GREAT FARES: Star Alliance Europe – USA Business Class From $1,598 (Polaris Business Class Available)

a room with rows of seats and monitors

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Some of the Star Alliance airlines are offering some fantastic Business Class deals for travel between Europe and the US right now. As if that wasn’t good enough the really great news is that you don’t have to hurry to book (makes a change this time of year!) and the deals are available for travel deep into 2019.

You Have Been Upgraded has found a number of excellent Business Class fares to the US for departures from some of the more traditional Star Alliance hubs in Europe. The airlines offering these deals are mostly Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines but some of the fares can also be booked through United Airlines (which should help those looking to maximize their Mileage Plus earnings).

The rules for all the fares below show a “book by” date of 31 December 2018 so you have time to think things through….but don’t take too long as these fares are already on the rise.

the inside of an airplane
Image – Lufthansa

Vienna – USA Business Class From $1,705 Round trip

Here are some examples of the destinations you can fly to together with the fares (more are available):

  • Chicago – From $1,723
  • Houston – From $1,772
  • Los Angeles – From $1,775
  • Miami – From $1,723
  • Montreal – From $1,705
  • New York – From $1,723
  • San Diego – From $1,774
  • San Francisco – From $1,775
  • Washington DC – From $1,723

One caveat worth mentioning at this point is that all of these fares require a stay of at least 6 nights.

Availability is phenomenal and you’ll find these fares on offer through September 2019, Here are some examples from Google Flights:

Montreala calendar with numbers and letters

Chicagoa calendar with numbers and a few days

Miamia calendar with numbers and letters

And, just in case we have any doubters out there, here’s an NYC trip priced up on Google Flights (and showing availability through United):

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Most (if not all) of these routings require a short layover somewhere (often in Canada) so I suggest finding the routing that ensures that most of your journey is spent in international Business Class and as little time as possible is spent in short-haul Business Class.


Zurich – USA Business Class From $1,598 Roundtrip

  • Chicago – From $1,616
  • Houston – From $1,666
  • Los Angeles – From $1,666
  • Miami – From $1,616
  • Montreal – From $1,598
  • New York – From $1,616
  • San Diego – From $1,666
  • San Francisco – From $1,666
  • Washington DC – From $1,616

Once again these fares all require a stay of at least 6 nights.

Availability for these fares is just as good as the availability for the fares out of Vienna (here’s Chicago availability for a random 2 month period)….

a calendar with numbers and numbers

…and the fares are very easy to find on Google Flights:

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Some of these fares will require a short layover (so make sure you book the longest possible segments in international Business Class for maximum comfort) but some are non-stop and offer the highly regarded SWISS 777 Business Class cabin.

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SWISS 777-300ER

Note: If you want to book the “throne seats” most flyers will have to pay a surcharge.

As with the ex-Vienna fares there are also other destinations available with these great fares so, if you don’t see the destination you’re looking for above, make sure you do your own search.


Germany – USA Business Class From $1,750 Roundtrip

These fares are available from a variety of departure points including Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin.

  • Chicago – From $1,768
  • Houston – From $1,814
  • Los Angeles – From $1,814
  • Miami – From $1,768
  • Montreal – From $1,750
  • New York – From $1,768
  • San Diego – From $1,814
  • San Francisco – From $1,814
  • Washington DC – From $1,768

These fares all require a 6 night minimum stay but, like the other fares above, they’re available for travel through September 2019.

Here’s availability to Washington DC for example:

a calendar with numbers and letters

These fares may be slightly higher than some of the fares you’ll find out of Zurich and Vienna but some of them have at least 2 advantages:

  • There are a lot more non-stop routings available out of German cities so there’s no need to put up with short-haul Business Class.
  • If you pick your flights carefully you can try out United’s Polaris Business Class cabin.

United operates its true Polaris Business Class cabin on the Frankfurt – San Francisco route which can be booked for $1,814 (make sure you know how to differentiate true Polaris from “fake”Polaris Business Class).

Google Flights shows the 777 on the route….

a screenshot of a computer

…and United.com conforms that it really is United’s best Business Class product that’s being offered:

a diagram of a seat area

If you haven’t tried Polaris Business Class then this could be a very good time to out that right.

Bottom Line

These may not be the very best Business Class fares we’ve seen between Europe and the US (I booked a staggeringly good fare just the other day which was cheaper) but they are still fantastic.

All of these fares are readily available, there are almost no dates in 2019 where the fares aren’t available (at the time of writing) and they allow you to book some very good Business Class seats too – what more could we want? 🙂

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