AMAZING FARE: How to Book New York or Boston – Europe for Less Than $340 Roundtrip

Via SecretFlying you can book New York or Boston to several cities in Europe and return from Lisbon for as low as $308 roundtrip.

The fare appears to be available for September through November travel.

  • Book from Boston or New York to Berlin, Venice, Paris, Madrid or Barcelona
  • Travel is on Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal
  • Use multi-city search. Return from Lisbon to either Montreal or Toronto
  • You can route back to Canada via New York or Boston and get off the plane there, throwing away the Canada segment.


    Las Ramblas in Barcelona


    Roses, Spain about Two Hours Outside Barcelona

Here’s an example, New York to Venice and back to New York from Lisbon:

This will be bookable through most online systems, such as Orbitz, since it comes up using ITA Software searches.

It’s even possible to check bags, since when you arrive back in New York or Boston you have to claim your bags and walk them through customs before dropping your bags back off for the flight to Canada. Instead of dropping off your bags, you just leave the airport in New York or Boston. That’s called ‘Throwaway Ticketing’ and the New York Times Ethicist column says it’s ethical.

Here’s another example, Boston to Madrid and back to Boston from Lisbon:

Taking a look at the fare breakdown, it appears what is happening here is that flying TAP Air Portugal back to Canada drops the fuel surcharge out of the fare. (See: Explaining the Mystery Surrounding Fuel Dumps)

You want to make sure, on the return, that you book a connection back through your original departure city!

In any case don’t buy other non-refundable travel based on these tickets for a few days to make sure TAP Air Portugal honors the sale.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Secret Flying have found New York or Boston to London, returning from Lisbon for an amazing $268

  2. Don’t forget the biggest caveat with this type of fare game: the airline can change the return segment(s) at anytime as long as the destination remains the same – leaving you out of $$$ trying to find a way back home.

  3. @Dale sry but that’s bullshit. The airline is allowed to do a schedule change and slightly change the times but as soon as they change the routing, flights, number of stops, too extreme departure time change you are entitled to a free itinerary change.
    I’ve done this many times for myself and my clients without any problem whatsoever, even getting rebooked in a higher ticket fare is no problem

  4. @Dale Keep in mind that TAP does not fly to Canada direct (they use star alliance partner Air Canada) so any itinerary change to N.America would still be connecting in the USA

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