Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

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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:

SWISS deal to Shanghai

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.

SWISS deals to Sydney

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):

SWISS deal to Sydney

and

SWISS deal to Sydney

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.

Category

Lufthansa and Miles & More

Comments (37)

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

  • Spaghetti Town says:
    22 Nov22 November 11:31

    Rhys bought two – Rhys are you going twice!?

  • Sozzlebury says:
    22 Nov22 November 11:57

    Any advice on a good Star Alliance frequent flyer scheme to join?

    I know Rob likes Lufty’s Miles & More scheme but the poor value redemptions and difficulty earning status on Luftwaffe et al don’t appeal to me.

    Singapore looks quite hard to get status with too(?) Any other suggestions?

    • riku2 says:
      22 Nov22 November 12:32

      TK – two year star gold is easily achieved although LH P class earns zero points which is something to be careful of (these offers are most likely P)

      • ankomonkey says:
        22 Nov22 November 16:30

        But TK miles have a nasty expiry policy – good for status earning, less so if you need to save up for redemptions over a relatively long period.

    • Rob says:
      22 Nov22 November 13:29

      https://headforpoints.com/2019/07/23/what-is-the-best-star-alliance-frequent-flyer-programme-for-you-2/

    • Gavin says:
      22 Nov22 November 17:07

      I did well crediting Swiss J fares to United (in conjunction with a status match). But they’ve changed their scheme for the worse recently and partner awards no longer price by chart.

    • Alan says:
      22 Nov22 November 18:40

      I go with United due to lack to punitive expiry policy and was easy to pick up a big chunk via SPG/Marriott.

      • Harry T says:
        22 Nov22 November 19:12

        Any good sweet spots with United?

      • Lyn says:
        22 Nov22 November 19:28

        Pros for United – miles no longer expire, so no need to keep track and top up + slightly preferential rate for SPG/Marriott transfers compared to other airlines (they offer occasional bonuses on transfers).

        Cons – they seem to have abandoned award charts

    • nebojsa says:
      22 Nov22 November 22:35

      Asiana: 40k in 24 months to get gold.
      Aegean: If you book the Swiss itinerary in Rob’s example and take a weekend break in Athens with Aegean BEFORE the trip to Sydney you will be silver when you get to Oz. With the return mileage to Stockholm you will only need extra 12k star alliance miles + 4 Aegean flights to become gold with 12 months to achieve it.

  • JeffStrongman says:
    22 Nov22 November 12:06

    13 hr layover in ZRH if I book with Swiss can I leave airport to go to a hotel and come back in the morning. Also are there only London flights to ARN? Trying to get my parents over to Oz and as they are 79 and 75 was trying to make it as easy as possible but also get business deal!

    • marcw says:
      22 Nov22 November 12:24

      Yes, you can leave the airport. If you type in Google “flight time from LHR to ARN” it will show you all non-stop flights.

      • JeffStrongman says:
        22 Nov22 November 12:47

        Thanks marcw I see they have a transit hotel that should be ok. I wanted flights from the north preferably MAN. Can only see routing via Germany with Lufthansa makes it 6 hours just to reach ARN

        • marcw says:
          22 Nov22 November 13:28

          Sorry, miss-read your “flights not from London”. Norwegian and SAS fly MAN-ARN

    • Lady London says:
      22 Nov22 November 13:01

      I would do ZRH. It’s a smallish well organised airport with ready quick access to a number of hotels.
      Put it this way, I’d sooner have my parents change in Zurich, than in London Heathrow.

      In J I would pick LX or LH and both far ahead of, say, CA.

    • F1Flyer says:
      23 Nov23 November 05:39

      I’m doing exactly the same! They’re both 74 and leaving from GLA/EDI. They are happy to travel anytime from June through September 2020. Did you find anything?

