such a crappy airline is beyond me. Avoid if you can!
Revision: I wrote that review waiting to board. Once on board, the cabin crew was wonderful and the food and service very good.
It is clearly corporate greed and not the fault of the people working for this airline. I would still try to avoid because of the issues I listed initially. Lufthansa group has gone robber baron, but the flight crew is not at fault.

Okay, but way too expensive and not worth the money.

Lost baggage, ignored emails, years of dispute, and no accountability.

My baggage was lost, yet SWISS refused to accept responsibility. I spent more than two years chasing updates, making over 50 calls, and repeatedly contacting customer service and eventually no response at all.

As a single mother travelling with a young child, this experience caused significant stress and disruption. In my experience, SWISS FAILED completely.

AVOID if you expect customer care when things go wrong!!!

Just got my bagged checked in because it fit the cage under force. Doesn't matter if it nicely fit and it doesn't matter if there's actually a lot of unused space (seeing this while setting on the plane). And now also being notified we will take off with delay it means I will be really late. What a horrible experience. This didn't work like this before. Complete loss of common sense and values. PS: I see luggage that is bigger then mine and was not checked. Madness.

I booked a flight and paid for seats reservations. The seat reservation was not honoured. I ended up (system changes) in the middle at the rear of the airplane.
When trying to get my money back: Swiss and United referred me to each other and both were unwilling to return the paid reservation fee.
The overall experience of the customer support : negative. I decided to avoid Swiss and United and go for AA.