Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links below. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
We’re in Italy this week exploring Puglia. We flew SWISS from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Zurich Airport (ZRH) and then had a connection to Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport (BRI) this week. SWISS operates a whopping 10 lounges in its Zurich Airport (ZRH) hub. As soon as we deplaned, we went to the SWISS Senator Lounge in the E Terminal. It’s not as charming as the SWISS Alpine Lounge in Terminal A that I visited after this one (review here), but it was a nice lounge and I was thrilled to grab a shower during my five-hour layover.
Access
Access is granted to passengers with Miles & More Senator or HON Circle status and Star Alliance Gold Members. Star Alliance Gold members plus one guest are allowed in regardless of the cabin they’re flying in that day. A same-day boarding pass is required to enter the SWISS Senator Lounge. When entering the lounge, there is a desk with multiple agents to check boarding passes on the left side.
Anthony’s Take: This is a great lounge and a nice place to eat, relax, work, and refresh after landing at Zurich Airport (ZRH) and before a connecting flight. There is good food, drinks, a beautiful outdoor space with great views of the planes passing by, a relaxation space, and some shower suites. The lounge is a large space and measures 11,800 square feet (the layout is above).
Bar
There is a self-serve bar with wine, liquor, beer, and soft drinks found on one wall of the buffet area. This lounge also has an entire whiskey bar housed on the left side with a bartender and a wide selection if that’s your thing.
There is also some wine here.
Beer and soda are also available.
White wine and juices were near the buffet.
An island in the buffet area has several coffee machines.
The whiskey bar is called “Whiskey Club 28/10.” This was named after the airport’s runways.
It has ons of whiskies as well as a full bar of other liquors.
Some of the whiskey on offer.
There was also a display of other options.
Even if you’re not a whiskey drinker, this is a nice bar.
It was empty during our visit.
Snacks were available on the bar.
Food
Lunch/dinner was being served during our visit. There are three buffet areas surrounding a dining room with several hot dishes, salads, cold cuts, cheese, and salad ingredients as well as soup. There are also snacks, desserts, candy, ice cream, and cookies on offer. Pasta was being made to order at the counter above.
There were two soups during my visit. These included Beef Broth with Egg Cubes and Melon Gazpacho.
Focaccia
Jamaican Jerk Chicken
Carrots
Bread
A second buffet holds salads and cold items.
Salad ingredients
Fresh fruit
Chips and salsa
Hummus
The third buffet table held desserts.
Chocolate Cake, Banana Chocolate Mousse, and fruit
Candy
Ice cream
There was more candy and cough drops just inside the entrance.
Ricola cough drops were also found near the relaxation area.
Seating & Decor
As mentioned above, the lounge is around 11,800 square feet and has tons of seating both indoors and outside (170 max). It was almost completely empty when we visited. There are many rooms with different seating configurations for working, eating, and relaxing. The Breitling display was the first thing we saw when we got off the elevator.
A printer is near the entrance to the main part of the lounge. You need to scan your boarding pass here for a Wi-Fi code.
Once you enter the lounge, there is a long hallway filled with magazines and some seats on the right side.
A view looking the other way.
Down this hallway, you’ll find these doorless phone booths (kind of useless).
Past here is the buffet and a dining room with lots of tables.
There was another watch display and some nice seating around it.
There are a good number of armchairs further back.
A relaxation room offers some privacy and comfortable day beds.
There is a work area with several booths (some have doors and others don’t).
One includes a computer for guest use.
One of my favorite parts of this lounge was the huge terrace. We ate out there and enjoyed plane spotting.
United
SWISS and Singapore Airlines
Aer Lingus, Air Canada, and United
Amenities
This lounge offers free Wi-Fi, restrooms, showers, a work area, a relaxation area, and the food and beverages mentioned above. The waiting area pictured above is near the showers. We took advantage of these since we had a long layover and had just come off of a transatlantic flight.
The shower suites are spacious with a large vanity with a single sink.
Towels and washcloths are provided.
Foeder brand toiletries were mounted to the wall near the sink.
There is a toilet.
The shower was a nice size. Water pressure and temperature were both good.
More Foeder toiletries were found in the shower.
Overall Impression:
This lounge is impressive, overall. I love the outdoor space and the shower suites. The food could be a bit more exciting, but it’s not a bad spread.
User Generated Content Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
