Star Alliance members Lufthansa and SWISS started an interesting partner sale for first class flights from Spain and Portugal. With departure from Madrid, you can score discounted premium cabin tickets to Africa, South America and Dubai. Unfortunately, there are not many destinations available – but you can find discounted flights to any of them in almost any given week in 2020.
Please remember that – since this is a partner sale – you have to purchase at least two tickets for two adults to get the quoted price.
The airline advertises the following six destinations & prices for two persons:
- Buenos Aires at €2,499
- Bogota at €2,249
- Dubai at €2,499
- Johannesburg at €2,499
- Nairobi at €2,499
- Sao Paulo at €2,499
Inner European flights are business class connections to Frankfurt or Zurich. The real experience begins when arriving at either of those airports and enjoying Swiss’ or Lufthansa’s first class lounges. Onward, you’ll enjoy the most comfortable ride either airline has to offer to your destination. Our author Dennis recently enjoyed a Swiss First Class trip to Hong Kong and shares his experience here:
Search & Book
According to the fare rules, this sale will go on until February 24, 2020. The travel period ends on January 31, 2021 and a rather long minimum stay of six days applies. You will find plenty of availability for each destination.
We recommend using either Google Flights (instructions) to finding suiting flight dates or using the calendar on SWISS’ landing page, which is accurate but a bit slow. You may fire up our flight search to see if online travel agencies offer cheaper tickets. However, we do not recommend going this route, but buying your tickets directly with the airline instead.
Why is booking with an airline better than with an online travel agency?
More often than not, online travel agencies offer lower fares than airlines do. We still recommend booking with the airlines directly. There are two main reasons for that:
Better Customer Service
In case any problems like delays, cancellations or missed connections arise, you can communicate directly with the airline. The airline has to take care of you because you have a contract with them.
If a travel agency issues your ticket, you may have to reach out to them first. You also depend on your OTA to forward information like flight changes instead of receiving them directly from the airline. In many cases, you may get a prime exhibition of responsibility shifting rather than problem-solving.
This especially applies to premium tickets. You don’t want to spend more than €1,000 to wind up with some budget OTA’s telephone hotline in case anything goes wrong.
Baggage and Other Fees
Economy fares not including hold luggage are industry standard by now. In most cases, travel agencies charge much higher baggage fees than the airlines themselves. If bags are not included in your fare, airlines are often the cheaper alternative.
This also applies to other things like food services, insurances or priority treatment. In almost all cases, you pay less for additional amenities when booking on the airlines’ website.
Mileage
SWISS and Lufthansa issue long haul tickets in booking class A. Most Star Alliance frequent flyer programs will reward at least 200% of your travel distance – without tier bonuses. You can expect the following mileage for a trip with Swiss from Madrid via Zurich to Johannesburg:
Mileage calculation is currently unavailable.
A roundtrip with Lufthansa via Frankfurt may get you the following mileage – depending on where you credit it:
Mileage calculation is currently unavailable.