Here's our next Aeroplan availability alert! There is a bunch of
business class availability showing in the first three months of 2023 for
flights between Montreal and Zurich on SWISS. We learned of this offer via Spencer at Straight to the Points!
The flights operate on all days of the week except Monday and Wednesday. Most of the days we checked they are showing at
least 4 business class seats available per flight in both directions.
Aeroplan charges 60,000 points each way
for these partner award flights on SWISS in business class plus taxes and the $39 partner
award
booking fee. All in for a round trip you are looking at 120,000 points + $150.35 per person ($111.35 in taxes + $39 booking fee)
Here's an example of availability between Montreal and Zurich in February for 2 people (These same flights did have four seats available):
I checked quite a few random dates between January and March and they all show very good availability. Do note once you get into April the availability dries up. In fact the direct flights on SWISS don't even appear as an option on Aeroplan or even United when searching for reward flights. To search for availability you can visit aircanada.com or utilize tools such as Expert Flyer or Point.me (Check out our Tools & Apps page for more!)
As these flights are still quite a ways out you can take advantage of Aeroplan's flexible change policy. If you book this month you can have unlimited changes with no fee for the rest of the month or you can get your first change fee waived if you change your flights after July 1.
As a reminder here is the recently updated Aeroplan award ticket change policy:
- For changes, you’ll pay the difference in points or receive a partial refund if your new itinerary requires fewer points. In addition, a difference in taxes, fees and charges may apply when changing your itinerary.
- To make a change to a flight reward call the Aeroplan Contact Centre at 1-800-361-5373. All flight rewards must be changed at least 2 hours prior to departure.
If you need to cancel however there is no waiving of the fees associated to get your points back.
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| SWISS A330-300 Business Class |
Back to the actual flights, they are operated with SWISS' Airbus A330-300 aircraft which has a staggered 45 seat business class cabin in a 1-2-1 or 2-2-1 configuration as follows:
Ideally if you are travelling alone you'll want to grab one of the 'throne' seats that but couples and groups may want to opt for the seats that are paired, that is only if you want to talk to them during the flight ;-) Do note that the right hand side of business class (seat K) tends to be reserved for Miles & More elite members.
One of the easiest ways to earn enough Aeroplan Miles for redemptions like those listed above is to grab co-branded Aeroplan credit cards or cards that let you convert to Aeroplan. In fact you could grab several cards right now and have enough points for a one way business class flights as mentioned above. You can view all the Aeroplan co-brand card offers here and for cards that convert to Aeroplan (which is basically American Express) check those offers out here.
Recommended reading: How to earn over 67,000 Aeroplan points and an Air Canada Bonus Buddy Pass for free*
Wrapping it up
These are some
really good redemption options for 1,2, 3 or 4 travellers looking to
visit Switzerland or Europe early in 2023. I
only looked at direct flight redemption options and not any connections beyond Zurich so it is possible you can get some good redemption beyond ZRH as well. Be sure to let us know in the comments below if this is a
redemption your considering! Also let us know if you find other dates
and destinations that have this kind of availability!
Images via SWISS & Air Canada
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