There’s been wide open business class award space this winter between the U.S. and Europe on Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal from New York JFK and Newark; Boston; Washington Dulles; Miami; and Chicago (and also from Toronto and Montreal). In some cases there are as many as 9 business class award seats available on the same flight.
You can fly to and from Lisbon and of course connect beyond Lisbon to numerous destinations. And there’s also Newark – Porto non-stop as well. That’s great as far as it goes, especially since you can transfer points from American Express, Chase, Capital One and Bilt to Air Canada Aeroplan and book this online. Chicago to Lisbon is 60,000 points each way (adding connecting flights can increase the distance and mileage price).
But FindFlightsForMe shows us how to make this deal even better. For some reason Avianca LifeMiles is pricing New York JFK – Lisbon at just 35,000 miles one-way in business class plus $28 in taxes and fees. American Express, Citibank, Capital One and Bilt points transfer to LifeMiles.
LifeMiles also sells miles as low as 1.3 cents apiece with promotion, so you could just buy these one-ways for less than $500. In. Business. Class.
This is available only in one direction, the other way is regular price (63,000 LifeMiles or, again, 60,000 Air Canada Aeoplan points). LifeMiles is also a bit less flexible than what many are used to – $150 change fee, $200 to cancel and redeposit the miles.
I actually do not think this pricing is a mistake. LifeMiles is aggressive in managing its pricing. There are some awards you’ll find with other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs that LifeMiles won’t show availability for. That’s intentional. When an award is too expensive for their pricing, LifeMiles doesn’t let you book it. But they also drop their pricing below award chart pricing with some regularity and this too has been intentional.
I read this every week and wonder if I missed a report on T5 BA Gold Lounge as it has many many cut backs and is not the same lounge as it was after it reopened a couple months ago? I am here now in the Gold Lounge at T5 and the menus are no longer (unfortunately), only buffet. The food choice is appalling at the buffet, with an all day greasy breakfast buffet. Sausages swimming in oil. Greasy bacon. One hot dish a mutton stew which is fatty. No ingredients listed. A separate area near the buffet has a vegan curry and cold onion bajas! BA has “uni-sexed” the restrooms as well. In the past there were lesser female restrooms than for men, so I don’t know why they have done this. All in all a horrible experience and not worth being loyal or a gold member any longer. BAs flights are much dearer than competitors and not as good a service. With this latest cost cutting I am sure they will loose more loyal members including me.
Say what you may about AA, but I have found AA 787 Flagship Service to be far superior to anything that BA offers trans Atlantic, including the BA A350 LHR-AUS service. Since I’m bashing BA I’ll comment on their European Business Class. I will give them kudos for attempting to have a “Tea” service on short trips (LHR-AMS-LHR in this case) but the “Business Class” in total leaves much to be desired. Where do I start . . . boarding groups 1-4 in first group. Since there is no dedicated J overhead bin storage, if you haven’t wormed your way to near the front of the queue, then there is no space, much less space near your seat. While the Brits may be known for formality and impeccable manners, on BA that is not the case. Lounges, food and miles surcharges. Enough. I’m sure everyone has a BA story just as they seem to have an AA story.
This sounds great and it’s a “good” deal but have we come so far as to think that 105,000 miles or more is a mistake fare? Airline mile devaluations are the only thing worse than Bidenomics it seems.
@ Gary — LifeMiles is a nightmare.
TAP award availability via lifemiles has vanished beyond April 10 2025. Hmmm.