TAP Air Portugal has a mileage subscription service that I wouldn’t usually consider to be a good deal, but the current promotion has me rethinking that.
In this post:
What is Club TAP Miles&Go?
Miles&Go is TAP Air Portugal’s frequent flyer program, and Club TAP is an annual subscription service that offers members certain rewards. This program is intended to engage members who like to collect TAP Air Portugal miles.
The idea is that Club TAP members receive a certain number of bonus miles upon subscribing, a certain number of bonus miles monthly, and bonus status miles monthly. On top of that, members can receive priority boarding, bonus miles when flying with TAP, status, and more.
Under normal circumstances I’d say the math doesn’t quite add up, at least for those who don’t fly TAP Air Portugal frequently.
Earn bonus miles & status with Club TAP
Club TAP Miles&GO promo offers Star Alliance Gold status
There’s a special offer for those who join TAP Miles&Go by November 30, 2020. Those who sign up can receive significantly more bonus miles than usual, as well as a higher status level than usual.
Here are the current offerings:
The best value is with “Club Platinum” (as tempting as it is to join “Club Top”). An annual Club Platinum subscription costs $887, and with the current promotion you’d receive the following:
- A total of 132,000 bonus miles — 36,000 bonus miles for signing up, and then 8,000 bonus miles per month, for 12 months
- TAP Miles&Go Gold status, which gets you Star Alliance Gold status, among other perks
Receive Star Alliance Gold status with TAP Miles&Go Gold
Is the TAP Club deal worth it?
I never previously considered signing up for TAP Club, though I’m kind of tempted. A few things to note upfront:
- TAP Air Portugal is offering a generous status match promotion separate from this deal, so this isn’t the only way to get Star Alliance status through TAP
- For those not eligible for a status match, earning Star Alliance Gold status doesn’t get much easier than this; then again, people are mostly traveling less over the next six months than they did pre-coronavirus, so it’s anyone’s guess how much status is actually worth
- Even taking the status out of the equation, you’re earning 132,000 miles for $887, which is a rate of ~0.67 cents per mile; that could be worth it in and of itself
- Keep in mind that you only earn the miles over the course of 12 months, so you don’t even receive them all right away; miles do devalue over time, and it could be that certain redemptions cost more in 12 months than they do now
- Like many airlines, TAP Air Portugal isn’t in a great financial position, so it’s anyone’s guess what that means for the airline and the frequent flyer program
I’m still on the fence about this promotion, but this has caused me to start digging much deeper into the redemption values through TAP’s frequent flyer program. I’ve been playing around with redemptions (both online and by phone), so I’ll have a follow-up post with my overall thoughts on the value proposition of TAP’s program.
Just to give one example, one-way redemptions between the US and Europe cost 80,000 miles in business class. There are fuel surcharges on some Star Alliance airline partners, but not others.
Personally I’d consider these to be among the less valuable Star Alliance miles out there, but then again, they’re also consistently priced really low, so that seems fair enough.
TAP Air Portugal miles can be redeemed on Star Alliance partners, and more
Bottom line
For $887 you can sign up for TAP Club Platinum, and receive 132,000 miles over the course of 12 months, and Star Alliance Gold status for a period of six months. Some people might generally find it worth acquiring TAP miles for under 0.7 cents each, and then the Star Alliance Gold status is the icing on the cake.
I’m on the fence about this promotion, but I’m appreciative that this has caused me to take a closer look at TAP’s frequent flyer program. Stay tuned for my thoughts on that…
Anyone plan on signing up for Club TAP with this offer?
Am I required to join a PAID TAP mileage program (club) to earn credits? I have an account with TAP, but I can't locate a link to enter my recent flight.
I live in PT and signed up for this promotion in 2021 for $887 and 144K miles. I wish I hadn’t. Their miles have been devalued to the extent that we’ll be lucky if we’re able to redeem them all for a ONE WAY ticket in biz. The chart now says US-EUR redemptions are FROM 100K, but I haven’t found a single flight yet for less than 145K.
It’s a complete scam. Best redemptions for TAP are through Air Canada Aeroplan. Never again.
Hi
I have just moved to PT. Are there any other rewards cards that you can recommend here in Europe?
Thanks
Did you decide to join Club TAP Miles&Go? It looks like they make this offer regularly.
@Lucky @Ben
There are some new confusing offers from TAP Miles&Go
https://www.flytap.com/en-ua/miles-and-go/promotions
according to my math, miles can be bought for slightly less than 0.6 euro cents a mile.
