I boarded through door L2 and turned right (sadly) into the massive business class cabin between doors L2 and 元. In general, I should have stayed longer at the Centurion Club as it is a much nicer space and was overcrowded.īoarding began at 7:15pm with First, Business Class, HON Circle and Senators all called together. United is going to repurpose this space and it is now closed, so I will keep my remarks very brief. To start my 3 hr layover, I briefly visited the Amex Centurion Club before making my way to the United club (formerly the Global First Lounge) that was being used by all Star Alliance Gold and Business Class customers while United was building their Polaris lounge that opened in May 2018. I flew down from Seattle on a United flight that I had grouped into my itinerary through Aeroplan. Luckily for me, there were! In general, I find that checking seat maps, upgrade lists, flight status, and award availability at the 48hr mark often leads to fortuitous changes for the consumer. HOWEVER, I discovered that at 48hrs before departure, Swiss opens up the throne seat selection to all business class customers free of charge as long as there are some left. However, even after booking a business class ticket, you can not select a throne seat without paying $200 for the privilege.ugh.

I was excited about this flight because it was on a less than two year old Swiss 777 with the throne seats. I could have also booked this flight for 70k United miles transferred from Chase, but decided to save my Ultimate Rewards points for another trip.

The Amex points transferred instantly, the SPG points took 72 hrs.

So I began searching for awards to find the best way to get there. Being based in Seattle, the quickest way to get to Europe on a star alliance carrier is with Lufthansa, but I had taken the flight to Frankfurt only four months earlier and decided I wanted to try something else.Īfter a few days of intermittent searching, I noticed that the Swiss flight from SFO-ZRH was frequently available on Mondays and Thursdays and once I found return flight availability, I booked a ticket using 55,000 Aeroplan miles that I had transferred from Amex and SPG. I had visited Stockholm in May 2017, but when my buddy and his girlfriend moved there in January, I knew that a winter adventure was a must.

American Express Platinum Card (one of my favorite cards in general).

Points accrued primarily from spending and signup bonuses on the following credit cards: Points redeemed for this flight (North America to Europe ): 55,000 Aeroplan miles, transferred from American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred guest. Follow me on Instagram to see more details about these flights and trips

Swiss air b777 300er business class