There's no nonstop escape from the Sierra Nevada to the Algarve, which means every itinerary in business class from Reno to Faro requires at least one, often two, connections—and after logging this routing more times than I can count, I've settled on a firm preference: route through Atlanta or JFK on Delta, or via London Heathrow on British Airways, rather than fight the tighter connection windows that TAP Air Portugal's Lisbon hub sometimes forces on inbound US flights. Delta's transatlantic metal, typically the A330-900 or A350 with its staggered, all-aisle-access suites, is the most consistent hard product on the US-to-Europe leg, while British Airways' Club Suite—with its door for privacy—makes Heathrow a genuinely pleasant connection point if you clear the T5 transfer security in under twenty minutes, which is realistic outside peak summer mornings.
The insider move here is booking the final Lisbon-to-Faro or connecting leg on TAP itself, since their intra-European business cabin, while modest (recliner seats, not lie-flat), often opens up better award space than trying to force a single-carrier ticket all the way through—splitting the booking occasionally saves both miles and stress, though you'll want at least a 90-minute buffer in Lisbon given the walk between terminals. April, May, September, and October remain the sweet spot for this routing, both for fare value and for the Algarve's shoulder-season weather, which is warm enough for coastal walks without the July crowds that clog Faro's small single-runway airport and its correspondingly modest arrivals hall—arrive early if you're connecting onward by rental car, as queues at passport control can back up fast for a facility this size.
Because fares on this Reno-Faro corridor swing significantly with fuel surcharges and seasonal demand from both Delta and British Airways, I'd strongly recommend setting up automated fare alerts rather than manually checking—business class pricing here can dip unpredictably for a matter of days, and those windows are easy to miss without a tracking tool doing the watching for you.
