First Class has always been about space and privacy. With the SWISS First Grand Suite, Swiss International Air Lines takes the idea one step further: instead of one suite, you book two, together with the aisle between them. More than a year after it was first unveiled, the Grand Suite can now be booked, and it comes at a price that puts it in a class of its own.
Two suites and a private aisle
The SWISS First cabin on the new Airbus A350 has three kinds of suites: the Single Suite by the window, the Suite Plus in the centre of the cabin with its double bed, and, as the top option, the Grand Suite. It combines one Single Suite and the neighbouring Suite Plus, linked by an aisle that is reserved for the guests of the suite alone. Walls of more than 1.8 metres separate the whole area from the rest of the cabin, and only the guests of the suite have access to it.
SWISS aims the suite at business travellers looking for quiet, at couples, at families and at anyone who wants full discretion on board. The Single Suite with its window view works as a dining room or office, while the Suite Plus with its double bed becomes a bedroom or a place to meet. When it unveiled the concept in August 2025, Chief Commercial Officer Heike Birlenbach said guests should have the feeling of their own “loft aloft”. The suite holds up to three travellers.
Where it flies and how to book
The Grand Suite is only available on aircraft with the new SWISS Senses cabin. In the current winter timetable, these are the Airbus A350s on the route from Zurich to Johannesburg and on selected flights from Zurich to Shanghai. Further SWISS Senses aircraft will follow with the refurbished Airbus A330s and later the Boeing 777s. Whether a specific flight has the new cabin is shown during booking.
You cannot simply book the Grand Suite online like any other seat. Guests send a booking request through a dedicated form on swiss.com, and a SWISS customer service consultant then gets in touch to check availability and confirm the booking. The team works Monday to Friday and promises a reply within one working day.
What it costs
For one or two travellers, SWISS charges two full First Class fares plus a surcharge of CHF 3,000 per flight. Three travellers pay two and a half times the full First fare plus the surcharge. Included is a limousine that picks guests up from their home in Switzerland. The booking request has to reach SWISS at least three days before departure. At the launch, SWISS had spoken of a variable price, on average around three times the regular First Class fare. Now there is a fixed formula.
Inside the suite, the SWISS First service is the same as in the rest of the cabin, from the apéro flutes by Confiserie Sprüngli with the welcome drink to the cheese trolley, pyjamas by Zimmerli of Switzerland and skincare by Sisley. On the ground, the journey begins in the SWISS First Lounge in Zurich. We first wrote about SWISS Senses when the new long-haul cabin was presented.
Is it worth it? For a single traveller, hardly. For a couple or a small family who would book two First Class tickets anyway, the Grand Suite turns a flight into something close to a private jet, at a fraction of the price of one.
SWISS First Grand Suite, Airbus A350, Zurich to Johannesburg and Shanghai · swiss.com
Roger Hohl
Roger Hohl has been at the helm of Luxvisor since 2006. From his base in Switzerland he travels to test what the luxury travel industry promises, from the seat at 40,000 feet to the last course of a tasting menu, and writes about it with an independent eye.
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