After a couple of failures, I’m curious if anyone has any good ideas that I’m missing…
Continue reading: How Should I Book SWISS Senses First Class? Any Creative Ideas?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I booked Swiss First on a BA ticket recently. Their generous "Book away policy" allowed carrier, destination and origin changes for a Qatar First award (booked via BA Avios).
Book Lufthansa first class, have it get cancelled and have Lufthansa rebook you onto Swiss first for free 🙂
Better to save the money by staying home . Read a book to improve your vocabulary .
play around with ex-TUN F fares. TUN-BOS in J/F with two changes maybe an overnight / YYZ-LIS nonstop in Y
As long as it's disclosed, what's wrong with asking Swiss for a flight for review purposes? You obviously won't be able to credibly review the service or (arguably) the food, but in terms of the hard product, that can't really be changed just to impress you. And you have your past experience of Swiss' First food and service to grade against.
Put it this way - I'd rather you compromised on the principle of buying your own flights, and spent that $5000 on other reviews for more accessible products (especially obscure carriers) that we might consider booking.
Can't you upgrade with miles? Before the new first class was introduced, it was possible to upgrade a paid business ticket with M&M miles if the A fare category was available. These upgrades were not limited to M&M elites. But I am not sure whether this is still possible with Swiss senses.
Fly with me :), just got this email from Centurion: "When you book an international SWISS First flight ticket through Centurion Member Airfares™ you can access special savings offers for Centurion Members.³ "
If this can't be booked with miles/cc points in a reasonable way, why even bother reviewing this product? This is a points and miles blog, that explains What is achievable with miles, how to achieve it, and what the experience will be like? This is not Travel and Leisure blog where you review whatever new products are out there. Remember your readership?
Just a thought - not trying to be a d***k.
@ Ben -- Interesting, thank you! Out of curiosity, how are you combining F one way with Y the other? J and Y is easy since you can do it directly on SWISS' website by searching economy but then selecting business for the outbound, but I don't see the option to do that for first class.
@ DMoney -- My priority is definitely airline products that can easily be booked with miles, though I'm also a bit of completionist when it comes to experiencing all first class products, and I'm also a general airline product geek.
if you book your travel via the AMEX Centurion portal, you will get an automatic 30 percent off. Lower than a full fare ticket in Business.
I flew their 1st class due to a LH strike and there were two other passengers like me .
That‘s correct!
You can upgrade a cash business tickets with Miles and More miles and eVouchers. In contrast to a complete miles booking in First class, no SEN or HON status is required for these upgrades.
The catch is that you need to call M&M and ask for availability.
I called them recently and asked for availability on the ZRH-ICN route. Took the agent some minutes to find out there is no availabilty as a full miles ticket.
The agents cannot see upgrade availabilty without a specific booking. So you need to make a booking and then check for upgrade availabilty with miles. This is where Finnair is way better.
The product is very relevant to this blog as LH Group A-class fares from Europe to places like JNB and GRU can sometimes be had for less than €4k and yield a serious amount of Star Alliance miles that can help on the way to*G status and are of course useful for booking awards.
I am senator for years and have never seen ANY availability in Swiss first class - to redeem with miles. Cash only.
Um, did you not spend far higher amounts on previous trips? I recall you once went on a "trip of a lifetime" to Africa that was a six figure amount so what is a measly 5K?
How do you book first class on qr routes without first class? Both icn and bos don't have qr first class
While Ben's answer to you is fair, readers also know of Ben's long-time love affair with LH. In this case a LH sibling. It is a sentimental connection from his past. And, while some of us will poke fun at him over it, we shouldn't deny him this indulgence.
I would also say that if Ben had the opportunity to stay at some royal castle that's not even bookable by anyone, some of us would look forward to reading a report. It's like watching an elegant Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie during the Great Depression.
You could always invest in a *A RTW fare. The cheapest ones will tend to start from Egypt, but you don't have to go to CAI as there are a fair few options from HBE, SSH and HRG. You'll still have to part with maybe €8k, but you'll get to review lots of products and can leverage sectors for positioning flights etc.
One other option is to just go on a mileage run and become a Senator with Miles & More or use one of their status match options. Then, you can easily book an award flight with Swiss in First.
Pay cash for it! Given how uninspiring status is becoming on US airlines, you should start going for alliance statuses with foreign airlines. I think you already have flying blue? Would be interesting for you to get all 3 and compare how they are for US based people. You may have to start flying a bit more again though 😉
I upgraded 5 flights last year, but that's with 8 F seats. I used bids and was successful all 5 times. Looking at the BOS route in the next few days, its baiscally sold out one week in advance. I would buy a J ticket and just upgrade it with cash. I know in Canada I can just book a ticket and cancel for free within 24 hours so you can book and see if upgrades are available and at what price. Plan B would be to find someone who was miles or vouchers and upgrade your ticket. That obviously requires a bit of a leap of faith.
