Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal is selling business class roundtrips from New York JFK and Newark to Vienna starting at $1918, with other European destinations – like Zurich, Nice and Frankfurt – $100 to $200 more.
You’ll pay a little over $2000 booking direct through TAP, but if you search SkyScanner they’ll offer online travel agencies selling it for $100 less.
Online Travel Agency Price
Book Direct Price
Interestingly the actual fare is just $178 each way for business class – the total cost is almost entirely comprised of fuel surcharges.
Key details of fare basis JUSEXI8E:
- Saturday night or 5 day minimum stay required
- 1 free stopover in lisbon
- Must complete travel before December 14
- Purchase tickets by April 14 (though the fare could be pulled before then)
- $250 refund fee prior to departure, $300 change fee
TAP J fares earn 200% of flown miles with Air Canada Aeroplan, Lufthansa Miles & More, and Avianca LifeMiles, and 125% of flown miles crediting to United MileagePlus.
(HT: Premium Flights)
Nice find. A lot of people like to complain about TAP, but not sure why. For leisure travel their offering is quite nice – the A321neo seats are basically Jetblue Mint on flights that aren’t much longer than transcons, transiting LIS is not the most efficient in the world and is *fine*, and the stopovers are great. All at quite a discount to other legacies / flag carriers. No complaints here.
CW, I’ll tell you why. A colleague who lives in Europe was flying to Lisbon. This was a short-hop and the fare was $200. She received an email stating that TAP has re-booked her on a different flight. The original flight was still on TAP’s flight schedule . . . it was not canceled . . . she did not request this change . . . the change was initiated by TAP . . . and the new fare was $1000 more. When TAP unilaterally re-booked the flight, TAP charged her credit card the $1000. She called and was told TAP has the right to unilaterally make such re-bookings. She said she wanted to move back to her original flight and original fare. The TAP representative said she could . . . but, get this . . . she would be charged a change fee. TAP is a crooked organization. You’ve been warned.
Fortunately I don’t make my airfare purchasing decisions based upon n =1 Internet horror story anecdotes, or else I’d be driving everywhere. Which is really tough to do for transatlantic routes.
The cancel and the change $fees$ are extraordinarily high considering the RT base fare is only $356.00. YQ surcharges and all taxes should be entirely refundable if not used – so to impose an 80%+ change fee seems unreasonable
Mis-naming the YQ as a fuel surcharge is a disservice to the reader. Why is there a higher fuel surcharge for a J based passenger than a person traveling in economy? If a true YQ fuel surcharge was collected, every passenger would be charged. Only certain fare codes are charged the supplement, it shows no correlation to % of fares across the board. One has to ask, “why is my fuel more expensive from the front of the airplane?”
Off-topic: Government exit fees should not be higher for J class passengers in respect to leaving the UK either.
The customer service is Nonexistent! I had an issue 4 years ago after they swapped out my extra legroom seats for basic, both ways from Miami/ Lisbon. It took me 15 months to get the money returned to me. Communication is cryptic and no one knows what to do. Fly another airline. My best friend booked a trip to Milan for a wedding after I begged him not to. They cancelled/ changed his flights and lost the groups luggage. He was able to get $ from his cc company as the purchase was recent, unlike myself. Lastly the employees at customer service’s counter in Lisbon simply refer you to a web link that is a portal to hell. You have been warned! Google the TAP reviews.
We flew TAP R/T in business class from SFO to MAD via LIS last month. I’d heard about the horror stories regarding how they dealt with IROPS. Luckily, we only encountered mediocre food and a deal-breaker: Regardless of price, we both agreed never to fly through Lisbon again. I’ll take Newark any day over Lisbon. Cramp, smokey, lack of seating and quite a number of TAP aircraft use remote stands – including our wide bodies and the regional aircraft we flew.
I’ve had decent experiences in TAP in economy. It’s such a short hop from NYC to LIS that a full night’s sleep is not really feasible in business so not sure I would pay even $2K for that privilege. They have pretty reasonable fees for extra legroom economy and often have reasonable bid minimums for business class upgrades. I only use them as a carrier of last resort for close-in flights that I hope I will not have to change or undergo schedule change. And their one-way fares can be useful. But I can’t say their product and service record makes this $2K fare one worth jumping on.
CW, you stated “A lot of people like to complain about TAP . . .”
I was offering a data point in the spirit of helping another reader. That’s all.
How’s $2000 on TAP a deal ? That’s how much they should charge normally for what they offer
Agreed. Very nice product in the air. Very crappy service on the ground.
So I guess by virtue of having flown these guys a few times and not had a horrible experience, that makes me a TAP fanboy, haha. I’ll embrace that; as Gary would say, more competition is a good thing…
To add a bit more color to my personal view on this airline, I have leveraged them in a pretty specific use case; that is to say, when 1) I am flying for leisure, 2) I want J, and 3) other carriers are exorbitantly priced in cash or points.
Basically my decision logic is, is it worth a hassle of a connection (or a free 1-night stopover, which I prefer), a potentially elevated risk of IRROPs issues, and lesser service (though I’ve not experienced this on board) to save $1000+ in cash or a whole lot of (dynamically priced, to Europe) points? My answer has been yes.
I can’t really say I hear many stories of how any given TATL carrier is *awesome* in IRROPs, so I have a bit of trouble docking them a whole lot for that reputed performance. From a statistical perspective, if each TAP fare is $1K less than a legacy, and you lose less than 50% of your tickets, you come out ahead…
I would imagine there is also a good bit of bias in the crowd here because this blog, and thus naturally most posters, tend to skew luxury, and this carrier does not offer a luxury product.
So for me, this is about a very specific use case? Would I fly them for work? No, because cost is not an object and reliability / connection time matter. Would I fly them in economy? No, because pricing is more competitive across carriers in Y and TAP doesn’t offer any differentiating attributes. But will I fly them in J, on my own time and my own dime, for $1K+ less than the competition? So far, knock on wood that I don’t get burned, the answer for me has been yes…
I had a very positive experience with TAP flying Chicago to Lisbon,aisle seat request,no problem,best star alliance dinner with wine and breakfast, transatlantic economy in ages,versus Lufthansa and Austrian.Friendly crew,new aircraft.There were some same day schedule tweeks,no added charges.