Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
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TAP Air Portugal is offering amazing business class fares to Europe through September 2021 at less than $1,000 round trip from many US gateways. That is far less than usual, especially for summertime travel. You can even add in a stopover in Lisbon (which I highly recommend!) without adding additional fare (though you may pay a bit more in taxes). Best of all, you could book these with points through credit card portals and pay less than 70K points round trip and earn a significant number of miles on your flight.
The Deal
- TAP Air Portugal is offering phenomenal business class fares from many US gateways with round trip prices under $1,000 for many city combinations.
- Direct link to search at Google Flights (switch airports as per your preference or enter your home airport and a destination of “Europe” to explore your options)
Quick Thoughts
These prices are amazing. Obviously international travel is still far from recovered, but with the recent announcement that Europe will welcome vaccinated US travelers this summer, I imagine some readers will be interested in planning trips. If you are interested, these fares are unbelievable. TAP Air Portugal isn’t glamorous and service on the ground in Lisbon is slow, but I found their lie-flat transatlantic business class to be as nice as most crossing the pond.
Keep in mind that TAP has drawn a lot of (deserved) criticism over the handling of COVID cancellations (they refused refunds for a long time – I’m not sure whether or how cancellations eventually got resolved with those who had cash bookings that were cancelled).
However, if you are reasonably sure of being able to make a trip, it is hard to ignore these fares given that you can earn miles on the flight. For instance, here is a look at Washington-Dulles (IAD) to London-Gatwick (LGW) from July 7th to 14th:
As you can see, that books into J-class. According to wheretocredit.com, that should earn 200% mileage flown with Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles, which would be more than 18,000 redeemable miles earned in those programs (or credit to programs like Turkish Miles & Smiles for 150% mileage flown — which means more than enough for a one-way domestic business class ticket on United or nearly enough for a domestic economy round trip!). That’s especially awesome considering that you could book that round trip for less than 66K Ultimate Rewards points round trip via Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Those who have the Amex Business Platinum could potentially pay even fewer net points through Amex.
As noted at the top, TAP will allow you to build in a stopover in Lisbon. I visited Lisbon a few years ago and highly recommend it. The city has an old-world rustic feel that I loved. Food was terrific, people were fabulous, and prices where much cheaper than in much of Western Europe. I’d definitely go back.
If you’re considering a trip to Europe this summer, this looks like a great way to get there.
H/T: God Save the Points
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The fare shows up on Google Flights. But when selecting the return flight it jumps up to the current normal fare.
Gone?
Wasn’t TAP the airline with the business class mistake fare about a month ago that they canceled on everyone? This seems like far less of a mistake fare, but I can still attest it was a PITA to get a TAP refund on a flight they canceled.
Yeah TAP is not showing up in Amex portal for me either. I have about 700k Amex I’d like to burn, but not sure why the portal isn’t pulling up any TAP flights, odd.
Not sure. I actually didn’t check Amex earlier when I posted it, just Chase and I saw it was on regular OTAs, so I assumed it must have been on Amex as well. Maybe not.
I saw a handful of options from ORD: CDG, MAD, BCN, VCE, CPH, maybe a couple others. Interesting for sure, but likely a no-go for me as I still have an Oct trip in Biz from the Iberia half-price miles sale from a while ago.
TAP Air isn’t coming up in the airline choices when trying to book through Amex Platinum. But maybe I’m doing something wrong? Also wondering if there is a way to use a TAP voucher when booking through Chase or Amex?
As per the comment about how they handled Covid cancellations, we had Top Executive tickets last year (fully refundable even w/o Covid) and I still had to jump thru hoops to get our refund. Not sure I’d ever give them my business now
Great find! Thanks! Can you explain how to build the stopover in Lisbon on the Chase flight booking website? Thanks.
Instead of searching “round trip”, click the circle next to the words “Multi-city”. Then just put in your city pairs and dates (e.g. IAD-LIS July 7th. LIS-LGW July 11th, LGW-IAD July 14th). Note that after you click “multi-city” and put in the first two flights, you have to click the blue link that says “add another flight” right above the checkboxes that say “nonstop” or “refundable flight”.
