Zurich on points and miles
This post provides the details on how we went to Zurich on points and miles over Labor Day weekend.
Switzerland is largely regarded as one of the most expensive countries in Europe. And its largest city, Zurich, is no exception. When we identified Zurich as one of the next destinations we wanted to visit, we knew we were in for an expensive trip. Since we also wanted to visit over Labor Day to take advantage of the day off work and not have to use extra PTO, that also meant we wouldn’t benefit from shoulder season pricing. Depending on where you look, shoulder season in Switzerland ranges from March – May and mid-September to November.
Enter the wonderful world of points and miles. Thanks to our selected redemptions, we were able to save more than $16,000 on our flights to & from Zurich and our hotel for six nights. That’s our largest redemption to date, passing the $11,500 we saved when we went to Portugal and Spain using points and miles last fall. Here’s how we went to Zurich on points and miles.
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Zurich on points and miles: Getting there – flying from Chicago to Zurich
As I’ve mentioned before, we fly United more often than not. With a direct flight option from Chicago to Zurich, we did limit our search to only United flights. Could we have found a “better” redemption on another airline? Based on what I’ve seen on social media, there’s definitely a good chance! When redeeming points, however, we don’t focus on cents per point in terms of the value. For us, the value comes from being able to take a trip for significantly less than what we would have paid in cash (credit card).
We ultimately landed on a United flight that departed O’Hare at 3:50 p.m., set to arrive in Zurich at 7:45 a.m. local time. Since we now travel with a baby, we used our points on United Economy Premium Plus seats. The space was also optimal for getting a bassinet for our baby so we could have our arms free for some periods during the overnight flight.
United Economy Premium Plus seats are larger with extra legroom. They are located in a semi-private area of the plane and receive free beer, wine, and spirits. We already have elevated United status thanks to our frequent travel, but anyone flying Premium Plus gets additional benefits. These include two free checked bags, priority check-in and boarding, exclusive security lanes, and priority baggage handling.
With all the upgrades these seats come with, each seat would have been $4,217.00. That’s $8,434 for the two of us. We definitely don’t have that kind of money to spend on airline tickets, so this was a great way to use miles!
According to the Points Guy’s calculator, we saved $2,759 by using miles instead of paying with cash.
Zurich on points and miles: Where we stayed
Similar to our United loyalty, we also stay at Marriott hotels more often than not. Because we’re hoping to retain some status with Marriott this year and haven’t traveled as much as last year, we focused our redemption on Marriott hotels in Zurich. European hotels have occupancy limits, and since we are now 3 travelers instead of 2, that changes the hotels we can stay at. Even if your third person is a baby, not all rooms are available to you.
Although we don’t focus on cents per point, we do want to maximize our points where possible. We ended up staying north of the center of Zurich at the Courtyard Zurich North. There were hotels that were more centrally located, like the Zurich Marriott, but it was nearly twice as many points as the Courtyard. The Courtyard was located just near the Oerlikon station and it was easy to get around the city on Zurich’s robust public transit system.
To maximize our points, we took advantage of Marriott’s Stay for Five, Pay for Four deal. For every five nights stayed on points, you get the lowest-cost point night for free. We booked for six nights and saved $1,740.48 on the hotel.
Getting home – flying from Zurich to Chicago
We again opted to fly United home from Zurich. P2’s United Club Infinite card got us access to the Swiss Airlines Spectator lounge in the Zurich airport. We booked the same United Economy Premium Plus seats on the way back to Chicago. The seats were priced at $2,993.00 each for the flight from Zurich (ZRH) to Chicago (ORD). Using miles to pay for two seats meant we saved $5,986.00 on just our return flight to the United States.
Summary
If you’ve been adding up the numbers, by going to Zurich on points and miles, we saved $16,160.48. That number is simply not in our budget to spend in cash, so we are grateful we’ve been able to use points and miles to have experiences like this one.
If you’re interested in reading more about our points and miles redemptions, here are just a few options:
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