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Exceptional TAP business class sale from the UK (eg New York, San Francisco £999)

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This article is sponsored by TAP Air Portugal

TAP Air Portugal has launched a week-long Business Class sale.

There are some excellent deals, with some of the lowest pricing I have ever seen to North America.  There are also good prices to Africa, Brazil and – if you want a bit more comfort for your short-haul flights – Portugal, the Azores and Spain.

Importantly, all of these offers are available for UK departures from either:

  • London Heathrow
  • London Gatwick or
  • Manchester

….. so you don’t need to start your trip outside the UK to get a good deal.

You need to book by 5th May for travel by 15th September.

You can find details on the TAP website here.

TAP Portugal business class sale

What deals are available?

Starting in the UK:

To North America:

  • Boston – £999
  • Chicago – £999
  • Miami – £999
  • Montreal – £999
  • New York – £999
  • San Francisco – £999
  • Toronto – £999
  • Washington – £999

You can also fly to Cancun.

To Africa:

  • from £1,289 (Praia, Sal, Sao Vicente, Dakar, Accra, Abidjan, Conakry, Bissau, Sao Tome)

To Brazil:

  • from £1,289 (Belem, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Maceio, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Sao Paulo)

To mainland Portugal:

  • £299 (Lisbon, Porto, Faro)

To the Portuguese Islands:

  • from £399 (Funchal, Terceira, Ponta Delgada)

To Spain:

  • from £399

The booking page is here.  It can be a little fiddly to find dates with sale pricing because the ‘my dates are flexible’ button only covers economy pricing.  However, it is a decent bet that the dates with the cheapest economy pricing may also have the cheapest business class pricing.

TAP Portugal business class sale

Starting elsewhere in Europe:

TAP has a very simple pricing structure for this sale.

Swap the £ signs above for € signs and you have the pricing from Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin etc.  This means that you could fly to New York for just €996 (£865) return from, say, Dublin.

Remember that, whilst you may get a cheaper flight if you start outside the UK:

  • you need to factor in the cost of getting to and from your starting city
  • you are taking an added risk in terms of covid travel requirements when you come to travel
  • you will be taking three flights in each direction on a long haul trip, when you also factor in the plane change in Lisbon

Personally, I wouldn’t bother if you live within easy reach of Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester.  If you live elsewhere with an easy connection to Dublin or Amsterdam you may think differently.

What can you do with the miles you earn?

TAP is part of Star Alliance.

You cannot credit your flights to British Airways Executive Club or Virgin Atlantic, neither of whom are in Star Alliance.  However, you can credit the miles to Lufthansa Miles & More or any other Star Alliance frequent flyer programme.

TAP is currently running an aggressive status match if you want to credit your flight to TAP’s Miles+Go programme – scroll down for details.

Our core article on ‘what is best Star Alliance frequent flyer scheme for you?’ is here.

What will I be flying?

TAP Portugal has been making a big push to grow market share over the last couple of years.

In terms of aircraft, it has recently taken delivery of a new fleet ofA320neo, A321neo and A330neo planes.   It is the first airline in the world to operate the A330neo and, overall, has one of the youngest fleets in the world.  You can find out more about the TAP neo fleet here.

An aggressive status match offer

TAP has been running a strong status match offer for the last few months.

For British Airways Executive Club members, this is what you can get:

Executive Club Gold = TAP Miles&Go Gold = Star Alliance Gold

Executive Club Silver = TAP Miles&Go Gold = Star Alliance Gold

Executive Club Bronze = TAP Miles&Go Silver = Star Alliance Silver

This is very generous if you have British Airways Silver status because TAP will match it to Miles+Go Gold.  This is equivalent to Star Alliance Gold, giving you status benefits not just on tap but across all 26 airlines in the alliance.

You can learn more about the TAP status match offer in this HfP article.

How to book

For UK departures, your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This offers double Membership Rewards points – 2 per £1 – when you when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

For non-UK departures, you should use a card without any foreign exchange fees irrespective of its miles-earning potential.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction should trigger the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.

Remember that you need to book by 5th May for travel by 15th September.

You can find out more, and book, on this special page of the TAP website here.

Category

General

Comments (80)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ian Box says:
    29 Apr29 April 05:14

    Whilst the fares are very reasonable , TAP has probably the worst customer service if impacted by COVId disruption. Searching will reveal appalling reviews for this airline.

  • Tom says:
    29 Apr29 April 06:36

    The outbound flight from LHR-LIS in the example seems exceptionally long?

  • tony says:
    29 Apr29 April 06:58

    Obviously the elephant in the room here is that for most people you have to book by May 5th without any knowledge of whether you’ll actually be allowed to 1) leave the UK, 2) get into the destination and 3) be insurable.

    Other than that….

  • Andrew says:
    29 Apr29 April 07:03

    Need to factor in Portugal being on a different coloured list to the USA and the implications that will have on your return to the U.K. Given everything that’s going on, I personally will be keeping any flying this summer as point to point as possible.

