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Excellent 2-4-1 First and Business Class flights deals from the UK with Lufthansa and SWISS

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SWISS and Lufthansa have launched some EXCELLENT First Class and Business Class ‘2-4-1’ deals.  Unlike some fare deals we write about, these are for departures from the UK so you don’t need to position yourself somewhere in Europe first.

Availability is very good and you can travel until the end of March 2020 – although this misses the Easter weekend as Good Friday 2020 is 10th April.

Even better for those who live outside London, you can also book these deals from UK regional airports.

Swiss Boeing 777

This offer ran last year and was hugely popular with HfP readers.  You won’t earn Avios or BA tier points but you WILL get a very classy travel experience at a fantastic price.  You will also earn a pile of Miles & More or other Star Alliance miles which can be a handy alternative to Avios.

If you have Avios tickets booked to any of these destinations, you should do the maths on whether you should cancel (£35 per person fee, all Avios and cash returned) and book one of these deals instead.

Business Class deals

Here are the Business Class deals.  These are return prices per person from London BUT based on two people travelling.

Some deals are even cheaper than £999 but these are not always operated on long-haul aircraft.

Lufthansa 2-4-1 UK sale

With Lufthansa, you can depart from London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Manchester with a transfer in Germany.  You can book these deals here.

Remember that you need to search for TWO people to see these fares.

  • Abuja £999
  • Addis Ababa £999
  • Almaty £999
  • Amman £499
  • Astana £999
  • Baku £749
  • Beijing £1,499 (£1,349 from Manchester)
  • Beirut £499
  • Bengaluru £999
  • Bogota £1,250
  • Buenos Aires £1,499
  • Chennai £999
  • Delhi £999
  • Dubai £999
  • Hong Kong £999
  • Jeddah £999
  • Johannesburg £1,499
  • Kuwait £999
  • Lagos £999
  • Mumbai £999
  • Nanjing £1,349
  • Port Harcourt £999
  • Rio de Janeiro £1,250
  • Riyadh £999
  • Sao Paulo £1,500
  • Seoul £1,250
  • Shanghai £1,350
  • Tehran £749

Lufthansa is 100% fully flat in long-haul business class, although not everyone is a fan of the current seat layout which means that both of you are sharing a footrest, albeit with a divider.  The A350 cabin is pictured above.  SWISS is better in this regard as the seats are not angled towards your neighbour.

That said …. as these are 2-4-1 deals it is highly likely that your neighbour will be your companion.

Here are your options flying in SWISS Business Class, photo above.  You can see an availability calendar here from London on the SWISS website and availability is very good.  All flights require a transfer in Zurich or Geneva.

  • Bangkok £1,250
  • Beijing £1,500
  • Buenos Aires £1,500
  • Dar es Salaam £999
  • Delhi £999
  • Dubai £999
  • Hong Kong £999
  • Johannesburg £1,499
  • Mumbai £999
  • Nairobi £999
  • Sao Paulo £1,499
  • Shanghai £1,350

First Class deals

Lufthansa’s First Class seat may not look so special, but it is a genuinely special experience, especially for lovers of premium lounges, chauffeur driven plane transfers and caviar.

These are the Lufthansa First Class deals per person, based on two travelling – you can check availability online here:

  • Beijing £1,999 (£1,750 from Manchester)
  • Bogota £2,499
  • Buenos Aires £2,499
  • Bengalaru £1,499
  • Delhi £1,499
  • Dubai £1,499
  • Hong Kong £2,499
  • Johannesburg £2,499
  • Nanjing £1,749
  • Sao Paulo £2,500
  • Shanghai £1,749

Here are the SWISS First Class deals – see London departures on the SWISS website here:

  • Bangkok £2,999
  • Beijing £1,999
  • Buenos Aires £2,499
  • Dar es Salaam £1,499
  • Delhi £1,499
  • Dubai £1,499
  • Hong Kong £2,499
  • Johannesburg £2,499
  • Mumbai £1,499
  • Nairobi £1,499
  • Sao Paulo £2,499
  • Shanghai £1,749

Here are the rules:

  • Book by 19th May via the special links
  • Two people must travel together
  • Travel at ANY point – subject to availability – from 1st June 2019 until 30th March 2020 (until 14th February 2020 for China)
  • Must stay for six days, including a Saturday night, and the maximum stay is three months

Lufthansa is, perhaps, the most civilised First Class experience there is.   Here is the review of my Lufthansa First Class flight from 2017.  And, of course, the First Class Terminal – yes, a whole terminal – in Frankfurt where you get driven to the steps of your plane is something everyone should try once.

