Good Fares to Fly Both Lufthansa and Swiss First Class

by Enoch

Lufthansa and Swiss First Class are some of the more exclusive products out there, in terms of booking them with miles and points. Lufthansa only opens award availability in First Class for partners at most 2 weeks out, and even then sometimes award space can be blocked by certain partners. Meanwhile, Swiss will only allow redemptions through Miles & More by elites in the Senator level.

However, there looks to be some pretty decent fares for First Class travel from Zurich to New York, at around $3,960 round-trip. And you can even sample both Lufthansa and Swiss First Class with one ticket if you’d like. For example, you can fly Zurich (ZRH) to New York (JFK) non-stop on Swiss metal on the way in, and then Lufthansa via Frankfurt (FRA) on the return.

Sample both Lufthansa and Swiss First Class for less than $4000.

Sample both Lufthansa and Swiss First Class for less than $4000.

A routing like the one above means you will get to experience the Swiss First Class Lounge in Zurich, as well as the Lufthansa First Class Terminal and Lounge on the return (as long as your connection is on the same day). Keep in mind that Swiss has a pretty restrictive access policy for their First Class lounge, in that your flight has to be marketed AND operated by Swiss. This means if you book a United codeshare that’s operated by Swiss, you won’t be eligible for access even though you’re flying paid Swiss First Class.

Lufthansa First Class on the 747. Photo by the author.

Lufthansa First Class on the 747. Photo by the author.

There’s pretty wide availability for these prices, which are valid for departures from January 11 through the end of the schedule as of this writing, with no notable blackout dates whatsoever. Unfortunately, these fares do not work in the other direction, so you’d have to originate in Zurich. You can search for the fares on Google Flights (our guide here).

By all measures, at almost $4,000, these are still really expensive ticoets. But it is a significant reduction from what they usually charge, and I don’t often see widespread availability (in terms of dates) on fares like this one. Swiss First Class is a decent product, but I wouldn’t consider it especially aspirational, unless you consider how hard it can be to redeem miles for it. Lufthansa, on the other hand, has phenomenal ground services, and a really solid onboard product.

(HT zurich64 on Flyertalk)

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