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Note: This deal was sent out via Find Flights for Me Newsletter on November 22, 2025, dates listed below may no longer be up-to-date depending on when you see this. Subscribe today to get alerted faster.
There’s a lot of availability to book Swiss business class from Boston, Chicago, DC (IAD), and NYC (both JFK/EWR), and Montreal. Flights are to/from Zurich. Availability is primarily January-March 2026 and July-August 2026, although there is sporadic availability in other months. You can book as low as 60k points one way.
Routes: BOS/ZRH; EWR/ZRH; JFK/ZRH; ORD/ZRH ; IAD/ZRH; YUL/ZRH
Airline: Swiss
Programs to book with: Air Canada, Avianca, United
Travel timeline: November 2025 to August 2026
Cost: Starting at 60k points + $6-71 in tax/fees each way
Transfer partners: American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo
Summary: Fly Swiss business class starting at 60k points one way. Connect through Zurich to other cities in Europe.
Why I like this deal? 1) Multiple seats (some dates 9+), 2) availability during summer season, and 3) reasonable cost for business class awards.
Dates with 2+ seats
Fairly wide open availability with 5x weekly flights starting on June 13. Availability is found on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
BOS-ZRH (starting at 60k points)
December: None
January 2026: 20, 27
February: None
March: 3, 24, 31
April: None
May: None
June: None
July: 6, 12, 14, 15, 22, 25-30
August: 1-5, 9, 10, 12, 17, 18, 23
ZRH-BOS (starting at 60k points)
December: 3, 4, 9, 10, 15-17, 22-25
January 2026: 21, 22, 27, 28
February: 3, 4, 10-12, 14, 18, 24, 25
March: 3-5, 11, 18, 25, 31
April: 1-3, 7-9, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29
May: 2, 6, 19, 26, 27
June: 3, 9, 10
July: None
August: 6, 7, 14, 16, 19, 21, 25-28
September: 1-4, 9, 16
EWR-ZRH (starting at 60k points)
December: None
January 2026: 12, 26, 27
February: 23
March: 2, 9, 16, 23
April: 13
May: None
June: None
July: 13, 26, 27, 28
August: 1-4, 10
ZRH-EWR (starting at 60k points)
December: 3, 9, 13
January 2026: 13-17, 21, 29
February: 10, 24-26, 28
March: 7, 10-12, 31
April: 25
May: 2, 9, 23, 26
June: 2
July: None
August: None
JFK-ZRH (starting at 60k points)
December: None
January 2026: 24, 26, 31
February: 2, 3, 7, 16, 23-25
March: 3, 9, 10, 17, 24, 30
April: None
May: None
June: None
July: 25-29
August: 2, 3, 10, 11, 18
ZRH-JFK (starting at 60k points)
December: 3-5, 9-11, 16
January 2026: 7, 13-17, 20, 21, 27-31
February: 3, 5-7, 9-20, 24-27
March: 3-6, 10-13, 17-20, 24-26, 31
April: 8, 14-16, 21-24, 28, 29
May: 1, 5, 8, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 26-29
June: 2, 3, 5, 9-11, 17, 18, 23, 24
July: None
August: 20, 21, 25-27
September: 1-3, 9, 16
ORD-ZRH (starting at 70k points)
December: None
January 2026: 19, 21, 25-27
February: 1, 2, 8, 9, 16, 23
March: 2
April: 6
May: None
June: None
July: 13, 18, 20, 21, 26-30
August: 2-4, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 23
ZRH-ORD (starting at 70k points)
December: 4, 6, 15, 24
January 2026: 15, 20, 22, 27, 28, 30
February: 4, 5, 10-13, 18, 19, 26, 27
March: 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 19, 31
April: 1, 2, 7-9, 14-16, 21-23, 28, 29
May: None
June: 9
July: None
August: 5, 12-14, 17-29
September: 1-3, 8-10
IAD-ZRH (starting at 70k points)
December: 29, 30
January 2026: 11, 13, 25, 27
February: 1, 3, 8, 15, 17, 22, 24
March: 1, 10, 15
April: None
May: None
June: None
July: 19, 25, 27
August: 2, 8, 9, 16
ZRH-IAD (starting at 70k points)
December: 4-6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 23, 25, 26
January 2026: 13, 15-18, 20, 22, 25, 27, 29, 31
February: 1, 3, 5-8, 10, 12-14, 17, 19, 20, 24, 26-28
March: 3, 5-7, 10, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 24, 26, 27, 31
April: 1, 2, 7-9, 14-16, 17, 21-25, 28, 30
May: 1, 2, 5-8, 13-15, 19-22, 29
June: 4, 12, 18
July: None
August: 12-14, 17-22, 24-29
September: 2-4, 9, 10
YUL-ZRH (starting at 60k points)
December: 1
January 2026: 12-14, 19, 21, 24-28
February: 1-4, 6-9, 11, 15-17, 20, 22
March: 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 17-19, 22-24
April: None
May: None
June: None
July: 6-10, 12-16, 19-31
August: 1-21
ZRH-YUL (starting at 60k points)
December: 3, 4, 9-11
January 2026: 16, 19-23, 26-30
February: 2, 4-6, 9-20, 24-27
March: 3, 10, 19, 24
April: None
May: None
June: 19-21, 23-26, 29, 30
July: 1
August: None
Cost breakdown
Air Canada: Starting at 60-70k points + $6-71 in tax/fees. Spend an extra 14-15k points to make the flight freely changeable/cancellable. Otherwise $75 CAD for changes and $150 CAD to cancel per ticket.