SWISS offers an excellent First Class and Business Class service.   We are NOT talking Emirates or Etihad style private suites, by any means, but you get a good quality seat, good food and drink and a very attentive crew.  It is a very civilised experience.

I flew SWISS First Class again last year, although I didn’t review it for the site, and it was as impressive as usual, albeit I put it a notch below Lufthansa First Class as the food is not as outstanding.  I also flew in SWISS Business Class to Dubai last October with my family and it was similarly good, although the seats are showing their age a bit.  Here is an older review of SWISS First Class I did.

SWISS and Lufthansa are both part of Lufthansa’s Miles & More loyalty scheme, although you can of course credit your flight to any other Star Alliance programme.

How to book

For SWISS, you can book here.

For Lufthansa:

all of the Business Class deals for London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester can be found here

and all of the First Class deals are here

If you are looking for the best credit card to pay with, American Express Preferred Rewards Gold offers double points on airline spend.  This means that you would earn 2 Membership Rewards points per £1 spent.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

There are some genuinely excellent deals here especially if you live outside London and especially because of the long travel period.  Take a serious look.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

Lufthansa and Miles & More

Comments (157)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ian says:
    1 May1 May 05:39

    OT – as no bits. Our flight from Narita to London – was BA First on a 2-4-1 voucher. BA have rebooked is in JAL business 14 hours later.

    We’d planned to go to the CCR in London before a flight to Dublin (which BA at least kindly rebooked, it’s on a separate ticket). We got the boarding passes for the original First flight before it was cancelled. Does anyone know if we’ll have any luck getting in now?

    Thanks in advance for any replies!

    • Ian says:
      1 May1 May 05:41

      Sorry. The BA flight from Narita was cancelled.

      • Lady London says:
        1 May1 May 21:12

        And I think the CCR Lounge Dragons will know it.
        If I were you, I’d ask BA now to kindly provide lounge passes that you will be able to use to get into the CCR a would have been provided for with your First ticket.

        Unless, of course, you think that would be a bit rude to do to BA, since you really really are going to follow Shoestring’s advice (aren’t you?) and start totting up the rather nice compensation EU261 lets you claim for the drop in class off BA, even if you have to do a moneyclaim if they don’t cough up on your first 3 pieces of correspondence with them about it.

        • Lady London says:
          1 May1 May 21:17

          *And lastly, I am sure it was a complete accident and obviously you were definitely not targeted to be downgraded to Business rather than offered an alternative flight by BA in First. Even though you mentioned you purchased your flights using a 2-4-1 voucher. And perhaps you purchased your tickets using avios? Nope, it’s clear that you definitely were not targeted to receive a Business offer instead of the First tickets you had purchased. Definitely not targeted. Not due in any way to the 2-4-1, how could anyone imagine this?
          .

    • Dave says:
      1 May1 May 07:49

      Should be ok. Anytime I’ve connect to a short haul flight they just had a look at the boarding pass

    • Lady London says:
      1 May1 May 21:03

      What compensation did you get for the drop in Class? Doesn’t EU261 have something for that?

      • Shoestring says:
        1 May1 May 21:07

        Involuntary downgrade – very nice compensation for that, worth researching your position on the BA Compo thread on Flyertalk but you might end up smiling (Ian) – compo can be generous here.

        As for the old boarding passes – won’t somebody ask you why you’re turning up to the CCR lounge 14 hrs later than expected? Probably easy enough to have a story ready 🙂

        • Shoestring says:
          1 May1 May 21:12

          The problem here is that BA will argue that you accepted an alternative flight therefore it wasn’t a downgrade – after all, you *could* have insisted on travelling in First and waited a couple of days until a seat became available. Therefore their offer to you is likely to be substantially less than 75% of the original fare for that leg. But I think on that Flyertalk thread, people have successfully received compo in your position.