    • Mike says:
      29 Apr29 April 07:24

      Personally I am not planning on flying until at least Easter 22

    • meta says:
      29 Apr29 April 07:37

      Portugal is very likely going on the green list.

      • E says:
        29 Apr29 April 07:43

        But things can change…so it might go onto the green list now but by August be on the amber list (or not). Too much uncertainty.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          29 Apr29 April 07:55

          I can’t think of a scenario where a green list country doesn’t stay green this summer with increased vaccine take up all across Europe.

          If the vaccine is compromised by a new VOC then we will all be back in the sh1t soon enough.

          • Callum says:
            29 Apr29 April 08:27

            Portugal hasn’t vaccinated a particularly high proportion of the population – it’s about the same as other countries in Europe who still have very high numbers of infections.

            It’s also very easy to imagine such a scenario. Chile has one of the best vaccination programmes on the planet yet is currently experiencing it’s highest ever Covid levels.

            Who knows what’s going to happen – especially if millions of people suddenly start going abroad again.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            29 Apr29 April 09:17

            few things

            – there are a number of month between now and summer

            – Chile has 33% fully vaccinated – but it was rife with the Brazilian VOC so still very likely to have ‘cases’. However, vaccines should be helping to break the cases to hospitalisation link the deaths have been constant through its new ‘cases peak’ so looks like that’s working

            – Granted Portugal has about half the vaccination rate as the UK – 22% first/9% fully vs UK 50% first/20% fully but see first point. Also the rollout of J&J has started which will allow a faster rollout as its single dose.

          • Rob says:
            29 Apr29 April 09:33

            Chile has almost exclusively used the Chinese vaccine which simply doesn’t work well – hence the UAE now giving 3rd shots.

          • Dubious says:
            29 Apr29 April 11:54

            Re-infection is possible despite antibodies being present and vaccination only reduces the probability of infection – it does not eliminate it – as is being found in some parts of the world:
            https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/post-vaccine-infections-and-reinfections-could-happen-say-experts

          • Callum says:
            29 Apr29 April 13:13

            TGLoyalty

            What country in Europe has particularly strong ties to Brazil?

            I know many people on here don’t particularly care about Covid, but no responsible government will look at a huge surge in numbers and respond with “meh, the increasing level of death isn’t quite as bad as before – let’s do nothing”. Not to mention, articles I have read about the surge in Chile have mentioned that ICUs are being overwhelmed again – is that not relevant in your opinion?

            Regardless, I have no real interest in debating the seriousness of Covid on here as there are far too many people who either do not care or do not understand it. The only point I particularly wanted to make is that it’s not remotely inconceivable for a country to be taken off the green list this summer (in fact, I think it’s a pretty outlandish statement to make!).

          • TGLoyalty says:
            29 Apr29 April 22:33

            “Strong ties with Brazil” as you can see from their case rates there isn’t any concern about Brazilian VOC

            But you very conveniently forgot about my second sentence which specifically mentioned VoCs!

        • Andrew says:
          29 Apr29 April 09:57

          Covid all but disappeared last summer in Europe despite no vaccinations and lax to no restrictions. There’s no good reason whatsoever as to why this summer should be worse

          • James says:
            29 Apr29 April 10:05

            All but disappeated. Lol.

          • The Lord says:
            29 Apr29 April 11:40

            This plus the fact that 68% of adults now have anti bodies. As I’ve said before, despite what the zero covid ultras say, this thing is over in June (in the UK)

      • Andrew says:
        29 Apr29 April 07:46

        Only time will tell. And we will find out after the booking deadline.

        • meta says:
          29 Apr29 April 07:52

          I’m not booking anything other than fully refundable, so it’s a shame they haven’t extended this sale for another week or two as I would book end of next week once the green list is announced.

    • Rob says:
      29 Apr29 April 09:41

      Portugal may be Green from Day 1 and, if not, is very likely to be the first Euro country to go Green.

      Europe is only a few weeks behind the UK in vaccinations now.

      • Rui N. says:
        29 Apr29 April 09:49

        That’s what “everyone” said last year on both the UK and Portugal sides. Portugal was even supposed to be the first country in the UK “travel corridors”. In the end it took several months (end of August) until Portugal was put in the travel corridor.

      • David S says:
        29 Apr29 April 11:55

        I totally agree on the Vaccinations. Portugal is targeting 100,000 per day on an 11M population which is a higher % rate than U.K. PS Do not credit any points earning to the TAP loyalty scheme. The earnings are poor and like M&M, they don’t seem valid for long, which means they expire long before you have enough to use for anything useful. Plus Customer Service as others say is absolutely rubbish.

      • Lord Doncaster says:
        29 Apr29 April 18:14

        Europe is still far behind the UK in terms of vaccinations. Unless you’re looking at Malta or Gibraltar?

        https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker/?areas=gbr&areas=isr&areas=usa&areas=eue&cumulative=1&populationAdjusted=1

        • TGLoyalty says:
          29 Apr29 April 22:35

          Consider fully vaccinated

          Malta, hungry, Serbia and even parts of Cyprus.

