There is currently good availability to fly in business class from North America to Europe from a little over $1,100 one-way on TAP Air Portugal, with flights back to the US starting as low as the $600’s on TAP. Prices from less than $440 from London to New York on Royal Air Maroc are showing up on Skyscanner, but I haven’t found any dates that are bookable at that price. These are terrific prices for lie-flat business class — and keep in mind that TAP allows a stopover in Lisbon, so you can spend a few days there if you like.
The Deal
- Cheap business class flights both to and from Europe
- To Europe: Link to Google Flights to search New York to Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm (adjust dates and cities as there are plenty of other possibilities)
- From Europe: Link to Google Flights to search Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm to New York (adjust dates and cities as there are plenty of other possibilities)
Alternatively, you’ll see Skyscanner showing flights on Royal Air Maroc in business class from London to New York from $435, but the price is increasing when I click through. Maybe you’ll have better luck — here’s an example.
Quick Thoughts
Availability on this one is quite good, with flights from New York to Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm from around $1106-$1120 pretty widely available, especially during summer.
Flights back from Europe on TAP start at $648 one way and have similar availability:
Keep in mind that you’ll also earn miles on these paid fares, even if booking with points via something like the Chase portal (which should cost you around 44,000 points if you have the CSR). The last time I flew one of these cheap paid fares from Oslo to Boston on TAP Air Portugal (in late 2017), the fare class I booked earned me just over 11,000 Aeroplan miles. You’ll want to check the earnings for your fare class at wheretocredit.com.
While it’s common to find these great TAP fares from Europe to the US, it is much less common to find this type of pricing originating in the US. View from the Wing points out that the trick is to book as separate one-ways to Europe and then from Europe (round trip pricing is coming up higher than booking separately). Alternatively, book an award ticket one way and a paid ticket the other; there are a lot of possibilities.
I flew TAP Air Portugal’s business class from Oslo to Lisbon (normal regional European style) and then from Lisbon to Boston (in the lie-flat seats pictured above) in late 2017. I thought the new seats were very good. Food, while not outstanding, was surprisingly pretty decent. Service wasn’t amazing, but if you don’t go in with Singapore Airlines expectations, you probably won’t be disappointed. My stopover in Lisbon was great — I’d be happy to go back again for a few days as the food was good and prices in general seemed very reasonable (i.e. cheaper) compared to most Western European cities.
Overall, this is a good opportunity for those looking to fly business class to and from Europe and earn miles for doing so.
H/T: Premium Flights via View from the Wing
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[…] Great business class fares to/from Europe (~$1100 / ~$648) (Can’t believe these are still alive — great prices and still kickin’.) […]
[…] the other day, we wrote about some fantastic fares on TAP Air Portugal. Today, TAP is running an even better deal, albeit limited to bookings made by Sunday for travel […]
Nick – on the return trip, what would be the best way to search out and book a multi-day stopover in LIS and still get this sale price? All the search tools seem to only give you around 24 hours or less there.
I’m mobile at the moment, so I can’t take a look easily, but you should just be able to hit multi-destination with Google flights (or credit card portals). I guess you probably have to stick with flights to and from Lisbon on the days when you see the cheapest prices. For instance, if the cheapest prices are available Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays, I’d say you probably have to fly into Lisbon on one of those days and out of Lisbon on one of those days. For example, fly Oslo to Lisbon on Tuesday. Then fly Lisbon to New York City on Thursday. Or fly Copenhagen to Lisbon on Thursday and then fly Lisbon to New York City the following Wednesday, etc.
[…] There is currently good availability to fly in business class from North America to Europe from a little over $1,100 one-way on TAP Air Portugal, with flights back to the US starting as low as the $600’s on TAP. Prices from less than $440 from London to New York on Royal Air Maroc are showing up on Skyscanner, but I haven’t found any dates that are bookable at that price. These are terrific prices for lie-flat business class — and keep in mind that TAP allows a stopover in Lisbon, so you can spend a few days there if you like. LEARN MORE! […]
What if I book through Chase portal but only have Chase INK? How about Citi Prestige? How many points with that?
Ink and CSP get 1.25cpp in value, so I’d expect about 52K for the $648 flights. Prestige gets the same value until September 2019. I haven’t checked for these flights via all portals, but typically when you see them with OTAs you’ll also find them via credit card portals.
Amex Business Platinum card holders pay just a bit fewer points net after the 35% rebate when using points for business class flights, but keep in mind the annual cap on rebated points and the fact that you need to have more points now and receive the rebate later.
Do you think this valutation is worth it for that amount of points on this airline? I’ve never flown it.
United charges 70K miles each way for business class. American charges 57.5K each way. Neither allows a stopover on a one-way award. Aeroplan charges 55K each way and passes along fuel surcharges on some airlines. For the flights from Europe to the US, you’re talking fewer points than most award tickets — and you earn miles to boot (over 10,000 if credited to Aeroplan, which is most of the miles you’d need for a one-way domestic US flight). I’d say that trading ~50K points for a one-way business class flight from Europe to the US with a stopover in Lisbon + 10K miles (and without the limit of award availability) is a very solid deal.
Is it worth spending 50K one way when you could probably fly 2 people round trip in basic economy for the same number of points? That’s not something I can answer for you — it depends on how you want to travel, how many points you have, how you earned those points, etc. If you’ve earned your 50K at 1 Ultimate Rewards point per dollar, accepting 1.25c per point seems like a poor return for your spend (you’d have been better off with a 2% cash back card, which would have given you $1,000 back — enough to buy that $648 flight and have $350 left over). On the other hand, if you earned that 50K at 5x or via an intro bonus or referrals, you might be satisfied with getting a business class flight for those points and be happy with the joy of free.
If you’re asking me, “Is this business class good enough to justify using the points?”, my answer is I think so. It’s not Singapore business class. It’s not as glitzy as flying the Emirates A380. Ground services, efficiency, and customer service aren’t as good as Lufthansa. Catering isn’t as good as what I’d expect on Turkish (I’ve never flown Turkish, but most seem to agree they have excellent catering). But as far as a seat you’re going to spend 6 or 7 hours in, I think TAP Air Portugal gives you a nice, wide seat that is plenty comfortable with food that is decent and a decent wine selection. I like the seat more than the “honeymoon” style business class seats I’ve had on Lufthansa (where the flat bed seats are angled towards each other) and I actually prefer something forward facing like this over the reverse herringbone seats that most people love. That said, I usually travel with my wife and so direct aisle access from the window seat doesn’t matter to me.
It’s definitely not going to be an award-winning best-ever business class experience, but I found it to be much better than I expected and I’d fly it again. The only drawback for us was that we were bused to the aircraft in Lisbon and we sat stuck in the bus on the runway for what felt like way way too long. A poor older gentleman sitting across from me had the AC dripping on him the entire time and it got pretty ridiculous. It wasn’t an hour or anything, but might have been 15 minutes that we sat there for no clear reason. It definitely wasn’t the end of the world, it was just indicative of the fact that things don’t necessarily run like a well-oiled machine. But would I wait on a bus for 15 minutes to fly in business class for $650 worth of points again? Yeah, I would.
I booked through the chase portal: AA JFK-MAD return flights for mid-June. There were some glitches last night but went through this morning.. The tickets are in my AA account now so I think I will get mileage credit as well.
The only problem is that these are basic economy seats so I may have to pay to choose seats and that is ~100 USD per seat… A bit of a bummer but overall good price.
I think you’re talking about some other deal. This deal is for business class flights on TAP Air Portugal, not basic economy.