Just found out that Edelweiss is offering direct flights to Seattle starting in June 2025.
I know there used to be quite a few people from that corner of the world.
https://www.flyedelweiss.com/ch/en/fly/flight-information/timetable.html?destination=SEA
Seasonal service June to September. One idea is to fly in to SEA and back from Vancouver or Calgary. The rail journey Seattle - Vancouver can be spectacular* but slow, as can the trip through the rockies to Calgary. Many options including luxury (and non-luxury) trains, organised tours etc.
Be careful though, none of edelweiss’ flights are daily.
Flights are codeshared with Swiss so you can book connecting flights from Geneva using them.
*Depending very much on the weather
You can book connecting flights from Geneva with Swiss, which might make things easier.
I’ve been flying with Icelandic because of the short layovers and affordable fares but Condor (which flies out of Frankfurt) is often even cheaper.
Really? Just checked some random days for next summer on Skyscanner. Seattle direct is 930 return while cheapest is 630 but has 19 hrs layover in Keflavik … which means you need a hotel room.
I’ve had around one hour layovers in Iceland so far, which includes last summer.
You are right. I see 730 for a 2hrs layover now.
I checked yesterday with Edelweiss and found just over 700 return for a flight in June.
That is cheaper than an Easy Jet return flight to London Gatwick in October this year (admittedly with a much shorted booking time frame).
The way I used to fly to Seattle there was via Heathrow or the cheapest once I could find via Heathrow and Cincinnati which was not much fun.
Flights to North America are dirt cheap. We went to US East coast not long ago for 450 per person, Swiss direct from ZRH. The bigger issue are the costs once you are over there 