Book SWISS first class with United miles (within 2-3 days of departure)

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Live and Let’s Fly is reporting that for about the last week, SWISS first class awards have been bookable with United MileagePlus miles. This is notable because although we’ve seen some very temporary windows once or twice where these awards were bookable with partner miles, you typically cannot book SWISS first class with partner miles. This will only work out for those with a lot of flexibility, but it’s worth keeping an eye out in case it fits your needs.

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The Deal

  • SWISS first class awards can be booked within a couple of days of departure with United MileagePlus miles or Lufthansa Miles & More miles (only on connecting itineraries)

Quick Thoughts

SWISS ordinarily restricts award booking of its first class cabin to Miles & More elite members – and even then, the awards are typically only bookable with Miles & More miles (the Lufthansa-group frequent flyer program). We have occasionally seen a situation where SWISS first class awards were very briefly bookable with partner miles (think for hours, not days) and SWISS has sometimes honored those bookings and sometimes not (I recall folks being unhappy once when people transferred Amex points to Aeroplan and SWISS said they wouldn’t honor the bookings).

In this case, Matthew Klint at Live and Let’s fly suggests that these bookings have been possible for the past several days, so it appears less likely that this is a glitch.

The “catch” is that first class is only available to be booked with Miles & More miles or via United Mileage Plus (not other Star Alliance programs) and only on connecting itineraries (i.e. something like New York to Zurich to some other European city works but a single segment between New York and Zurich will not show availability.

Again, this seems to only be available within 2-3 days of departure, so it isn’t something you can count on / plan on, but if you have flexibility and a hankering to book one of the more exclusive first class experiences (in the sense that it hasn’t been easily bookable with points), it’s worth keeping an eye out for this.

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JustSaying

And you wonder why so many are losing interest in the game when they can just drive their Tesla cross country………….

Frodo

What’s with all the snarky responses? Answers may be obvious for those of us that have been part of the community for some time but there’s no need to put down a newcomer. If you don’t wish to respond just skip over nobody wants to read your insults.

Ray

Which site do you book it from using United miles? Thanks

Tom Clayman

Are you really this dumb?

Lantean

Which store do you go to redeem a Home Depot gift card? Macys’s?

Sam

@Nick- I assume we would book this on Lufthansa’s site with their Miles & More Points? Or do we book these on Swiss site? Thanks!

traveler

“Live and Let’s Fly is reporting that for about the last week, SWISS first class awards have been bookable with United MileagePlus miles.” 

JayP

Hey, while his question was obviously a basic one, you apparently missed this:

SWISS first class awards can be booked within a couple of days of departure with United MileagePlus miles *or Lufthansa Miles & More miles* (only on connecting itineraries)

In answer to the question, yes you always book anything with a given carrier’s miles on their own site, regardless of what airline you’re flying.

BDLS

What a thoughtful and polite comment. It reminds me that I can do better.

JayP

Well that’s very kind, thanks

Tom Clayman

You are dumb AF!

Lee

The short fuse might be a way of introducing a little extra spark in a relationship.

Hey, honey . . . do you want to go to Europe tomorrow?

Miki

And an extra spark in a relationship with your manager too!

Hey boss, I’ll take my week off starting from tomorrow