Barcelona BCN Madrid MAD New York JFK TAP Portugal Airlines - Star Alliance

Reality Check TAP New York JFK to Barcelona $349, Madrid $351, Seville $409 Oct-March 2018

Spain is a hot destination for airfare sales today.

New York JFK to Barcelona $349 round trip or Madrid $350 round trip with TAP Portugal are two of the low fares for travel departures October to March 2018. Seville is $409 round trip. Seville is usually one of the most expensive cities to fly in Spain based on my airfare searches over the past two years.

Numerous other cities around Spain are also on sale with Oneworld and Skyteam airlines priced in the upper $400s.

TAP Portugal Low Fare Tickets Seat and Bag Fees Warning

I do not write too frequently about TAP Portugal low fares due to their low cost carrier model for USA flights to Europe. Think of these ticket prices like Norwegian or WOW flights. You pay for all extras.

There are $349 round trip ticket prices, however, you can only take one 8kg carry on bag for free. One 23kg checked bag will cost $140 each way. Keep on reading for how to get around the budget ticket checked bag fee extortion terms.

Add $120 to low fare ticket price if you want to select your own seats for all four flight segments

TAP seat map exitrow

TAP Portugal seat assignments are $30 per leg, regardless if you select an exit row, aisle, window or middle seat. Some front row seats are designated premium seat assignments at $40.

TAP seat front‘’

Forget TAP’s Discount Fare!

TAP Portugal  New York JFK – Lisbon LIS – Madrid MAD – Lisbon – JFK

$350.13 round trip  Sun Oct 22 – Tue Oct 31

JFK-MAD $350 TP Oct22-31

Buy TAP ‘Basic Fare’ for $50 more and get free checked bag

I traveled on several flights with Norwegian, Ryanair, Wizz and WOW in 2017 from California to Iceland, Sweden, Poland and Czechia packing only one small carry-on bag. Around a dozen flights and I only ended up sitting in a middle seat on two flights with one of those being a transatlantic flight on Norwegian in April.

TAP’s Basic Fare at $25 more each way is for people who need more than one small 8kg bag for a trip to Europe. This fare type includes one free 23kg checked bag.

You still have to pay for seat assignments on TAP Basic Fare tickets.

TAP Portugal  New York JFK – Lisbon LIS – Madrid MAD – LIS – JFK

$400.13 round trip  Sun Oct 22 – Tue Oct 31

JFK-MAD $400 TP Oct22-30

And if you really want to select your own seats, then pay another $50 on your ticket for a $450 round trip ‘Classic Fare’ with free seat selection and 2 checked bags.

TAP Portugal has some good low fares, but you have to consider the added cost of bags and seats. TAP can be an even worse deal than flying Norwegian, Ryanair or WOW for additional fees to add a checked bag after buying your TAP Portugal ticket, if you don’t choose the best ticket option at the time of your original booking.

New York JFK – Barcelona BCN

New York JFK – Seville SVQ

New York JFK – Valencia VLC

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