My mom and I traveled to Switzerland on points and miles during the first week of October. This was our first time visiting Switzerland, and let me tell you, the beauty of this country is unmatched! Switzerland has a reputation for being expensive, and while that’s true, redeeming points for our flights (including a business-class flight on the way there) and for some of our hotel nights allowed us to take an affordable trip to Switzerland that would not have been possible otherwise! Here’s how we did it, and how you can do it, too….

 

Flight to Zurich

To get to Switzerland, we positioned from Houston (IAH) to Boston (BOS). While I sometimes pay cash for positioning flights, I was able to score a great deal on our flights through Chase Travel℠. Thanks to the new Points Boost feature, I booked our flights in first class for two cents per point! 

We had over six hours to kill in Boston which meant it was the perfect opportunity to hit up the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club. As a card_name cardholder, I was able to get both of us in for free. I’ll take sipping cocktails and enjoying the club food over sitting in the busy terminal any day!

That evening it was onto the main event—our business-class flight from Boston to Zurich on Swiss Air! I booked this flight via Air Canada Aeroplan to just 60,000 points + $57.17 in taxes and fees each. This is one of the best ways to get to Switzerland on points because both the points cost and the fees are low (especially for business class)! I transferred points from American Express to Air Canada to book our flights. 

 

We were on the older Swiss Air A330 business class. The business class cabin is arranged in an alternating 1-2-1, 2-2-1 pattern. While the hard product was no-frills, the service was excellent and I got a lie-flat bed in the sky for just 60,000 points, so I can’t really complain! After just seven hours, we arrived in Zurich. 

 

 

Lodging in Switzerland

We redeemed a mix of points and cash for our six nights in Switzerland. We spent our first four nights at a hotel in Grindelwald as I wanted to spend most of our time in the Jungfrau region. We stayed in a Junior Suite at Bergwelt Grindelwald, and we loved our stay! The location is fabulous (right in the heart of Grindelwald), and our room had a beautiful view of the Eiger.

 

 

While we paid cash for our stay (I earned 4x points on my stay by charging it to my card_name), right before we left I noticed that this property is available via Points Boost in Chase Travel℠. The points cost will vary depending on time of year you’re visiting, but this is comparable to what you’d spend on a category 7 Hyatt!

 

 

Breakfast is also included for all guests, and given food prices in Switzerland, this actually saved us a lot of money! We would typically fill up at breakfast, grab a snack from a cafe in the afternoon, then pay for dinner out. This really helped us cut down on costs.

If you’re traveling with a family, paying cash or redeeming points for an AirBNB or VRBO might make the most sense as maximum occupancy for standard rooms in Switzerland is two to three people. We absolutely loved staying in Grindelwald as it’s well-connected to most of the main sites via public transportation and offers a lot in terms of grocery stores, restaurants, and cafes. 

After our four nights in Grindelwald, we headed back to Zurich to spend two nights at the Park Hyatt Zurich. I couldn’t travel all the way to Switzerland and NOT stay at the Park Hyatt! This is a category 8 Hyatt property, so standard award nights cost 40,000 points/night. We spent 80,000 Hyatt points + $0 for our two-night stay, and it was worth every single point! I cannot say enough good things about the service at this hotel.

 

 

Because I was traveling with my mom, she was able to transfer half of those points to me via the Hyatt points combining form. With my Hyatt Globalist status, we also received free breakfast at the Park Hyatt’s main restaurant (where we were able to select from the à la carte menu and also had access to the buffet). This hotel would be a great use of a Guest of Honor award as well because of how much you’ll save with the complimentary breakfast alone!

I would not hesitate to return to either of these properties, and being able to offset some of the cost with points allowed us to put that money toward other expenses like food and transportation!

 

Flight Home

After two nights in Zurich, it was time to head back home to Houston. For our daytime flight home, we flew United economy for just 40,000 miles + $66.61 each. This flight took us all the way from Zurich to Chicago then onto Houston. I looked into upgrading us to business class at check-in, but doing so would have cost $3,000/each, so economy it was! We had a row of two to ourselves, and it was perfectly fine for the ten-hour daytime flight. I transferred points from Chase to United to book these flights (and my mom paid me back in Hyatt points 😉).

 

 

Bottom Line

We absolutely loved Switzerland. While it’s an expensive country, points and miles made it totally doable by covering our flights and a couple of our hotel nights. It was also really family-friendly, and I look forward to returning with the rest of the family one day soon (on points and miles, of course)!

 

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