Transfer Partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase
Tip: Air Canada Aeroplan has a great stopover program, where you can have a stopover (in ZRH in this instance) before going to your next destination. It costs 5k additional points per ticket to add a stopover
Avianca LifeMiles: Starting at 69k points + mystery tax/fees. Avianca won’t tell you how much tax/fees are until you check out. You can’t checkout unless you have points in your account. It should be similar to Air Canada/United’s fees. You can also call to ask. There is a $150 change fee and $200 cancel fee for Avianca awards unless you have certain LifeMiles+ subscriptions (then it’s free).
Transfer Partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo
United: 80-88k points + $6-63 in tax/fees. Free changes/cancellations.
Transfer Partners: Bilt, Chase
How to search and book?
1) Quickly find dates using calendar search on United’s site. You will need to be signed in to search.
2) For United, put in destination, # of passengers, flexible dates, business class, then click on “Find flights”.
3) After searching, the calendar view should appear. Find dates with the 80k cost as those are saver awards. (could be 88k depending on your United status or if you have a credit card). However, many of the flights could have 1 connection to get to ZRH either through another North American city (like EWR, YUL, ORD, IAD) or through another major Star Alliance hub on Lufthansa (FRA, MUC). Sadly United got rid of a trick that let you filter for direct flights.
4) Confirm the flight details including if the number of seats you need is bookable, aircraft type, and timing.
If searching with Avianca, you’ll also need to log in to search. Here is Avianca’s Lifemiles site to search for flights. It can be hard to find on Avianca’s own site sometimes.
1) After logging in, search for one-way, choose business class, and put in destination details. Don’t choose a date yet.
2) After putting in destinations and choosing what type of cabin, then click on the “Dates” section. Find dates that are underlined in blue as these days should have saver award availability.
3) Check to see if bookable for 69k miles, then book with your preferred Star Alliance partner (Air Canada, Avianca, United).
Use Swiss/Star Alliance network to fly beyond Zurich
Use these US to ZRH flights as a gateway to Europe and connect to other parts of Europe. Total points costs will be fairly similar. See below example for Boston to Barcelona for 70k points on July 28, 2026.
Don’t forget about Air Canada’s Aeroplan stopover program. Spend an extra 5k points to stopover in Zurich then continue to your next destination. This works on the return back to the US as well. On the Air Canada site, choose Multi-city/Stopover as the option instead of one-way. Put ZRH as the stopover city and number of days. Then search. There could be some trial and error to find availability.
See below example. Fly Boston-Zurich on July 25. Spend 3 nights in Zurich, then fly Zurich to Barcelona on July 29.
About Swiss business class
Currently, the available award flights are either on a Swiss A330 or the A350. As of now, only one of the Boston flights has the new A350 which has the newer “Swiss Senses” cabin that is very similar to Lufthansa’s “Allegris” product. Some of Swiss’ A330s are being retrofitted with the newer cabins and could be in service at some point in 2026!
The older A330s have a unique seating arrangement where rows will be in a 1-2-1 layout but then the alternating row will be a 2-2-1 layout. See below to better visualize.
A330
Your flight will likely be in this layout. All seats are lie-flat but may not have direct aisle access. Seat selection is generally free except for “throne seats” which are the individual seats on the left side fo the plane. Those seats should be free to choose at online check-in though.
A350
Currently, Swiss flies their new A350 to Boston. Hopefully, Airbus delivers more to Swiss in late 2025 into 2026 and they could expand it to more routes. All seats are lie-flat and have direct aisle access. However, in traditional Lufthansa Group ways, they can’t keep things simple and there are five different “tiers” of business class seats. They are marketed as Business Suite, Privacy Seat, Extra Space Seat, Classic Seat, and Extra Long Bed Seat…(more details on The Points Guy). And depending on the type of seat, you will have to pay more to select a seat.
New A350 details (Swiss)
A350 first look (The Points Guy)
A330 Review ZRH-DXB (The Points Analyst)
A330 Review BOS-ZRH (Live and Let’s Fly)
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