Book your summer 2026 business class Europe awards now, or a last minute Christmas markets trip, flying Swiss and using points United, Air Canada or Avianca LifeMiles or your favorite credit card transferable points program.
@findflightsforme‘s free email newsletter flags great Swiss business class award availability out of Boston, New York JFK, Newark, Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles (as well as Montreal) to Zurich. And you can connect domestically to and from those cities, as well as beyond Zurich to elsewhere in Europe (or Africa/Asia for that matter).
Generally you’ll find two or more business class seats available, but sometimes as many as nine. If you want to find dates with large numbers of seats for your whole family, search United.com’s month-long calendar search for the route with the number of passengers you want (regardless of which airline’s miles you’re using to book).
The general availability pattern is wide open:
- Boston – Zurich: July/August 2026
- Zurich – Boston: December, February, April, August
- Newark- Zurich: Scattered dates January – August
- Zurich – Newark: Scattered dates December – May
- New York JFK – Zurich: February, March
- Zurich – New York JFK: December – June, some August and September
- Chicago – Zurich: January-February, July-August
- Zurich – Chicago: December – April, August
- Washington Dulles – Zurich: January – Februayr, Scattered July/August
- Zurich – Washington Dulles: December – May, August
- Montreal – Zurich: January – March, July – August
- Zurich – Montreal: January – February, June
As is often the case, West Coast gateway awards are really tough to find.
Cheapest awards are often through Air Canada Aeroplan (an Amex, Capital One, Chase and Bilt transfer partner) because awards start at 60,000 points for Northeast – Zurich while longer-distance awards run 70,000 points, and stopovers are permitted for 5,000 points. There are no fuel surcharges. LifeMiles starts at 69,000 points (American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Citibank and Wells Fargo transfer), while United runs 80,000+ miles each way per person (Chase and Bilt transfer).
Mostly you’ll fly Swiss’s older business class, though one Boston flight operates with the new Airbus A350 Allegris-style product. Some A330 flights could be converted by the time you fly in summer 2026.
I’m seeing as low as 55k lifemiles JFK-ZRH and with the 15% Amex bonus it’s 48k. Very good deal if the dates work for you.
I found some ORD-ZRH at 70K Aeroplan miles for August and was ready to book them. Then I checked my work calendar, and I’m completely booked until the middle of November next year. I stocked up on Aeroplan when Bilt had its 150% bonus a while back for situations like this and I’ve been waiting for a chance like this to use them. And this is why I can’t have good things.
A350 will be long gone from BOS by next summer,
I saw this and also saver awards on LH (80k on UA.com) a couple of months ago, and got some TATL, but haven’t seen it since. Connections tended to be too short or too long, but I don’t mind a long connection in an airport with a decent lounge. Helps the luggage to not miss-connect.
Glad I saw this! I’m heading to Switzerland this summer and had booked an AA flight from JFK to Milan (in Premium Economy for 39k points) and was gonna take the train up. I canceled that and booked JFK to ZRH in business for 55k LifeMiles points + $53 taxes. Not bad at all. It is the A330-300 which appears to be their older product, but I rarely fly business class and really just want to sleep and shower in the arrivals lounge so I’m happy with it!