New York: £999/€1,185 in TAP’s Business Class from London

Star Alliance carrier TAP Air Portugal celebrates Valentine’s Day with £999 (~€1,158) tickets between both major London and New York airports. This fare includes priority services, two checked bags, lounge access and lie-flat-seats on the long haul flights. The fare is available for departures in March, April and September 2022.

Our availability calendar shows you all possible flight dates at the lowest fare for trips up to 28 days. After selecting an out- and inbound flight date, it forwards you to TAP’s website.

All itineraries require a change of planes in Lisbon. The short haul flights are almost exclusively Airbus A320 services with TAP’s European business class (you might catch the occasional A321LR, if you’re lucky). From Lisbon onwards, you will experience TAP’s newest business class product with lie-flat-seats in their brand new A321LR or Airbus A330-900NEO fleet.

Thanks to our reader Gordon who gave us notice via Report a Deal!

Search & Book

According to TAP’s promotional page the offer is valid until February 14, 2022 for flights before September 30, 2022. In reality, there are almost no availabilities from May through August 2022, as you can see above.

If you are looking for additional flight dates or a longer travel period, Google Flights is your best friend. We recommend purchasing premium tickets on TAP’s website, though you might find cheaper tickets from OTAs in our flight search.

Why is booking with an airline better than with an online travel agency?

More often than not, online travel agencies offer lower fares than airlines do. We still recommend booking with the airlines directly. There are two main reasons for that:

Better Customer Service
In case any problems like delays, cancellations or missed connections arise, you can communicate directly with the airline. The airline has to take care of you because you have a contract with them.

If a travel agency issues your ticket, you may have to reach out to them first. You also depend on your OTA to forward information like flight changes instead of receiving them directly from the airline. In many cases, you may get a prime exhibition of responsibility shifting rather than problem-solving.

This especially applies to premium tickets. You don’t want to spend more than €1,000 to wind up with some budget OTA’s telephone hotline in case anything goes wrong.

Baggage and Other Fees
Economy fares not including hold luggage are industry standard by now. In most cases, travel agencies charge much higher baggage fees than the airlines themselves. If bags are not included in your fare, airlines are often the cheaper alternative.

This also applies to other things like food services, insurances or priority treatment. In almost all cases, you pay less for additional amenities when booking on the airlines’ website.

Mileage

TAP issues tickets for all flight segments in booking class J. This is quite an attractive booking class for most Star Alliance frequent flyers.

Cover Picture: © TAP Portugal