SWISS Business Class To Europe For 4 (Early 2023)
Today, we're looking at two routes with 4 seats in business class on SWISS. If you don't live near one of the departure airports, connections are possible but United can be stingy with domestic saver level award space so it might make more sense to book a separate positioning flight.
So, let's get into it!
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Straight To The Points:
Routes: JFK-GVA, YUL-ZRH
Operating airline: SWISS
Class of service: Business class
Dates: January - March 2023
Seats available: 4+
Cabin layout: 1-2-1/2-2-1 (there's a mix)
Book with (per person, one-way):
- *Air Canada Aeroplan: 60,000 miles
- ANA Mileage Club: 88,000 miles (round-trip only)
- Asiana Club: 40,000 miles
- *Avianca LifeMiles: 63,000 miles
- Amex 15% transfer bonus ends today (5/31)
- EVA Infinity MileageLands: 65,000 miles
- Miles & More: 56,000 miles
- Singapore KrisFlyer: 72,000 miles
- Turkish Miles&Smiles: 45,000 miles
- *United MileagePlus: 73,000 miles
*No surcharges
Taxes/fees (per person):
- One-way: $5.60 (~$52 from YUL)
- Round-trip: ~$56 (~$89 from YUL)
- Surcharges:
- One-way: ~$821 (~$560 from YUL)
- Round-trip: ~$1,621 (~$1,080 from YUL)
Bank transfer partners:
- Air Canada Aeroplan: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Marriott
- ANA Mileage Club: Amex, Marriott
- Asiana Club: Marriott
- Avianca LifeMiles: Amex, Brex, Capital One, Citi, Marriott
- EVA Infinity MileageLands: Citi, Capital One
- Singapore KrisFlyer: Amex, Brex, Chase, Citi, Cap One, Marriott
- Turkish Miles&Smiles: Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Marriott
- United MileagePlus: Chase, Marriott
Don't forget to let me know if you book and how you did it!
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Hanging out in Zurich in January 2020. Simpler times.
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DISCLAIMER: Please be aware that the COVID-19 situation and the resulting travel restrictions could prevent you from traveling. Additionally, please make sure you understand the cancellation/redeposit and change fees required before booking with a particular program.
Travel Restrictions and Requirements
Travel restrictions change by the day. Please take a look at the US embassy site for your destination. Here's a link to the US Embassy site for Switzerland.
Flight Experience
The food and service are both solid. If you can get one of the throne seats, it's even better as you'll have tons of space -- the armrests are like small tables. If traveling with someone, you might want to choose seats in the middle section.
Unless you have Miles & More Senator or Hon Circle status, you won't be able to select the throne seats for free until 24-48 hours prior to departure (if available). However, you can pay ~$150-200 for a throne seat.
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Available Dates
You can find award space for 4 people on the following dates.
JFK-GVA
January: 9, 10, 17, 19, 22-24, 29-31
February: 1, 2, 4, 5-7, 9, 12-14, 20-23, 27, 28
March: 1, 2, 6-9, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 23
GVA-JFK
January: 9-14, 17, 18, 23-27, 30, 31
February: 1-3, 6-11, 13-17, 20-24, 27, 28
March: 1-3, 6-10, 13-17, 20-25, 27
YUL-ZRH
January: 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 11, 13-16, 18, 19, 21-23, 25-30
February: 1, 2, 4-6, 8, 9, 11-13, 15,16, 18-20, 22, 23, 26, 27
March: 1-3, 5, 6, 8-10, 12, 13, 15-20, 22-27
YUL-ZRH
January: 13, 14, 16, 18, 20-23, 25, 27, 30
February: 1-4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 25
March: 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25, 27
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Best Ways To Book
If you have Chase points, Aeroplan has the advantage at 60,000 miles for a non-stop one-way award ticket. If you connect within the US or Europe, you'll quickly get bumped up into the next award tier that requires 70,000 miles.
If connecting from the west coast, 73,000 United miles could be a better option if you have Chase points since the Aeroplan rate will jump to 85,000 points.
You can use GCmap to calculate your total flight distance and double-check Aeroplan's zone-based chart. You can also include a stopover for 5,000 additional miles on a one-way award.
LifeMiles is also a great option at 63,000 miles one-way if you have Amex, Capital One, or Citi points. While you can't include a stopover, this is generally a better option than Aeroplan if you need to connect.
With Amex's 15% transfer bonus, you could book a one-way for only 55,000 Membership Rewards points. That gives LifeMiles a 5,000-point advantage on a non-stop over Aeroplan if you transfer points today.
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How To Book
Unfortunately, United has removed the once useful flexible search option that allowed you to see a snapshot of award space for two months. However, you can still filter for nonstop options and expand 7 days of search results to a 30 days.
- From United's homepage, select Advanced search
- Choose to show price in miles
- Enter the origin & destination
- Select your dates or choose Flexible dates and choose a month
- Select nonstop
- Select the number of passengers
- Select Business
- Show flights from "Star Alliance airlines"
- Run the search
- Transfer points (if necessary)
- Log into your account
- Run the search again
- Complete the booking
Once you know the exact dates you want, you can run the search with the program you'll be using to book. As always, I recommend confirming the program you're using sees the award space before you transfer points.
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Bottom Line
Finding business class award space for 4+ people is always fun. However, when you consider how tight award space has beee recently, this really is a great opportunity.
Even better, Switzerland is a country with stunning natural beauty. Whether you fly into Geneva or Zurich, there's a great train network that can take you anywhere in the country you might like to visit.
Happy Booking!
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