Amazing Deal Alert: West Coast to Europe in Business Class from $1,600
Quick summary
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Over the past few weeks, we've seen fantastic business-class fares to Europe on Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam airlines, but although these initial fares are comparable, there's a trick available to save more on Oneworld flights, such as those on American, British Airways and Iberia. In some cases, we've seen business-class fares as low as $1,200 round-trip, though $1,600 fares are more the norm.
Today, Flyertalk members discovered that these deep-discount flights are now available from the West Coast, letting you travel from Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and other cities for about $1,600 round-trip in business. With offers from American and British Airways letting you earn up to 115,000 bonus miles on transatlantic flights this summer, these fares are a no-brainer if you're looking to travel to Europe.
Discounted fares are available from July through the end of the schedule in April, but the promo code you'll need to use to save an additional 10% is only valid for bookings through the end of 2015. You can fly to Geneva, Vienna and Zurich — and you might be able to find cheap flights to a few other cities as well. You'll get the deepest discount on flights operated by British Airways, since you can apply an additional 10% off coupon (more on that below).
Update: This fare is available from Austin (AUS) as well, so you can fly to and from London in business class on BA's new Dreamliner:
Austin (AUS) to Zurich (ZRH) in business class on British Airways for $1,577:
Here's a few examples of other flights we found:
San Francisco (SFO) to Zurich (ZRH) in business class on British Airways for $1,577:
Las Vegas (LAS) to Zurich (ZRH) in business class on British Airways for $1,577:
San Diego (SAN) to Vienna (VIE) in business class on British Airways for $1,604:
Los Angeles (LAX) to Vienna (VIE) in business class on British Airways for $1,604:
Here's how to book in five easy steps:
Step 1: Head to AARP's British Airways discount page to save $400 off this flight (per person). You do need to be an AARP member, but anyone can join for $16 per year (as low as $12.60 per year if you pay $63 for a five-year membership). Log in to verify your membership and click through to British Airways.
Step 2: You should be redirected to a special British Airways booking page. Select a West Coast city as your departure city and one of the cities listed above as your destination, enter your dates and be sure to select Business/Club class, then click Get Flights.
Step 3: Select your flights and click continue to price. Remember: Only British Airways is eligible for the extra 10% off.
Step 4: On the next page, you should see a fare of about $1,750 round-trip, including taxes and fees. Scroll down to the Promotion Code Or eVoucher field and enter promotion code "CARDOFFERU" and click submit.
Step 5: Review your fare and click through to purchase. If all goes well, you should see an additional 10% discount applied, dropping the fare by $175 to $1,577. Confirm all flight details — you can cancel for a full refund within 24 hours of purchase, or you can cancel any time before departure for a $500 fee.
Maximize Your Purchase
Don't forget to use a credit card that earns additional points on airfare purchases, such as the American Express Premier Rewards Gold (3x on airfare) or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2x on all travel purchases). Check out this post for more on maximizing airfare purchases.
Additionally, these fares book into the "I" fare class, earning 50% class-of-service bonus miles and 1.5 AAdvantage points per mile. At more than 11,000 miles round-trip, a flight from New York to Paris will earn more than 16,500 AAdvantage miles and points, in addition to the miles you'll earn from elite bonuses. Gold and Platinum members may earn an additional 2,000 bonus miles round-trip, while Executive Platinum members will earn 7,000 bonus miles as part of American's 2015 premium cabin promotion.
Planning a trip to Europe this summer? Chime in below to let us know what deals you've found!