Oneworld: Economy Class Europe → USA & Business Class Back to Spain Starting at €731 (with Luggage)

American Airlines Business Class Fenstersitzplatz

Oneworld carriers American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Iberia have been fooling around with open jaw flights from Europe via America to Spain a couple of times this year. This time, the offer consists of open jaw bookings with an economy class trip to America and a business class trip back to Spain that is in most cases available for less than €900 per person.

Not only can you reach most major US and Canadian airports by taking advantage of this deal, you can start your journey from almost any point in Europe.

Your itinerary always has to consist of two legs and these must look like this:

  • Outbound: [Not Spanish European City] – [North American City] in economy class
  • Inbound: [North American City] – [Spanish City] in business class

While the inbound always includes 2 x 32 kg of checked bags, the outbound only includes 1 x 23 kg of luggage.

Here are some examples of what’s possible with this fare (business class in bold):

You can also fly double open jaws, like A → B | C → D:

This fare is available for departures from April 2024 onwards. The easiest way to book is on British Airways’ website. You need to select the Economy Standard fare for outbounds and business on the inbounds. The cheapest fare without luggage is available on American Airlines’ website, though the booking process is more complicated and requires some skills with the ITA Matrix.

Operating airlines and carriers vary wildly, but you can choose between any airline of Oneworld’s Atlantic joint venture. These are American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Iberia.

Even if American Airlines doesn’t enjoy a good reputation for many, its business class is very good. Every seat has direct access to the aisle and the service, as well as the food and the seat, are at a very high standard. Travel-Dealz founder Johannes tested the Boeing 777 and really enjoyed the flight.

American Airlines Business Class Sitz flach
180° flat seat in the American Airlines business class

British Airways was the first airline to offer lie-flat seats – over 20 years ago. Sadly, many seats are still from that time and no longer reach today’s standards in other aspects. Especially in the Boeing 747, the seats were extremely narrow. Furthermore, it is unusual that every other seat is facing backward. If you, however, fly in a plane that has the new Club World seats installed, you’ll be flying in a much better product, sometimes even with Suite seats that offer a lot of privacy. A general downside at British Airways: there is no free seat reservation, which is unusual for a business class.

British Airways Club Suite Seat 5
British Airways Club Suite

Finnair, the Oneworld member from Northern Europe, offers a very modern and comfortable business class in its Airbus A350. Their A330 product is comfy, but the seats do show their age. A remarkable thing about Finnair is that they’re planning to introduce a Light fare (on some routes), which doesn’t include luggage – an absolute novelty for this travel class.

finnair nordic business class asian woman full flat data
© Finnair

Iberia is one of the few airlines that has the same product across its entire long-haul fleet. A positive is that every seat has direct access to the aisle. The seats which are directly next to the window (in every 2nd row) offer especially high privacy. In total, it’s a very good product, as Travel-Dealz founder Johannes could witness on his short test flight on an A340.

Iberia Business Class

Search & Book

This fare is valid without an expiration date for flights from April 2024 onwards. You need to spend at least one night from Saturday to Sunday in America to get the lowest price.

Google Flights cannot help you find flight in mixed cabin classes. There are two viable ways to find these fares and book them:

British Airways’ Website

You can find all advertised fares on BA’s website. The website only lets you select a business class inbound if you chose economy standard on the outbound. This is why booking via ba.com is often €40-60 more expensive than booking with American Airlines.

image 410

In this case, the business class fare might be even cheaper than economy class. You might have to scroll down a bit to find the cheapest option.To find suitable dates, you are still reduced to trial and error.

American Airlines’ Website via the ITA Matrix

If you don’t need checked a checked bag on the outbound flight (because your frequent flyer tier allows them for free, you want to go on a shopping spree in the US or you just hate clothing anyway), you can find cheaper tickets on American’s website. However, you need to fulfill some requirements:

  1. Basic knowledge of the ITA Matrix. Here’s a tutorial.
  2. A browser add-on called ITA power tools. Read about it here.
  3. Patience.

You can follow this link to set up your search. Then, you need to enter some extension codes to narrow down results and speed up your search. Enter alliance oneworld for the outbound and alliance oneworld;f bc=I on the inbound leg.

While the example link proposes a Dublin-San Francisco-Seattle-Madrid ticket with dates in April, feel free to fool around with origins, destinations and dates.

After choosing an itinerary, you can use the power tools on the right to request the flights on the airline’s website.

While this method will save you some money, you still need to research availability for each date and city trio individually.

Mileage

While carriers vary, almost all economy tickets are booking class O while business class or Domestic First flights are ticketed in I.

To give you an example, this is what you’d get for flying British Airways from Dublin to San Francisco, and back from San Francisco to Madrid:

  • 35,010 Award Miles + 22,178 Elite Qualifying Miles on Alaska Mileage Plan
  • 22,078 Avios on Aer Lingus AerClub
  • 22,068 Points on Finnair Plus
  • 21,674 Avios + 138 Qpoints on Qatar Privilege Club
  • 18,858 Miles on Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
  • 18,858 Award Miles on LATAM Pass
  • 18,858 Miles on Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer
  • 18,858 Miles on Royal Jordanian Royal Club
  • 18,858 Miles on SriLankan FlySmiLes
  • 16,040 AsiaMiles + 170 Club Points on Asia Miles
  • 15,650 Points + 38 Elite Points on Malaysia Airlines Enrich
  • 3,402 Miles on American AAdvantage
  • 3,264 Avios + 410 Tier Points on British Airways Executive Club
  • 3,264 Avios + 1,440 Elite Points on Iberia Plus
Data provided by miles.travel-dealz.com. Without guarantee on correctness.

Looking to earn a status with these flights? Feel free to use our status calculator to see how far your routing leaves you from your desired status:

Write a comment

Comments (9)

  1. Jan says:

    Is there a way to book this opposite way around? Meaning Europe->USA in C and some cheapest fare on the way back (which I am not planning to use)?

  2. Monique says:

    Nice deal! Wish I could find one for ams-mia/mco/tpa/fll from 27th of april to the 11th of may. It has been 5 years ago since we went to Florida 🙁

  3. Jos says:

    looked like an interesting fare for trip to USA.
    It is hard to find those low fases on BA website. seems like expired now.
    There is no extension code for economy including checked bags?

  4. PeterS says:

    Interesting fare. Are your mileage accrual calculations based on fare paid? As of mid-October 2023, distance is not the metric used for AA, BA, or IB. And AY has announced intentions to follow suit, but has yet to set a date.

    • Peer says:

      The fare based calculation will only be in fare for tickets issued from October onwards. So no change (= based on distance) if you book now.

      Should be the same for Finnair, though it’s not sure yet how status points will work.

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