Star Alliance member Avianca has fares from Los Angeles to Madrid, Barcelona, or London roundtrip (or into one, back from the other) from $2003 roundtrip. That’s flying nothing but business class on new Boeing 787s, and earning miles with your choice of Star Alliance airlines — credit to and earn elite status credit with United.
For instance here’s Los Angeles – London, back from Barcelona, via Bogota for $2002.76:
These fares are widely available between January and November:
Avianca’s 787 business class is fully flat reverse herringbone seats with direct aisle access – a very good hard product.
Some itineraries involve overnights in Bogota, but those can also be avoided by choosing flights carefully and for about an extra $33.
- 21-day advance purchase required
- One free stopover is permitted and additional stopovers allowed at $65 each
- $200 cancellation (refund) fee or $160 change fee
(HT: Secret Flying but with slightly lower prices and better availability than they noted.)
In conjunction with 50% back AMEX plat use 100k points earn miles with zero out of pocket and no black out dates! Love that new perk.
That’s like an extra seven or eight hours of flying
I saw that earlier and considered taking it, until I noticed the 17h layover. Find a $2k itinerary without half a day in Bogota, and that’s worthy of a post.
@Adam plenty of options without the layover as I noted in the post
So basically double your flight time (10hr nonstop v. 20hr minimum with connection) to get the cheap price. Maybe makes sense as a mileage run or even better for those who want a stopover in BOG (which is worthy of a visit). But not realistic for anyone who values their time, particularly when we’ve seen BA flight sales (nonstop) for $500-1000 more.