Back in June, I covered a superb SWISS Airlines sale that they called a ‘Companion Special’. Unusually for SWISS, those promotional prices were being offered directly from London and featured deals such as Johannesburg for £1,300 in business class.
In the last day or so, SWISS has brought back their Companion Special fares, with the best offers found on flights out of Geneva and Zurich. While not quite as good as the sale in June, there are still some excellent deals to be had.
How good is the pricing?
Here is a list of the destinations included in this sale from Zurich:
Remember that the prices shown are the total price for 2 people.
And here are the deals from Geneva:
Standout deals
While pretty much all of the above pricing offers steep discounts on the typical business class prices you would expect to pay departing London, there are a couple of standout deals:
Rio de Janeiro
I priced up a return trip for 2 adults in Business Class in January 2018.
Here is the price for BA non-stop flights:
Now here is the price departing from Zurich:
At the time of writing, CHF 3645 was roughly £2828, or just £1400 each! Compared to £3,100 per person on BA that is a terrific saving.
Tel Aviv
I priced up a return journey in March/April 2018.
Here is the cheapest direct Business class option (BA) from London:
Now here is the price departing from Zurich on the same dates:
At the time of writing, CHF 2053 was roughly £1592, or just £796 each! Compared to £1,950 per person on BA that is a terrific saving. Granted you could argue that it isn’t worth making a ‘stopover’ on what is only a 5-hour flight to start with.
However, if you would prefer to fly Business class, a £1150 saving per person is not to be sniffed at!
Anything else?
I have focused so far on the best of the business class deals, but it is worth noting that there are also some very solid First class deals available in this sale.
As I noted in my other article on Fifth Freedom routes today, SWISS First is one of the best in the business (no pun intended!). However, it tends to elude many of those in the miles and points world given that only those with top-tier status in their loyalty program; Miles and More, can book use their miles to book First Class seats.
Standout First Class deals can be found to the likes of Miami, New York and Singapore, where prices can be 40-50%% cheaper than alternative non-stop services from London!
There are separate pages on the SWISS website detailing the various First Class deals:
How to book
The easiest way to book these business class deals is via swiss.com
Details of the Business class offers for Zurich can be found here and Geneva here.
At the bottom of both pages is an easy-to-use calendar function that allows you to see dates where the promotional prices are available without having to search for a specific date each time.
- Book by 16th October 2017
- As this is a ‘Companion Special’ you must be booking for 2 passengers to achieve the above pricing.
- Travel between 5th October 2017 and 27th March 2018
- Minimum stay requirement = 6 days for most destinations. Only 3 days required for Dubai/Muscat/Tel Aviv.
- No changes/refunds possible
Verdict
There is no doubt that these Companion fare specials offer tremendous savings. Getting to Zurich or Geneva from London really isn’t much of an inconvenience. You can book yourselves Reward Flight Saver tickets for 9,000 Avios and £35 to ensure the costs of positioning for the Companion deals remains minimal.
Availability of promotional pricing at this early stage looks to be excellent so head over to swiss.com and see what you can unearth.
Let us know what you manage to book by dropping an email to tricksofthetrade@xexec.com or tweet us @xexecTOTT