SWISS

SWISS is opening the doors to its new First Class lounge at Zurich's Terminal A today and, at the same time, the carrier is launching a new chauffeur service for its First Class customers arriving into Zurich airport.

There are a number of international premium cabin products that are well worth getting excited about. Some offer something reasonably unique (like Etihad's First Class suites), some offer fantastic service (like Cathay Pacific First Class) and some offer a pretty amazing all round experience (like Singapore Airlines Suites Class) but all of these are reasonably accessible to everyone as long as you can pull enough miles/points together for an award.

SWISS has been taking delivery of its nine new 777-300ER aircraft since January 2016 and the airline's flagship aircraft come fitted with one of the more in-demand (but normally expensive to book) premium cabins. Now you can book the Business Class cabin on this aircraft from $265 one way.

SWISS has one of the most highly lauded Business Class products out of any European airline and, right now, there are some fantastic Business Class fares available for travel between Milan and a number of cities in the US. Prices start at around €1,636 for a roundtrip fare and what makes this such a great deal is that, on a number of routes, you can book the airline's new 777-300ER Business Class product.

Airbus A340 aircraft are not exactly the rage nowadays thanks to their inefficient 4-engine setup so it's a little bit surprising to hear of a European airline retrofitting these aircraft with state-of-the-art cabins...but that's exactly what SWISS is doing. What makes it more surprising is that the airline is in the process of phasing out the A340 in favour of the more efficient Boeing 777-300ER.

A round up of some of the recent news stories from the airlines: News of the routes to/from the US that SWISS will operate using its new 777 aircraft, Qantas partnering with AirBnB, and SkyTeam launching a cool new online tool.

In this hobby the primary aim is usually to travel in as much comfort as possible with as little outlay as possible (I even wrote a blog about that very point)....but sometimes it's worth making a small exception to that rule. SWISS has recently introduced fantastic looking Business and First Class products on its new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft (more on those a little later) and it's not often that you see a fare as low as this one that allows you to sample a product that looks this good.

In its latest batch of schedule updates Delta has clearly decided to give Boston a little bit more love. There are two new routes starting up this winter (one is even a short-haul international flight!), an old route is being restarted in the summer and an existing route is seeing frequencies significantly increased.

SWISS has updated its flight schedules this week and the latest changes show good news for travelers to/from Miami and bad news for those flying to/from San Francisco. While the Zurich - Miami route will be getting the airlines new (and amazing looking) 777-300ER aircraft, the airline has pushed back 777-300ER service to/from San Francisco until 2017.

Staring in January 2016 SWISS will take delivery of the first of nine Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with a "state-of-the-art cabin product in all seating classes". That's a big claim to make although, if SWISS' present cabin products are anything to go by, they may well be telling the truth.