Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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 American Airlines miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (November 2024)

None of the Star Alliance airlines currently have a UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn Star Alliance miles from a UK credit card

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to over 40 airlines at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 airline miles per £1 spent on the card.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2 : 1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

The Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Comments (156)

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

  • Mikescores says:

    Morning all
    Thanks again Rob – managed to bag three business seats out and three first class back to/from Delhi from London – £1247 each. Don’t know what Swiss is like (see earlier post !!) but at that price ?? Very amused to see economy priced at more than first !!!

  • Joseph Heenan says:

    I managed to get business class returns to Hong Kong (as a way to get to Da Nang in Vietnam) for £2000 total – via Frankfurt on an A340 but given it’s departing from my local airport and similarly priced to economy tickets on my dates I’m not complaining, very good prices. I’d otherwise have done Qatar from Stockholm in their sale, but that was over £1,000 more…

    • Clive says:

      Joseph is this for a holiday? Have you been before? I was looking at Danang as an option too.

      • Leo says:

        Just come back. Anything I can help with? I also went via HKG.

        • Joseph Heenan says:

          Whether it’s a holiday depends who’s asking 😉 A company I work with has offices over there… which I visited for 1 day last year. This trip will be a bit longer than 1 day thankfully!

          Leo, Any hints about Hong Kong? I think I’ll make sure to get at least a day to see Hong Kong on the way back, and I guess it makes sense to do an overnight in Hongkong on the way out so I’ve got a bit of a buffer in cases of delays. I’ve got a lot of IHG points…

          • John says:

            The IC is better than the IC Grand Stanford, but it’s closing for Regent rebrand after Lunar New Year 2020

          • Jon says:

            IC Danang is fantastic (since you mentioned IHG points 🙂

            In HK I actually prefer the Grand Stamford to the main IC, though that may have been because of the construction work that is (or was last time I was there) going on next door to the IC.

      • Clive says:

        Hi Leo,

        Just wondering what it is like as a holiday destination. Good food nightlife any recommendations on hotels?

        Thanks

    • Polly says:

      Very easy hop to Vietnam, we did those routes last year too. Int flight to Han cheap and frequent.

  • Robert Overall says:

    Please confirm that your flights are Abra/atoll members and therefore your flights are covered by their rules.

    Thank you.

    • Lady London says:

      Who?
      Those things normally are relevant to packages (incl flight + hotel, for example).
      This offer is just flights and not by UK airlines (which ABTA and ATOL might be relevant for depending on what they’re offering) – the airlines concerned are based in Switzerland and Germany so not relevant.

  • Optimus Prime says:

    We can’t take advantage of this offer this time but will keep an eye out next year.

    I like that you can depart from LCY. I know this will be a very unpopular choice among fellow readers because of the lack of lounge… but it takes me 30 minutes or less to get there on DLR.

    • Gavin says:

      I’ve booked a return from LCY to HKG. City is closer on the tube/DLR for me vs. LHR and the whole process is much quicker. Lack of lounge is worth it for the speed and convenience! The flights on Swiss cost £1025 each from LCY rather than £999 from LHR.

      • John says:

        I find T2 security speedier and better overall experience than LCY (especially during the LCY morning rush), and the T2 lounges are very good. I’d depart from LHR and return to LCY even if I lived close to LCY, especially due to LCY’s exorbitant departure fees which are the reason for the £26 difference.

        • Mr Entitled says:

          Can the departure fees really be described as exorbitant as a comparable if the difference is just £26?

  • Trevor says:

    Can anyone find dates that show first class Lufthansa to Dubai? I cant find anything other than business cabin.

    • Tom C says:

      Had the same issue – seems they don’t offer it and even if you go through their website on a regular booking, it tries to force you onto Swiss Airlines instead. I ended up booking Swiss, simply as I wanted to get in there before it was gone.

    • XX says:

      Lufthansa don’t have a First class cabin to Dubai..

  • Benylin says:

    OT: Can you top up Revolut directly via Virgin / IHG / Clydesdale bank cards without charge? Also via Curve with these same cards?

  • Urty says:

    Is anybody else failing to find any business class flights to Beirut?

  • Patrycja Coz says:

    I just booked the flights via Opodo, first class Lufthansa out to Delhi and Swiss first class return. From Edinburgh and during New Year (28th of Dec out and back on 10th of Jan). Only £1500 per person. I find that a great offer. Managed to get last two seats and they are now £10k per person.

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

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