Premium cabin MSP (or ORD) to Italy/Switzerland Summar 2019

M

MLH

Level 2 Member
Hi All,

DW is looking to travel to Italy and Switzerland in the summer of 2019, so I'm starting to look in to options for Premium cabin airfare over there from MSP or ORD for us. We're local to MSP but ORD is easy to position to.

Haven't flown Premium to Europe before, but we did fly Cathay F to BKK a few years ago. Have done a little research but it sounds like the best First Class offerings typically have little/no award availability.

Any suggestions on what I should set my sights on?

Currently have 500K UR, 200K AA, 50K Alaska.

TIA
 
mec

mec

Silver Member
ORD - ZRH or GVA in Swiss business class seems to be somewhat available based on my searches and it's considered a very good product. Try searching on Aeroplan and or ANA when the time comes (though it is too early to see availability for summer 2019 - typically ~330 days in advance)

There is much more limited first class award availability to Europe than to Asia. You have plenty of UR's to book flights through United and enough AA miles to handle at least one way for 2 in Business.

Were there specific cities, dates or routes that you had in mind or are you flexible on those?
 
M

MLH

Level 2 Member
Still very flexible. Haven't even picked the month we'll travel in. Whether we fly in/out of ZRH, GVA, MXP, or FCO is all still on the table.

I also had Iberia Biz and Alitalia (if they remain solvent) Biz recommended to me, any idea how those stack up to Swiss? I imagine the Swiss is best of the three as I hear their First Class product is very good.
I see a few promising Swiss Biz reviews / trip reports but nothing talking about how to book. Looks like I'll need to beef up my MR balance if I want to book through Aeroplan, but how many points does a RT in Biz cost?
 
M

MLH

Level 2 Member
To answer my own questions, found the below info buried in one of the trip reports.

Swiss Biz class would cost:
70K United miles ow
65K Singapore Air miles ow
63K Avianca miles ow
55K Aeroplan miles ow
88K ANA miles rt

Do Swiss partner awards allow me to add MSP-ORD on the front of the first leg and ORD-MSP on the back of the last?
 
mec

mec

Silver Member
You should be able to add the MSP leg.

I don't think URs transfer to Altitalia or Aeroplan or ANA so your options are a bit more limited.

It seems that United charges a premium of points for more direct flights. I haven't flown any of the airlines we are discussing but I have read many reviews and considered the proposition a fair bit. Honestly, if I were you, I would be weighing direct flights against ideal airline, service and amenities. Since you're starting and returning ~MSP, you are looking at at least 2 flights over and two back. That can quickly escalate with connections on two continents.

Americanan has a few awards per month that price at 57.5k points ow from MSP-FCO with one stop (with maybe a 6 or 8 hour layover in PHL. If you had a Platinum card when the trip happens the access to the Centurion lounge there may be better than having a slightly better 7 hour flight to Italy or Switzerland. (The Ameriprise Platinum has no sign up bonus, but the fee is waived for the first year.)

There are a lot of options to weigh, so I'd suggest running some dummy bookings to see what the landscape may look like. I'll think about your trip a bit and post more when I have time to look at a few things.
 
M

MLH

Level 2 Member
Yes, I'd need to bulk up my MRs if I wanted to do Alitalia, Aeroplan, or ANA. My URs would be fine for United or Singapore.

I did a couple checks for 2 Biz seats between MSP/ORD and ZRH/FCO on United for the fall, Swiss still showed decent availability for that timing at 70k ow. A few Austrian Biz seats showed up as well as one or two Lufthansa. The main routes were ORD-ZRH on Swiss, ORD-VIE on Austrian, or ORD-FRA on Lufthansa.

There actually is a direct MSP-FCO flight from Delta, but that is going to cost way too many SkyMiles.

I played around a little with AA in the late fall, I'm not seeing MSP-PHL-FCO. I do see MSP-ORD-LHR-FCO on BA or MSP-ORD-MAD-FCO on Iberia, at 57.5k.

Thanks for the tips.
 
E

El Ingeniero

Level 2 Member
Use United, do MSP-ORD-<some Italian airport>, stop over there, use the excursionist perk for your Italy-Switzerland leg.
 
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