--> How far along are you in analysis of this program? With fuel surcharges and award redemption fees, miles validity, etc., would you take this offer?
So I went for the Platinum, but after registration I recieved all the bonus black friday extra miles but it gave me only an Silver Star Aliance status. Has anyone else also had this problem? I hope that it will update, since for at least 6 months it should be a gold...
but what about just booking a biz class or first class ticket with the mileage? like, not even commit to flying TAP, and run away with the SA gold status (if you don't have gold with SA)
... And if you add to this that Lisbon is probably the worst, most disorganized and extremely impractical airport in Europe, there really is no reason.
The Status match promotion is a complete DUD.
I registered for it (AA Explat) when you first announced it and then.... NOTHING HAPPENED.
TAP, for all intents and purposes, is a totally inefficient airline which is about to collapse. Stay clear of the falling ruins. Alitalia at least rebounds (and rebounds... and rebounds). TAP won't.
@Nelson, correct before Covid. December 28th 2019 and February 2020.
Lis-Tfs and return.
@ Stephen Morrissey, don't know on what flight you had snacks and wine. I flew them back in AUG on a four hour flight. No snacks, no wine. Only water and beer.
Snacks and wine is from before covid.
Based on my experience of their customer service I wouldn't bother. If something goes wrong with this offer and you don't get what they promised ( not so unlikely) the effort to get it sorted out won't be worth the hassle.
Their customer service is the worst of any Airline I have ever dealt with. Try crediting a flight afterwards- you won’t even get a response. And the miles you get per flight in Economy are miserly
Major disadvantages, first class redemptions are absolutely impossible.
Also, most redemptions for
Business class are usually the market price for a flight you can book with money & earn awards and status.
In addition, my customer service experience was horrible. Once I tried to book something which I bought miles to and got an error (probably a phantom).
My recommendation - just not.
Hahaha @Nathan I thought the exact same thing ;).
In semi-related news:
Starlux is launching flights to Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 5th. If anyone wants to match Starlux top tier status for the next 4 years, and need something to match with, this is probably the deal to do it with minimal cost, no flying requirement, and no location requirement.
I've missed something - the top status (Gold) is only valid for 6 months? or for the year?
The 6 month number only appears in your bottom line summary as far as I can see.
They called my cancelled flights "rescheduled" and just about all the changes, and for one flight, it changed at least 4 times, they NEVER notified me!!!
Have any of you dealt with TAP customer service at all? I have-there is NONE! I've flown TAP-it gets you there, but it's nothing special. I was supposed to fly from Lisbon to Faro and back and the on to Barcelona this past October. Portugal closed its borders, and TAP changed my flights by over five hours in departure time and still refused to give me a refund even though the flights were renumbered as...
Have any of you dealt with TAP customer service at all? I have-there is NONE! I've flown TAP-it gets you there, but it's nothing special. I was supposed to fly from Lisbon to Faro and back and the on to Barcelona this past October. Portugal closed its borders, and TAP changed my flights by over five hours in departure time and still refused to give me a refund even though the flights were renumbered as well! It's website would only generate a voucher that expired quickly. They never responded to emails or messenging. I finally had to dispute the credit card charges. I would think long and hard about this. If everything ALWAYS goes fine, you are set. But it's TAP, so it won't.
@Bill, Lucky you! I love Sintra.
I like that TAP provides free wine and snacks on short hops.
Could be why they lose so much money.
Can you please dig into their redemptions sweet spots also on non Star Alliance partners such as Emirates? Thanks!
"as tempting as it is to join 'Club Top'” LMAO
#straightmenknownotofwhichyouspeak
i am applying for a D7 Visa next year and seriously considering moving to the Cascais/Sintra area. This maybe perfect for me. Looks like vaccines are rolling out in the next few months so this may be a good risk for me.
The Portuguese government bailed them out, as it has done numerous times in the past. Despite the fact that TAP have been haemorrhaging bucket loads of money for years, they're seen as a symbol of national pride and the government will spare no effort to keep them flying.
@Nelson - I believe that the government of Portugal took a majority stake in TAP a few months ago. To me that is a clear sign that they're going to do anything to stop it from collapsing.
However, yes - there could be major devaluations in the TAP mileage programme for sure.
However #2 - there are actually some interesting pros and sweet spots in this programme that I hadn't noticed before.
I would not recomend it because TAP is about to collapse. So that would only enrich them, not the subscribers.