      • Lady London says:
        1 May1 May 21:27

        Airline is supposed to make you aware of your rights and I;m sure they didn’t. The onus was on them to do it. Flyertalk thread will show some of this as you say @Shoestring

        Also if you paid for your 2-4-1 ticket with avios then I believe there is something newish about the value being computed as the cash value the seat were selling for on the day? Given what looks to be happening with avios, I’d definitely want the cash value back (75% as it looks?) and not want to have to take it in avios. And that’s for both of you remember. Because you would have had to pay cash for the second ticket, to replace it, so any compos claim for each traveller no matter how the ticket was paid.

    • Lady London says:
      1 May1 May 21:20

      * PPPS if they rebooked you with less than either 7 days or 14 days notice (I think it’s 14) and you arrive more than, I think, 5 hours later on that length of flight, there is furrther compensation payable to you under EU261.

      If your head hurts totting up what is there for you to claim due to your downgrade in class, which personally I would find very disappointing, as well as the above then you can engage a specialist like Bott & Co to do it all for you in exchange for a % of the results.

    • Ian says:
      3 May3 May 09:13

      Thank you guys for your very helpful responses! The lady at the CCR entrance understood the situation and granted us access with no argument.

      With regards to compensation, I’ll investigate all of your advice and report back with what BA says.

      Thanks!

  • Boi says:
    1 May1 May 07:30

    I am so waiting for sales for north america. Any of those around?

  • meta says:
    1 May1 May 07:50

    Why ASA? Simple S75 claim on your credit card would do.

    • Dave H says:
      1 May1 May 07:56

      Basically due to the responses I received when I pointed out their incorrect wording.

    • Lady London says:
      1 May1 May 21:04

      Do both.

  • Mark says:
    1 May1 May 08:05

    I can’t get the fares for any days but see the following error message

    The offer you have requested is not available. (95955)

  • Jackie says:
    1 May1 May 09:16

    SWISS availability calendar links not working for me

  • Roger* says:
    1 May1 May 10:43

    The limo service is available for pax booking F and A fares. This offer would normally end up in P so wouldn’t qualify for the limo.

    • MKB says:
      1 May1 May 12:59

      My LX booking yesterday went into J class on the short haul and A class on the long haul.

      • MKB says:
        1 May1 May 13:02

        … in fact, P on LX appears to be a business class rather than first.

    • Dave H says:
      1 May1 May 18:36

      I used the last offer for travel in March, the Man-Zur flight was business but I still qualified for the limo service as I was connecting to a first flight in Zur

    • Roger* says:
      1 May1 May 22:12

      Apologies for incorrect info.

      In one of several browser pages open, I found a fare using P (biz) outbound and A (first) back.. The fare was £2035, This included a 1-night stay/transfer in ZRH outbound. Not the same thing, but could be useful for us.

  • Christian says:
    1 May1 May 11:35

    I cannot access the SWISS site as it tells me that

    The offer you have requested is not available (95955)

  • Gavin says:
    1 May1 May 13:35

    Any thoughts on the best place to credit the LX business fare (P) to for a return to HKG? I’ve put in my Lifemiles account number for the moment. I don’t have SA status or points with anyone, and am unlikely to fly enough on SA to gain status.

    • MKB says:
      1 May1 May 14:21

      https://www.wheretocredit.com/swiss/p

      • Joseph Heenan says:
        2 May2 May 11:08

        Thanks MKB! I’m doing the same business class LX (P) return to HKG to Gavin.

        My wife has some mileage in ANA I believe so that’s probably the place to credit for her.

        I’m still clueless where to credit mine – I only have status/miles in BA & KLM at the moment and can’t imagine I’m going to fly star alliance again in the next year or two. I’m guessing a return business class flight isn’t enough to gain status anywhere, do any of the schemes have good ways to use the relatively small number of miles that I’ll generate? Any guidance from the experts most welcome!

        • Gavin says:
          3 May3 May 14:30

          Thanks for the link MKB.

          Joseph – I came to the conclusion that Lifemiles will probably be best for myself and my girlfriend. Last year they ran a promotion where you could transfer miles to someone else and get a bonus which worked out equivalent to buying miles at about 0.9p per mile. If they do that again we can consolidate our miles into one account. They also run regular promotions for buying miles. So I reckon there will be an opportunity to use them at some point (perhaps after a top-up) rather than letting them go to waste. There’s lots of info about Lifemiles on OMAAT.

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