          • Lord Doncaster says:
            29 Apr29 April 23:01

            Indeed TG Loyalty, but Rob said “Europe” is only a few weeks behind the UK… When places like France and Germany lag far behind.

          • Rob says:
            30 Apr30 April 07:28

            Germany is aiming to be done by September, we are targetting end of July. 6-8 weeks in it.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            30 Apr30 April 00:21

            We are “europe” so not sure what Rob meant

            Mainland perhaps. Even in Germany I hear they will be administering 750k shots a day from early May which is 1% of the adult population a day. (Those having J&J will also be considered to be done)

  • Rui N. says:
    29 Apr29 April 07:47

    Please buy this with a credit card (as you always should in fact, but extra important in this case). If the flight gets cancelled TAP will NOT refund you, they’ll try to force a voucher on you (be careful with the website, it mentions “click here for a refund” with the small letter in the bottom saying the refund is in a voucher) and will not refund you. When that time comes, just ask your credit card to do a chargeback (or S75 if it comes to it).
    And yes, I do speak from experience, 3 chargebacks with Amex (and refunded in a few hours) and counting.

    • tony says:
      29 Apr29 April 09:10

      I think you have been fortunate. Many of us experienced airlines pushing back against chargebacks or S75 claims even when they were in breach of the merchant agreement. As I understand it, Lufthansa Group bluntly told the credit card companies where they could stick their chargeback claims and the sums were so vast the banks sided with the airline until the bail out money arrived, anyway. I think the last refund via a chargeback I resolved took until December and that was with Amex.

      Regardless, I think the biggest risk isn’t the flight being cancelled but that the individual won’t be able to travel owing to government restrictions changing. That doesn’t give you grounds for a refund from the carrier or to initiate a claim via the credit card company.

      • Rui N. says:
        29 Apr29 April 09:47

        Well, if the credit card company refuses to do a S75 claim (and thus complying with the law on UK credit cards), then it’s a matter for the courts. In my case all three of them were with TAP, all refunded in a few hours with the case open for a month (to give the retailer time to respond). I don’t know if TAP responded or not (I have my doubts that an airline, even LH, would assume in writing they are not complying with the law), but after a month all cases showed up as closed in my Amex account.

        • tony says:
          29 Apr29 April 10:24

          Indeed and one of my claims ended up with a complaint to the FOS which seemed to hasten matters, but you’ve gone form saying Amex settled “in a matter of hours” to it being a case of waiting more than a month and then having to make a phone call to resolve. Not quite the same thing, is it….

          • Rui N. says:
            29 Apr29 April 10:47

            Hey? I didn’t call anyone. Money was on my account hours after making the complaint. For all intents and purposes, the case was solved for me (as I had the money back). Having the case open for a month I think is standard Amex procedure on chargebacks to give the retailer time to respond (if it is not, I really don’t care; they didn’t even tell me the case was closed, I checked just for curiosity several weeks after the deadlines passed.)
            In any case, I think it’s easy to see that my original post was about the risk of booking with TAP since they haven’t willingly refunded “anyone” in over a year now. It wasn’t about saying that everytime you make a chargeback it will always go smoothly.

    • CD says:
      29 Apr29 April 11:25

      +1, I also had a TAP flight cancelled which they refused to offer a cash refund for despite their legal obligations. Filed an Amex S75 claim and they were great. I’ll be avoiding TAP now, despite offers such as this

    • SLLee says:
      29 Apr29 April 14:03

      Be careful, charge backs have time limit. You have to request within 3 months (my Amex Plat Canada). I tried to do a charge back against TAP but denied by Amex. I am still battling with TAP for my refund (for the flights they cancelled three times). Wrote and called them a few times already but still no progress. Seems like the only option left is to bring them to court.

      • Rui N. says:
        29 Apr29 April 14:46

        Even assuming the same is true for chargebacks in the UK (one of my chargebacks was almost a year after the ticket was bought), there are no time limits for S75 claims.

  • AJA says:
    29 Apr29 April 07:56

    These deals are only valid for trips up to 14 days. Also note that although they offer one free change any fare difference is payable and can only be made within ticket validity. They specifically state ticket validity will not be extended. Much as I’d like to take advantage of my TAP gold status match I am not biting. It’s too risky as we don’t even know if Portugal will be on the green list. Shame really.

    • Sam G says:
      29 Apr29 April 11:17

      This is the issue with lots of deals I’m seeing currently (Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines etc) – a free change is useless if fare difference applies, on business class ticket this can be very significant. I wish more airlines would follow KLM and offer a cash-refundable voucher for bookings this year

  • Zoe says:
    29 Apr29 April 08:06

    I’m not certain but don’t most insurance policy’s need travel to be permitted at the time of booking, not just when you travel. So factor in a specialist insurance policy for this trip.

  • ChrisW says:
    29 Apr29 April 08:25

    Great prices but keep in mind TAP won’t refund you if your plans change/you can’t travel. If they did it would be promoted in this sponsored post.

    I do think USA will be a pretty safe bet from July onwards.

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