Before the Coronavirus pandemic, it was not unusual to pay between $3,500 and $4,000 for a round-trip business class flight to Europe.  Yes, the champagne does taste great, but not at that price!  In this blog post, The Traveling Professor shows you how to find deals on business class airfare to Europe.

Airfares change all the time, but here are some general rules to follow when looking for low-cost business class airfares:

Pick Your Departure City:  In general, the best airfares can be found out of major airports especially like New York  (JFK), Chicago (ORD), and Miami (MIA).  If your home airport is in a smaller city, it might be worth looking into booking a separate discount airfare to that major city to take advantage of a business class deal to Europe.  Some major cities like Dallas DFW rarely offer deals.  In that case, in can be worthwhile to book a separate flight between DFW and JFK then the business class trip in/out of JFK.

Pick Your Arrival City:  Some cities in Europe are cheaper than others.  Right now, great business class deals can be found.   We priced these R/T business deals departing JFK on September 2 and returning September 14:

• Rome (FCO):  $2075 on Iberia.  Business Class.
• Madrid (MAD): $2310 on American.  Business Class. This flight is $10,523 out of DFW.  In this case, it would definitely be less expensive to fly to JFK on a separate flight first.
• Barcelona (BCN): $1861 on Swiss.  Business Class. 
• Prague (PRG): $1884 on LOT. Business Class.
• Paris (CDG): $2244 on La Compagnie. Business Class.  (This flight leaves Newark)

Please note airfares change on a regular basis.

Pick the Right Dates to Fly:  Most business class airfares deals can be found from now through September 2021.

How to Find Them:  There are two airline search engines The Professor uses.  matrix.itasoftware.com allows the user to put in a departure and arrival city.  Then a "Departing Date" can be entered along with a range of the number of days the traveler wants to be away.  So for instance, a traveler can say "I want to travel business class within a window of September 1 through September 30.  I want to travel between JFK and MAD.  I want to be away for 8-11 days".  The search engine will return a list of sample itineraries and prices the user can pick from.  Google flights offers a different kind of flexibility.  A traveler can put in the travel dates, business class fare, a departure city and then NO ARRIVAL CITY.  Google smartly maps out all the destination cities in Europe to choose from, with the fares.