Note that those specific dates didn’t price right. Play around with dates on Google Flights until you find the multi-city fare you want as the Google Flights search engine is faster. Then pop those dates into UR.
Nice deal! What is the cancellation policy for booking direct with TAP vs with Chase UR?
I’m not sure how it will work if you’ve booked via Chase.
These are the terms of changes / refunds from TAP Air Portugal’s site when I click on fare rules:
Changes
Any time – charge USD 300.00 or equivalent for reissue/revalidation must be made within 24 hours after change of reservation but not later than departure of the original flight being changed; charge USD 390.00 or equivalent for no-show must be made within 24 hours.
Note – charge USD 300.00 or equivalent before departure of the flight being changed; charge USD 390.00 or equivalent after departure of the flight being changed or no-show.
Fare can be upgraded to any higher fare within same brand or Executive/TOP Executive Brands. In this case, charge fee plus difference to higher fare.
Charge applies per transaction and per ticket holder. Infant free of charge. Child discount does not apply.
Change of origin or destination is not permitted.
When different fares are used in combination, upgrade shall be made to any higher fare on the fare component where the change takes place.
The Ticket/s is/are not transferable. Name changes not allowed.
In case of combination with fares of other airlines, other airlines penalties may be added.
Refund
Before departure – Charge USD250.00 or equivalent for cancel/no-show/refund. Charge applies per ticket holder.
Cancellations rules apply per fare component.
When combining fares charge the sum of the cancellation penalties of all cancelled fare components.
When combining a refundable ticket with a non-refundable ticket, provisions will apply as follows:
– The amount paid on the refundable fare component will be refunded less the penalty amount if applicable.
– The amount paid on the non-refundable fare component will not be refunded.
In case of ticket upgrade the original non-refundable amount remains non-refundable. In case of combination with fares of other airlines, other airlines penalties may be added.
YQ shall be used to cover possible residual amounts resulting from cancellation penalties higher than fare amount.
Any difference between cancellation penalty and the originally paid shall be deducted from YQ amount only residual YQ amount can then be refunded.
After departure – ticket is non-refundable. In case of ticket upgrade the original non-refundable amount remains non-refundable.
Cancellations rules apply per fare component.
When combining fares charge the sum of the cancellation penalties of all cancelled fare components.
When combining a refundable ticket with a non-refundable ticket, provisions will apply as follows:
– The amount paid on the refundable fare component will be refunded less the penalty amount if applicable.
– The amount paid on the non-refundable fare component will not be refunded.
YQ and YR surcharges will not be refunded.
Request for refund within 24 hours is subject to a USD 45,00 fee and the refund will be given in the form of a voucher where the fee will be deducted. The voucher is non-refundable and must be used for the purchase of TAP tickets within one year after its issuance. If the refund is requested within 24 hours after the reservation is completed, but after the departure of the original flight (no-show), the fare rules will apply instead of this fee.
For tickets issued in Israel, a fee of USD30.00 or 5% of the value of the total price ot the ticket (whichever is lower) will be applied if a ticket was issued within 14 days and at least 7 working days prior to the beginning of the travel.
For tickets issued in USA, Canada and Brazil no fee will be applied if ticket was issued at least 7 days before the flight departure.
For tickets issued in USA, request for refund within 24 hours after ticket issuance is not subject to the administrative fee and the full amount will be refunded to form of payment (in voucher only if per passenger request).
For tickets issued in Brazil, the administrative fee will be exempted if the tickets were issued up to 7 days before travel; until 31OCT21, no administrative fee will be applied for tickets issued within 7 days before travel and the voucher must be used within 18 months after its issuance; from 01NOV21, the administrative fee will be charged for tickets issued within 7 days before travel and the voucher must be used within one year from its issuance.
For tickets issued in Canada, no administrative refund fee will be applied if ticket was issued at least 7 days before the flight departure.
So wait, they charge $300 for a change and $250 for a refund? How does that make sense?
It’s not rare for programs to charge nonsensical change and cancellation fees. Avianca used to have the same situation on award tickets where it was far cheaper to cancel than to change. I’m sure some people just don’t even ask how much it is to cancel if what they want to do is change.