      • JeffStrongman says:
        1 Dec1 December 06:24

        £3300 rtn for 2 business ARN-SYD booked after reviewing all other Black Friday offers depart mid September rtn mid November. Sending my son home for 5 days to chaperone them on the trip over(night in Radisson Zürich Airport to boot) he is in economy but at 21 I wasn’t flying economy!! Still struggling at 47. They get Singapore business seats so should be pleasurable flights and plenty of chance to nap. Night in Stockholm hotel on way home also.

  • Anna says:
    22 Nov22 November 13:26

    Rather OT but airfares – someone put an article on FT about the state of her premium economy BA seat from NYC to London – which she had paid £4700 for! I presume this was for 2 passengers but she really needs to start reading HFP before she books any more flights.

    • Ben says:
      22 Nov22 November 15:37

      To be fair I believe it was CW on the way back and for 2 people but still very expensive

      • TGLoyalty says:
        23 Nov23 November 16:14

        Bonkers. 4 adults return to NYC for just over £4K total in September.

        Ofcourse sometimes you have to fly but I still wouldn’t pay that for PE out and CW back.

        Or perhaps quoting the prices their company paid for flexible tickets

    • Lady London says:
      22 Nov22 November 20:02

      🙂

  • The Savage Squirrel says:
    22 Nov22 November 13:49

    Sort of on-topic as we’re discussing cheap fares from Sweden to Aus, but I wouldn’t even think about this without first comparing the fares from Gothenburg and Stockholm to Aus on Qatar – not evevn sure they’re special fares as availability of dates was basically whenever you want in the next 6 months for the route I was looking at. Just booked £1700/person to Aus even though it was around presumably popular Easter hols dates. That”s with one less flight leg, ideal flight timings and sensible layover times (3 hours, not 13!). Plus the Avios, tier points and product will all tempt some…

    • babyg says:
      22 Nov22 November 19:10

      I booked similar Qatar goodness (£1900) ARN-MEL return AKL-ARN… wanted to go to AKL, but also wanted to try the A380 and bar before they retire…

      Qatar will interline your baggage to BA, but not vice versa… meh

      You can do ARN-MEL MEL-LHR for about £1800 on air china…. these fares have been around for months….

  • Alan says:
    22 Nov22 November 18:39

    Damn, good price but yet again only for two :'(

    Off to Oz again in Feb but looks like SQ Biz at 232k KF miles the best option, this would have been a good alternative.

    • Harry T says:
      22 Nov22 November 19:13

      It was 95k one way last time I redeemed on SQ to Australia – has there been a devaluation?

  • David says:
    22 Nov22 November 20:54

    Slightly on / off topic and possibly a bit of an open ended question however looking for some advice – planning to go to Aus over Xmas / NY 2020, went same time period in 2018 in economy which was pretty horrific so would be really keen to fly business this time.

    Appreciate this is peak time to Aus however does anyone have any recommendations on how / when best to pick up a reasonably priced J flight over this time period? Never done ex-EU but would probably consider it if it was a great deal. Don’t think I would want to pay any more than c£2k.

    Relatively new to this game however may have the Avios available and a 241 to at least make it to HK / SIN with BA.

    A bit open ended as I said but any advice would be welcome!

    • John says:
      23 Nov23 November 05:57

      You can always do J to HKG/SIN then Y (or PE) to Australia if nothing comes up. HKG/SIN to Australia is only 8 or 9 hours depending on city so more doable in Y

    • Polly says:
      23 Nov23 November 06:00

      Would def look at Qatar ex eu for that trip. Sin route v busy, and qr j way more comfy and spacious. No climbing over pax beside you. Plus for around 100 extra you can probably route bk to Lon from doha direct. Save you another stop on way home.

  • Benilyn says:
    22 Nov22 November 21:34

    OT: off abroad, Curve Blue charges after £200 ATM withdrawal abroad right? There’s no glitch?

    Revolut Metal gives me £400 a month.
    Starling £200 a day.

    I keep forgetting to apply for that Barclaycard free withdrawal abroad!!!

    • John says:
      23 Nov23 November 05:55

      Not been charged when going over £200 on curve blue, but I don’t try to push the limit every month.

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