If you’re a U.S.-based traveler, Portugal’s flag carrier, TAP Air Portugal, may not be on your radar. However, its frequent flyer program, TAP Miles&Go, is a transfer partner of several credit card rewards programs, so you can easily earn and redeem miles. But, should you?
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about TAP Air Portugal’s Miles&Go program and whether it should become a new loyalty program option in your points and miles tool kit.
An overview of the TAP Miles&Go program
TAP Miles&Go is the loyalty program of TAP Air Portugal, based at Portugal’s Lisbon Airport (LIS), with a secondary hub at Porto Airport (OPO). The airline uses an all-Airbus fleet to transport passengers to more than 80 destinations across Europe, Africa, North America and South America.
The airline is a member of Star Alliance, so you can earn and redeem TAP Miles&Go miles on the following airlines:
- Aegean Airlines
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- All Nippon Airways
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- Egyptair
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Airways
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Scandinavian Airlines
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
The program also partners with the following nonalliance airlines:
- Azores Airlines
- Azul Brazilian Airlines
- Emirates
- Gol Airlines
Note that there may be restrictions regarding the flights you can earn or redeem miles with within these partnerships. Review the airline’s partner page on the Miles&Go website before you plan your travels so you know what to expect.
Related: The 13 best hotels in Lisbon
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TAP Miles&Go elite status tiers
All members joining the program start as base-level Miles&Go members. The program then offers three elite status levels: Silver, Gold and Navigator.
Miles&Go Silver
Silver status is achieved by earning 30,000 status miles or taking 25 flights on TAP annually. Retaining the status requires 20,000 status miles or 15 flights annually. Silver status benefits include:
- 25% bonus miles on TAP flights
- Last-minute upgrades
- Guaranteed economy seat availability until 72 hours before departure when flying Plus in R, D, B and Y classes
- Dedicated phone number
- Priority standby at the airport
- Fast-track security
- Premium boarding
- Priority baggage handling
- Four Star Alliance lounge passes for Europe and North Africa TAP-operated flights; unlimited lounge access on TAP-operated intercontinental flights
Miles&Go Gold
Gold status is achieved by earning 70,000 status miles or taking 50 flights on TAP annually. Retaining the status requires 50,000 status miles or 40 flights annually. Benefits include everything for Silver status, plus:
- Star Alliance Gold status
- 50% bonus miles on TAP flights
- Up to 40% discount on companion ticket redemption
- Gift Gold status to a friend or family member
- Guaranteed Executive (business-class) seat availability until 72 hours before departure and economy seat availability until 24 hours before departure when flying Plus in R, D, B and Y classes
- One additional checked bag
- Lounge access, plus one guest when flying TAP or Star Alliance airlines
- Access to the Premium Customer Center
- Fee-free award redemptions
- Miles do not expire
Miles&Go Navigator
To achieve top-tier Navigator status, you must earn 125,000 status miles or take 70 flights on TAP annually. To retain the status, you must earn 100,000 status miles or take 70 flights annually.
The perks include everything listed above, plus:
- Free seat assignment for up to four travel companions on the same booking
- TAP Premium Lounge access for one guest, even if they are not flying with the cardholder
- Up to 10% of your status miles will be transferred to the following year’s status requirements (when you earn over 100,000 status miles in a year)
- Up to five free sports equipment checked bags
- Free unlimited Wi-Fi on Airbus A330-900 and A321-LR aircraft
- Two free business-class upgrades
- A “differentiated experience” lounge within a lounge at the TAP Premium Lounge Tejo in Lisbon
How to qualify for Miles&Go elite status
You can qualify for Miles&Go elite status by earning status miles each time you fly on TAP and flights that are part of the Star Alliance, which are separate from redeemable miles (sometimes called bonus miles in the program) and only count toward your elite status in the program. You can alternatively earn status by taking a certain number of flights on only TAP Air Portugal each year.
Unfortunately, crediting flights on the nonalliance airline partners (Azul, Emirates, Gol and Azores Airlines) will only earn redeemable miles and will not earn status miles.
You cannot earn status just through credit card spending. You must fly with TAP and/or Star Alliance partner airlines. However, you can earn 1 status mile for every 5 miles you accumulate in eligible purchases (up to 10,000 status miles per annual qualification period) if you hold the TAP Miles&Go American Express® Credit Card. The card also comes with elitelike perks, such as premium boarding, two passes per year to the TAP Premium Lounge in Lisbon and two complimentary checked bags per year.
TAP Air Portugal also offers a unique paid membership option, separate from the elite status tiers above, called “Club TAP.” If you want to enjoy bonus miles and some status benefits without having to fly enough to earn them the traditional way, you can pay for one of five membership options, starting at $122 per year for Club Basic and up to $1,299 per year for Club Platinum+. If you have a Platinum or Platinum+ membership, you will automatically enjoy complimentary Silver status.
The program also occasionally offers status matches to elite members of select airline loyalty programs.
