It is this Sunday, March 27, 2016 that Swiss replaces the usual A330 with a brand new B777 on the Montreal-Zurich route for the entire summer period.

A new aircraft for Swiss from Montreal

A large number of spotter will be present at the threshold of Montreal Trudeau airport to welcome this new aircraft.

Swiss is one of my favorite airlines to fly from Montreal to Europe.

Not only can I use my Aeroplan miles (60,000 miles in economy, 110,000 miles in business) but, above all, very few taxes are added to the award ticket. Even my daughter is a fan of the Swiss business class seats!

The service on board has always been excellent and I look forward to boarding this new aircraft in July.

I had indeed booked my airfare before the December 15 devaluation (one-way business class from 45,000 to 55,000 Aeroplan miles).

45,000 Aeroplan miles and $79… a real bargain for business class travel to Europe on this B777!

New aircraft means new seats and a new cabin!

Here are several views of the new business class:

And the economy class:

Aeroplan ticket availability on Swiss

I won’t hide it from you: it’s better to get award tickets on Swiss via Aeroplan well in advance. These tend to leave very quickly, as Swiss is one of the only airlines to Europe that does not charge an air surcharge.

I took a look at the availability, as of March 26, 2016, for May 2016 – with the chrome Award.flights plug-in – and there is still room on some dates. Mostly in economics (Y), rarely in business (J).

This is for the Montreal-Zurich flight LX87:

And for the Zurich-Montreal LX86 return:

Here is the confirmation of the fare on Aeroplan for a return trip in economy: 60,000 Aeroplan miles and $104

How to get Aeroplan miles easily? I’ll let you check out the Aeroplan Mileage Bonuses for credit cards!

Bonus: great videos from Swiss

Swiss produces high quality promotional content. I let you enjoy these three videos:

Who is behind Swiss?

The arrival of the B777-300ER in the Swiss fleet

The special livery of the B777-300ER dedicated to Swiss personnel

One of my favorite videos. And I hope to see this livery in Montreal!

The Montreal Spotter Community

Did you know that there is a very large community of spotter – or aircraft spotters – in Montreal who are all passionate about aviation?

It is a very active community, spread over two facebook groups:

1. 55th Avenue – Montreal Spotlight: everything related to Montreal
2. 55th Avenue – UNICOM: everything related to aeronautics outside Montreal

A community website presents the different observation posts around the runways of the Montreal Airport.