TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go Status Match Offer

It's been 3 weeks since I signed up for the status match with TAP and still not received any further communication.

Be patient, they will likely send you a confirmation shortly. In my case, I signed up in late May 2021 and I received the confirmation email in October 2021 with an apology for the delay in responding. So it only took about 5 months to respond which while in usual times is terrible, it was actually helpful because I now have status later through 2022 and with international travel still logistically challenging due to flight cancellations and covid tests it was actually a welcome surprise.

The irony of the TAP Air status match is by the time they respond your matching status has expired. Then you realise that Star Alliance Gold means absolutely nothing.

This sounds potentially like a very interesting route to *Gold.

Questions (I could not easily find the answers on the status match site you linked):

1. What is the cheapest / best value way to complete the status match?

2. What is the cheapest price at which you've seen TAP points available on a reasonably frequent basis (say, once a year)?

3. What does "a minimum of 12 months" mean? Does it mean 12 calendar months from approval and then you can requalify? Or does it mean the rest of the current calendar year and all of the following year?

4. To requalify for Gold, can you earn status miles by crediting other flights (such as United domestic flights) to TAP? How quickly / easily can you accrue those miles?

5. To requalify for Gold, the four flights have to be paid, not award flights, correct? Is that four segments, four one-ways, or four PNRs? Do they need to be booked through TAP, or just credited to TAP? Do they have to be on TAP metal, or do codeshares count?

4,000 TAP miles are sold for $174. Isn't the $122 Club Tap the cheaper option? Are there frequent discounts/sales on the miles?

Lucky.
Your paid or otherwise pop up videos are a pain in the ass. Half the time I click the x or closure button, it takes me to the advertisers website.

I call Bullshit... still enjoy your blog though.

Hi Lucky.

Do you know how the TAP Miles&GO Gold free Economy Xtra seat assignment works in practice?

I did the status match and am now Gold, but I searched Google and not one site explains how it actually works (including TAP). I've even tried to book a dummy reservation and am unable to select an Economy Xtra seat assignment for free when booking anything less than Classic (which I believe already includes an Economy Xtra seat).

Sorry, but am I missing something?

Are there any experiences by people who already did this match once in 2020 and would like to do it once more now?

TAP must be one of the worst airlines for customer service and like their Star Alliance peers their miles soon expire if not used, I.e. it’s hard to save them up for that big trip

I’m probably not the first person to mention this. But this post made me think, I find it peculiar and a bit funny how almost all of the European Star Alliance airlines have frequent flyer programs named “Miles & ___”. Like Lufthansa Group has Miles & More, Turkish (since they’re based on the European side I’m counting them) has Miles & Smiles, Aegean has Miles + Bonus, and TAP right here has Miles & GO. SAS is the only exception I know of, since their program is called EuroBonus. Why is this the case? Did everyone just copy Lufthansa (I’m guessing they were the first one)? Seems kind of annoying and it would be nice if someone got more creative. I don’t believe there is another example of this kind of repetition in any other part of the world.

TAP used to call their program Victoria until recently. I honestly don't understand why their marketing team thought renaming it as any other Eurpean airline's FFP was a good idea.

There is one important restriction: you must have joined AFTER January 1st, 2020 (or you are not part of the program yet).

Stupid restriction if you ask me, because you are leaving your frequent flyers out and attracting the ones who will never fly with you... No wonder TAP is under huge financial pressure.

Great article, thanks.

I am moving to Portugal and am currently United 1K. Does it make any sense for me to match on TAP? Is there any advantage to that vs just adding my 1k number to all TAP flights. Looking for the pros and cons. I already have United Club access through the United Club Credit card.

Been impossible to check out via their site to purchase a club membership. Good news is a representative got it done for 99 euros, saving me $22USD.

U cannot match from a Star alliance partner.

I think this has ended? The link for the status match on the TAP website no longer works.