The information for the TAP Miles&Go Amex has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: Complete guide to airline status matches and challenges
Earning redeemable miles with TAP Miles&Go
You can earn redeemable Miles&Go miles by flying TAP Air Portugal. The amount of miles you earn depends on the ticket type purchased:
- TAP Discount (all flights): 20%
- TAP Basic (intercontinental flights): 50%
- TAP Classic (Europe and North Africa): 70%
- TAP Classic (intercontinental flights): 100%
- TAP Plus (Europe and North Africa): 100%
- TAP Plus (intercontinental flights): 150%
- TAP Executive (all flights): 150%
- TAP Top Executive (all flights): 200%
You can also earn redeemable miles by taking flights with any of TAP Air Portugal’s airline partners (Star Alliance and nonalliance partners). Each partner has a different earning rate, so check the program’s website to ensure you know how much you will earn before crediting your next flight.
The easiest way to earn lots of bonus miles in the Miles&Go program is with the right credit card. Currently, the TAP Miles&Go American Express Credit Card is offering 40,000 bonus miles after spending $2,500 in the first 90 days. The program is also a transfer partner of Capital One miles and Bilt Rewards at a 1:1 rate, as well as Marriott Bonvoy at a 3:1 rate, with a bonus of 5,000 miles for every 60,000 Bonvoy points transferred.
Here are some of our favorite cards with welcome offers that you can transfer to Miles&Go:
Aside from airline partners and holding a rewards credit card, you can also earn Miles&Go miles through program partners, including:
- Hotels (Accor, IHG, Marriott, Melia and more)
- Select restaurants in Portugal
- Rental cars (Avis, Europcar, Hertz, Sixt and CarTrawler)
- Select fashion boutiques in Portugal
- Royal Caribbean cruises
You can also purchase miles from the program; however, it will cost you approximately 3.7 cents per mile, which is not a great deal.
TAP Air Portugal charges 70 euros (about $75) per 2,000 bonus miles, which is the minimum purchase amount.
Related: Best frequent flyer programs for US travelers
Redeeming miles with Miles&Go
TAP Air Portugal is a Star Alliance member, meaning you can use your Miles&Go miles for flights on the Portuguese flag carrier or any of its alliance partner airlines. Therefore, you can redeem your miles for flights on airlines such as United Airlines, Lufthansa and ANA.
Miles&Go uses two standard zone-based award charts: one for flights directly with TAP Air Portugal and another for partner award flights. Here is the chart for flights operated by TAP.
Though, in theory, these are fixed-priced award charts, in reality, flights operated by TAP Air Portugal display variable award pricing, so rates fluctuate.
For example, a round-trip business-class redemption costs 245,000 Miles&Go miles, plus 85.56 euros (about $92) in taxes and fees.
With cash rates for the same flights retailing for just under $3,000 round-trip, you’ll obtain a value of approximately 1.28 cents per mile redeemed. This is an OK, though not outstanding, way to redeem points and miles, especially when transferred from a credit card program like Capital One or Bilt.
Partner redemptions can be a fair use of Miles&Go miles; however, you should be aware of a couple of things before redeeming your miles with partners.
The first is that most redemption rates lag behind some other Star Alliance programs for many awards, making it uncompetitive as the first place to look for partner awards. The second is that TAP Air Portugal tacks on fuel surcharges for redemptions on several partner airlines.
Fortunately, other airline mileage programs are better alternatives for booking a Star Alliance award.
Here is TAP’s published award chart for Star Alliance carriers originating from the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean (one-way in business class).
There are no real slam-dunk sweet spots, though flying from the West Coast to Europe for 100,000 miles each way on Lufthansa, United and Swiss is a decent deal.
It is a similar story in terms of no outstanding redemption options in economy. Redeeming 30,000 miles for a flight to Hawaii from the East Coast is an acceptable amount, though be aware that Finnair Plus charges just 11,000 Avios for the same route.
An interesting way to redeem Miles&Go miles is the unique option to convert them to status miles at a 2:1 rate. However, you can only convert a maximum of 20,000 bonus miles to earn 10,000 elite status miles each annual accrual period. Therefore, you could only redeem enough bonus miles to secure Silver status in a year.
Additionally, if you are close to earning status through flying and are short a few thousand status miles to reach the next status tier, this could be an excellent way to lock in elite status at little cost.
You could also donate your Miles&Go miles to charity partners like Assistencia Medica Internacional, Helpo and Associacao Terra dos Sonhos.
Bottom line
The TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go program is more relevant to U.S. travelers now that it is a transfer partner of Capital One miles, Bilt Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
TAP Air Portugal is a Star Alliance member, so the miles earned (or transferred into) the program can be redeemed for award flights on both TAP and Star Alliance partners.
While you can expect OK value when redeeming Miles&Go miles for flights operated by TAP, unfortunately, the redemption rates on partner airlines are not great. As such, you should consider other Star Alliance programs, such as Air Canada’s Aeroplan program, which consistently offers better partner redemption rates.
