Fly to Sydney or Melbourne in Lufthansa or SWISS business class for £1,600 when two travel

We have made quite a bit of fuss over the £205 Qantas economy flights to Sydney this week, with the last batch of seats released at noon on Friday.  To be honest, this was a bit of a PR ‘thing’ for us – we are fully aware that most of our readers would rather poke themselves in the face with a sharp stick than fly to Australia in Economy, however cheap.  (That said, Rhys bought two ….)

For those people, there is a good Lufthansa / SWISS offer available.

Lufthansa and SWISS are offering some great ‘2 for 1’ deals out of Stockholm to Australia at the moment.

For clarity, these deals are available in both Business Class and First Class, and to a wide variety of destinations across Asia, Africa and North America.

Here, for example, is two people to Shanghai in Business Class:

You’re paying SEK 26,402 for two people, which comes to almost exactly £1,000 each.

It is worth having a poke around on the Lufthansa website here or the SWISS website here.  You MUST search for 2 people to see the deals.

Before you book, however, note the PS. below about Air China’s Black Friday sale next week.

I also strongly recommend you visit the Qatar Airways site here and compare prices for the same dates to Australia.  If you’re lucky, Qatar Airways will have sub-£2000 fares which would also get you Avios and BA tier points.

You will need to mess around a bit to find the fares as availability is patchy.

It is there though.  Take a look at this which I found on Friday morning (click to enlarge):

You are flying a mix of SWISS and Singapore Airlines Business Class, which is not a bad result.

The price is SEK 40,298 for two people.  This works out at £1,628 per person return.

The fare rules are:

• Book by 2nd December 2019
• Travel by 30th September 2020
• No stopovers are allowed

Melbourne is also available at the same price.  I can’t pull up the blackout dates but you should assume the best availability will be into 2020.

You can see our review of SWISS business class here, Lufthansa business class review here and our review of First Class on Lufthansa as well as a review of SWISS First Class, too.  You should trust us that Singapore Airlines business class is great.

You can’t earn Avios from these flights as both airlines are in Star Alliance, not oneworld.  Our article on how to earn Star Alliance miles from credit cards will give you a few tips on topping up what you will earn.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

You can book via Lufthansa here or SWISS here.

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How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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