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I’ve already written about last second award space to Europe and to Asia this summer. The gist is that some airlines release unsold seats as award seats in the last few days or weeks before travel.
TAP Portugal does a bit of that on its three routes to the US, but it also has award space available in August to Europe in economy and business class, which is very scarce at the moment. This is a great chance to book an award to Europe for this summer without having to wait until the absolute last second if you’re more of a planner.
What’s the award space picture on TAP to Europe this summer?
TAP Portugal flies three routes from the US:
- Newark to Lisbon
- Newark to Porto
- Miami to Lisbon
Newark to Lisbon
Newark to Lisbon is served by TAP and United. TAP flies an A340 with angled lie flat business-class seats, while United flies a 757 with fully flat business-class beds on the seven hour flight.
This award calendar combines both nonstop services. Yellow days have Saver economy award space. Blue days have Saver business award space. Green days have Saver economy and business class award space.
There are five days in August with business class award space and two with economy award space. That might not sounds like a lot, but that’s more than almost all US-Europe routes for this August.
Newark to Porto
TAP also flies from Newark to Portugal’s second city.
The route has space three days this month and three days next month in business class with an economy seat on August 8.
The flight is not just valuable for those looking to fly to Porto. From Porto, TAP connects all over Europe.
Miami to Lisbon
I wrote about the Miami to Lisbon route the other day. The route is intriguing because Miami is not a Star Alliance hub. That means that united.com is less likely to find this route in multi-stop itineraries.
This route has the best availability of the TAP routes for the next week and also has four days each of business and economy class award space next month.
Getting to Newark and Miami and from Lisbon and Porto
Connections are plentiful to Newark, Lisbon, and Porto which are United and TAP hubs. Getting to Miami is a little tougher with United and US Airways miles, but it’s possible.
Getting the Miles
United charges 50k miles each way in business class from North America to Europe. US Airways charges 100k miles roundtrip for business class.
If you’re sitting on US Airways miles and want to fly Swiss Business Class, redeem the miles soon since US Airways’ disappearance into American Airlines this year during the merger will also mean the end of the opportunity to use US Airways miles for Swiss Business Class.
To top up your US Airways account, you can get the US Airways Premier World MasterCard with 30,000 US Airways miles after first purchase, also soon to disappear during the merger.
- Earn up to 40,000 bonus miles on qualifying transactions
- EXCLUSIVE: Redeem flights for 5,000 fewer miles
- Zone 2 boarding on every flight
- Enjoy 2 miles per $1 spent on US Airways purchases
- Earn 1 mile per $1 spent everywhere else
- Annual companion certificate good for round-trip travel for up to 2 companions at $99 each, plus taxes and fees
- First Class check-in
- Please see terms and conditions for complete details
Application Link: Barclay’s US Airways Premier World MasterCard
To get the United miles, you have more options including the United card and any Chase card that earns Ultimate Rewards. The best United card offer is for 50k bonus miles and is available at Chase bank branches.
Recap
Getting to Europe in the next few days with miles is not a challenge because several airlines open up last-second award space. Booking now for next month is much more of a challenge, and that’s where TAP comes in. TAP has great space from the US to Portugal and beyond for August.
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I just passed up several award TAP flights for next spring after reading the horror stories on multiple airline review sites. Just Google “Airline Reviews” search for TAP and WOW!
United has quite a bit of availability to LHR in August. From there, you can generally take Lufthansa connections to other locations in Europe (probably with change of planes in Frankfurt or Munich).
That is true. It’s probably an extra connection, but there is good space that way.
At least out of IAD, UA has great space basically everywhere if you can stomach waiting til 2-3 weeks before departure before booking and maybe being flexible +/- 1 day. ZRH, AMS and FRA are almost all available every day for 2 people if you wait for it. FRA and ZRH obviously allow connections basically anywhere in Europe.