For a month flights out of SFO on LH changed to aircraft with no F. We'd paid for our ticket using miles and the airline rerouted us in F on Swiss but of course this requires figuring out which routes are likely to have this down gauge.
In that case Lucky, I think you owe it to your readers to pay for the upgrade (the ~$5k cost).
In the end, those reading this that are more in the points game won't be able to fly this anyway - so you're ostensibly reviewing this for people who can afford to pay cash for it....
After reading this I think you should take this idea of yours to travel in luxury while not paying cash further. There are far too many blogs espousing luxury travel but unfortunately for most of us humans we can't do that without points and miles. Make it all about points and miles luxury travel and attainable redemptions for two. You could even sell some credit card referrals.
Otherwise, just pay the price - the review should prove interesting at any rate.
You can't compromise on principles or ethics.
Your compromise tolerance ends up with quid pro quo politicians f**king up every country all around the world.
@Ben don’t bet on Lufthansa strikes b/c on the strike days they didn’t release any seats for last minute Aeroplan bookings
Ben asks: “How Should I Book SWISS Senses First Class? Any Creative Ideas?”
Ben, trust me there is a very simple solution …. grow longer arms or shorten your pocket depth. By doing either of those things you should then be able to reach your credit card …. pay for the seat for once, yes? …. 🙂
You asked for it …. “Creative Ideas”.
Realistically, apart from paying in cash, there is no reliable way to guarantee a seat.
1. SEN/HON tier members can book Swiss First Class using award points. In theory, at least. In practice, it is virtually impossible.
2. E-vouchers are not up for discussion. They are only available if you ask someone who holds one to apply it towards an upgrade or if you personally achieve the required tier through flying.
Furthermore, Swiss is much stricter than Lufthansa when it comes to approving vouchers. I’ve used one about three times and it was approved at the gate. (I’m an HON Circle member.)
Why not consider ICN?
I hear that Korean Air has finally opened a new first class lounge. According to local reviews, it's an improvement on the previous one.
Swiss International Air Lines is very strict about applying vouchers.
I have had a significant number of upgrades (from C to F) approved at the gate. This means that, unless you have HON Circle status, you will not receive any ground services intended for first-class passengers, such as access to the first-class lounge.
Furthermore, as the number of first class seats has been reduced from eight to three, it is now extremely rare for a first class booking on flight 359 to be approved using an e-voucher.
I'm with others who say if it can't be booked with miles then it's not of much interest to a mileage blog
Actually pretty easy, if you plan a bit in advance...
I have several Allegris/Senses F Tickets. All booked with points.
Lovely product.
Pay cash for the route you want and deduct it as a business expense. Stay in a Marriott and use the hotel review to convince a bunch of people to get a credit card that gets them Platinum Bonvoy status for ONLY $650. The proceeds from the credit card referrals will cover the cost of the trip.
What about paying with points through the Ultimate Rewards portal? Not a great return, but at least it’s still using points. (Interesting experiment: can you pay for C with cash on the portal, and upgrade using points?)
Chris, that is going be because of one or a combination of these things:
No: 1. You are depriving oneself of an extremely pleasant flight experience.
No: 2. It is akin to cutting off one’s nose to spite your face.
No: 3. You actually cannot afford it, so stop making excuses for that fact …. Yes?
If you have Amex Centurion, there is exceptional first class discounted pricing if you call in. This is a recent program. Unfortunately not for platinum, only black.
Absolutely bloody not. Ben’s blog and whole business ethos was built around the exact opposite of what you just outlined.
Pay chash
Fly to Seoul
Depart from:
-Košice
-Cluj Napoca
-Bucarest
... somewhere around that area
Tried this the other day and the Centurion agent knew nothing about a discount. AMEX Travel portal was the same price he had. So not sure what this special pricing is. Of note tho, SWISS cancellation penalties are insane even for first class bookings. ICN-ZRH F fare with cancellation option was about $6K. Cancellation fee was $800 if I recall. Had looked at a Swiss fare earlier this year. Fare was "discounted" to $10K (JNB-ZRH-ORD) but cancellation fee was $7K. No thanks.
Tried this the other day and the Centurion agent knew nothing about a discount. AMEX Travel portal was the same price he had. So not sure what this special pricing is. Of note tho, SWISS cancellation penalties are insane even for first class bookings. ICN-ZRH F fare with cancellation option was about $5.6K. Cancellation fee was $1,700. Had looked at a Swiss fare earlier this year. Fare was "discounted" to $10K (JNB-ZRH-ORD) but cancellation fee was $7K. No thanks.