Star Alliance carrier TAP Air Portugal has filed $1 each way base fares between New York JFK and Barcelona with a connection in Lisbon. This translates into roundtrip airfare starting at $168 including all taxes and fees.
If you search a variety of dates through different online travel agency sites you’ll find fares around $188.
However on Skyscanner you’ll find sites selling the same itineraries as low as $168, based on how they’re calculating the taxes and fees on the tickets.
These are actually $1 fares each way, plus a $100 fuel surcharge (which is insane at this point, natch) and taxes.
Key details for fare basis OUSDSI5E:
- Available September 6 through November 28, November 22 through December 15, and December 24 through March 31 of 2021.
- Saturday night stay required
- Free stopover in Lisbon up to 5 days
- End-on-end fare combinations are allowed, if you’re coming from somewhere other than New York
- Tickets are non-refundable with a $300 change fee, which is greater than the cost of the ticket
These fares earn 10% of flown miles with Turkish and with Air Canada, 25% with Lufthansa, but do not earn miles in United’s MileagePlus program.
Just remember to Second is watch your wallet on Las Ramblas.
(notice the young boys peering in)
Fall is too early. When you need to cancel your flight, TAP will not cough up a cent
“Tickets are non-refundable with a $300 change fee, which is greater than the cost of the ticket”
So they’re hoping a bunch of people book, change plans as the inevitable second wave hits, and then just give up on changing the ticket because it was so cheap? All they have to do is not cancel the flight, right?
Maybe worth a gamble. I don’t know about others but I’m booking several deeply discounted US trips for late this year and, worst case, I’m out the money. However, the deals are so good it is worth the risk IMHO. This is similar. A flight to Europe for under $200. Definitely worth losing it.
I don’t know about others but I have no problem speculating on $500-$1000 of great travel deals. If I’m out the money that is fine as I consider it a reasonable tradeoff for incredible deals. On the other hand I’m a retired 1%er who throws away that kind of money on many things so this doesn’t concern me a bit.
Are you protected if you buy through a premium credit card?
Isn’t Spain closed to international travelers through at least the end of this year? Also, US travelers are not going to be allowed into many foreign countries for a long time due to this administration’s horrible response to the pandemic.
Spain has been under strict lockdown since March 14th and Spain’s Prime Minister announced that lockdown would be extended until May 10th, at the very earliest.
I’ve noticed countries have been very quiet in the past couple weeks about when they will be open for tourists. Nothing since Europe said two weeks ago they were “considering” preventing summer tourists from the US. I think everyone is watching and waiting. Weighing everything, I feel there is a 50% chance of overseas travel being feasible this summer.