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Star Alliance member TAP Portugal is well known for offering excellent fares, but I saw a deal yesterday that is borderline insane – even given the current circumstances.

It is possible to book a one way flight from San Francisco to London (via Lisbon) for dates through summer 2021, for as little as £54. 

You can see on Google Flights that there are plenty of dates available (although Google lists slightly more expensive pricing at £64 per person:

It goes without saying that San Francisco to London is a very long way for £54: 6639 miles, to be precise (according to GC Mapper)

If you don’t mind paying a little more (about £82 in total rather than £54) you can book direct with the airline and even include a stopover in Lisbon for a few nights:

Unfortunately, flights in the opposite direction are more like ~£200, but that does still mean you can book a return from London for roughly £250 if you wanted:

Word of warning

The best airline fares can often be found through sites like Momondo, which send you to an Online Travel Agency (OTA) to book, rather than booking direct with the airline. Cheaper fares are great, but you should also consider the potential extra hassle of using an OTA, if your flight is cancelled or something else goes wrong. You can read about InsideFlyer contributor Craig’s experience here.

In general, I am personally happy to accept the risk of booking via an OTA, as long as the cost saving makes it worthwhile. That risk may not make sense for you though. Regardless, always use a credit card (ideally one with decent customer service) and make sure you have good travel insurance.

Bottom line

Hopefully, by next summer there will be a number of vaccines and/or rapid tests for COVID-19 that will mean the sort of travel restrictions we see at the moment will no longer be in place.

Paying less than a penny per mile of flying is incredible value, but I’m sure this won’t be the only crazy deal that crops up in the next year or two…

Can you find a longer flight for the same price or less?