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London is one of the most expensive departure points in Europe so when a good Business Class fare comes along it’s worth sitting up and paying attention and when an excellent Business Class fare comes along you’d better have a good excuse not to book it 🙂
Right now there are some fantastic Business Class fares being offered by TAP Portugal for travel between London and New York/Boston that really deserve consideration.
Yes, TAP isn’t exactly the first name that trips off the tongue when talking about high-end Business Class cabins (and I’ve heard the flight attendants can be a bit moody) but the offering is still considerably better than the Economy or Premium Economy cabins you’ll find else where.
Note: There are a few other “good” Business Class fares on offer between London and the East Coast but, as they’re not nearly as good as the TAP fares, I’ll touch on those later.
TAP Portugal Business Class Fares
The very best fares are open to those who don’t mind having an overnight stop in Lisbon on the outbound flight (and possibly a long stop on the inbound flight) and these come in at well under $1,500 round trip.
I managed to reproduce this fare on Orbitz using the multi-city tool and you should be aware that you probably won’t see these fares if you simply enter your starting point and ending point and a standard roundtrip booking.
For those of you who’d rather get to the east coast as quickly as possible there’s a small premium to pay:
At only a little over $1,650 this would be a fantastic transatlantic Business Class fare out of most European cities but the fact that its available out of London makes it that much more special.
The fares above show fares to New York but the Boston fares look very similar:
As far as I can tell these fares are available throughout 2019 so finding dates that work for you shouldn’t be too challenging.
Here’s some example availability:
January
April
July
September
As you may have already noticed, some months offer even lower fares (for travel without layovers) than the ones I highlighted towards the start of this post.
Where To Credit The Flights
Most readers won’t be big TAP Portugal flyers so you’ll need to know where to credit the miles/points from these flights.
The best tool to use is the Wheretocredit tool but, just in case you can’t be bothered to click through, here are a few examples of where to post your flights:
- Aeroplan – 200% of distance flown
- Emirates Skywards – 150% of distance flown
- Miles & More – 200% of distance flown
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – 150% of distance flown
- United MileagePlus – 125% of distance flown
I would credit to Aeroplan or Singapore Airlines but those are personal choices.
Other Good Business Class Fares
You’ll find Delta offering roundtrip Business Class fares to New York at around $1,855 (the flights are operated by Virgin):
Fares available at various times of the year through 2019
Oneworld fans will be glad to hear that in some months of the year (notably September 2019) American Airlines is matching some of Delta’s fares to the East Coast (although the stay requirements on American’s fares appears to be longer):
Lastly there’s a fare for Miles & More/Star Alliance fans courtesy of Lufthansa:
A stopover in either direction is required in either direction with this fare (just like with the TAP Portugal fares posted above) so this makes this the least enticing of the fares I’ve noticed.
personally I’d book the TAP Portugal fare (one without a long stop over) and enjoy a new experience but I’m going to guess that a lot of readers will want to earn credit towards oneworld status and so will choose the American Airlines option.
What fare would you choose?
