Fare Alert: Fly Madrid – Chicago Non-Stop In Business Class For Under $1,700

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Iberia A350

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Great Business Class fares between Europe and the US aren’t all that hard to find if you’re flexible with your dates but it’s not often that we get fantastic deals that don’t require a stopover…but that’s exactly what we have here.

Headline Fare Rules

  • Travel permitted Monday through Thursday
  • Reservations needed 90 days before departure
  • A Saturday night stay is required
  • Maximum stay is 12 months
  • 1 stopover allowed in each direction at €75 each

There’s no obvious end date for this fare so it may be around for a while or it may disappear at any time.

Routing & Aircraft

This is a fare for travel on Iberia for departures from Iberia’s home at Madrid Barajas Airport so the routing is a simple one:

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The aircraft being operated on this route is Iberia’s new Airbus A350 (reviewed here) which offers an all aisle access Business Class cabin and pretty decent seating options.

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Iberia A350 Business Class Seat

Fare Availability

You’ll find a few sub $2,000 roundtrip Business Class fares earlier in the year but the truly great deal doesn’t appear until October 2019:

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November shows much better availability than October….

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….but the fare quickly evaporates in early December.

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The great deal is back after the winter Holidays….

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….and goes strong though the end of the current booking period in March:

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Searching & Booking

My suggestion would be to use the ITA Matrix search engine to find fights that work best for you (below is an example showing the search parameters I used for this fare)…..

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…but as Matrix won’t allow you to book the flights you’ll have to head over to Iberia or BA.com to lock in the deal:

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You should also be able to find this fare pretty easily on Google Flights….

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….as well as through most Online Travel Agencies.

Don’t forget that some credit cards (like the Platinum Card from American Express) only offer bonus points when booking directly with an airline.

Where To Credit The Flights

As Iberia and British Airways are a members of the oneworld alliance this fare can be credited to any oneworld loyalty program…but I suspect most readers will be crediting to the British Airways Executive Club or the American Airlines AAdvantage program.

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The number of Avios you’ll earn will depend on your status, but the minimum on offer should be 12,6108. All flyers crediting these flights to BA will earn 280 Tier Points towards BA Executive Club status.

If you decide to credit these flights to American Airlines you’ll earn 2 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) per mile flown – 16,806.

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You’ll earn Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD) based on the distance traveled (approximately 2,100 EQD) and Redeemable Miles (RDM) based on a combination of the distance traveled and your American Airlines status.

If you’re not sure where to credit you flights you should probably check out the wheretocredit website which will give you all the information you need.

Bottom Line

This is a genuinely excellent fare for travel in a very good Business Class cabin with a minimum of hassle (no stopovers) – if I didn’t already have a ton of travel booked for the rest of 2019 I’d be seriously considering this deal.

You can find this fare now on BritishAirways.com