• Etihad Airways is currently offering a special fare of Rs 38,160 inclusive of taxes to Chicago from Kochi, Mumbai, Delhi, Thiruvanan-thapuram, Bangalore and Calicut. The flights are via its hub at Abu Dhabi. See www.etihadairways.com.
• Jet Airways launched its second daily flight to Hong Kong from India, with daily services on the Delhi-Hong Kong sector aboard its state-of-the-art wide-body Airbus 330-200 aircraft, on September 30. There is an introductory return fare of Rs 15,510 all-inclusive. See www.jetairways.com.
• Kingfisher Airlines launches daily direct flights on the Mumbai-Singapore sector. The flight has boosted the number of weekly flights on this sector by 25%. The fare is around Rs 19,000 return. See www.flykingfisher.com.
• Students travelling to Australia on Jet Airways will be allowed to carry 45kg of luggage. The flights are in association with code-sharing partner airlines and the baggage allowance is applicable only on the outbound journey. See www.jetairways.com. And students travelling to the UK via London on Kingfisher can take an extra piece of luggage till Oct 31. Number of checked-in bags must not exceed two and the maximum weight of the extra piece must not exceed 23 kg. As with Jet, this baggage allowance is also valid on the outbound leg only. See www.flykingfisher.com.

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Swiss Style on New Bus

On the way from Zürich to Mumbai I flew Swiss International Air Lines’ Airbus 330-300, which was introduced for this route in September and will run Delhi-Zürich starting October. I nearly always fly economy, so my yardstick is a recent flight on Jet’s Premiere class and a trip last year on Lufthansa’s business class.

The business class on the 330-300 looked considerably better than on the older craft I flew to Zürich. The design was austere, verging on boxy. There was plenty of room overhead, but no underseat storage at all, so I pulled out my paperback and kit bag and settled down with champagne and milk chocolate before take-off.

In addition to the usual adjustments, the seats can be made softer or firmer. A large pillow and a thin down quilt made for a really good night’s sleep, though I never got my seat quite flat. The massage button operates when your seat is in bed mode too, but rather than a massage it feels like you’re sleeping with someone who is breathing deeply. Nice feeling, I know; I’m not complaining, but it seemed strange in front of all those people.

Swiss shows confidence in the Indian market in introducing a craft with a first-class service to this route. The first-class cabin has eight seats, each with a generous ottoman, so that you can shuffle papers with a colleague or dine together on board. You can plug in your iPod and watch podcasts on the screen in front of you — the largest screens in the industry so far, according to the Maitre de Cabine. Screens can be slid across part way so that you feel you’re in a private cabin while reclining in your natty complimentary pajamas.

Food service on European airlines is seldom as lavish (or smiling) as on South Asian airlines. In business class the Asian vegetarian option was chickpea salad, rice, potato curry and something with peas in it, followed by fruit salad. Quite different from the generous service on Jet’s Premiere, which started with hot soup, ended with a dessert cart and did not enforce a set menu. More important, passengers behind me in Swiss were repeatedly asked for their second choice if vegetarian was not available, and when they answered that they could not eat the beef, chicken or fish, the attendant brought them two vegetarian meals from the crew’s lunch. Eminently sensible is the ‘dine and recline’ option, which gives you a starter, cheese and dessert just after take-off if you want to get it out of the way and catch up on sleep or work.

Swiss operates five weekly flights to Zürich from Delhi and five from Mumbai.