With the glimpse of travel opening up… I feel the need to diversify. And as we all know, the longer you have been playing with frequent miles diverse it gets.
However, last year TAP Air Portugal opened Miles&Go to people who wanted to join their programme with a status match and miles purchase.
The status match programme is still running at the time of writing and with the uptick in travel coming- it might provide a few options.
Let us see how I got on with this status match…
TAP Air Portugal Airbus A330-900neo – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
So, let the adventure begin…
And it goes back to the 8th of April.
Firstly, if you are interested in doing this, take the time to do it – it does not happen overnight. Firstly, Head to https://www.flytap.com/en-pt/miles-and-go/promotions/status-match-campaign to review everything.
Next check your eligibility. You can match from a list of programmes (mostly Oneworld, SkyTeam and independent programmes – note, they are not offering matches within Star Alliance… because let’s be honest, the last thing you would do is to steal customers from a fellow alliance member).
I am being a little disloyal, and I am matching against my British Airways Silver Status. In this case, I would get TAP Miles&Go Gold – equivalent to Star Alliance Gold.
What does TAP Silver vs TAP Gold offer?
TAP Miles&Go Silver (Star Alliance Silver) offers:
- 25% bonus miles
- Priority check-in, security, and boarding
- Free seat reservations
- Lounge access when travelling on international TAP flights
TAP Miles&Go Gold (Star Alliance Gold) improves on the offering
- 50% bonus miles
- Lounge access whenever travelling same-day on a Star Alliance flight
- The ability to nominate a companion to Gold status (Unless you are status matching, in which case, no dice)
- Free Economy Xtra seat assignment
- Increased checked baggage allowance
To me, the lounge and luggage benefits are worth a lot when travelling. The bonus miles are… useful if the redemption pages require translating into various scripts to make something semi understandable.
Form filling
The next step for me was to register for a new TAP Miles and Go account. Once here, it is a case of “fill that form in”.
Fill the form in… but be careful as you go. It is at this point where you will need to provide the credentials of your current frequent flyer status.
I admittedly did this on my phone, so I submitted a screenshot of my BA Silver Status card.
After agreeing to the terms, all I could do was sit back and wait. And wait. And wait.
And watch all the TAP Air Portugal offers flood in for buying miles, offers etc.
About a month later, an email popped into my inbox.
With that in play, time is ticking, as I would now have to decide what to do. Do I buy into the TAP Miles&Go clubs, or do I purchase 4000 miles?
Math time!
With a match like this, I need to minimise the cost of this, whilst squeezing as many miles as I can. First up, let us check out how much the miles cost.
This is at https://www.flytap.com/en-gb/client-area/buy-miles. With 4000 miles required, a minimum investment of €140 in miles is required. Hmmm.
€140 upwards… and to the moon (Dogecoin not accepted).
Club Miles&Go offers some interesting options, however.
I could go wild and spend €718 a year for their Platinum membership (which gives a bucket tone of miles and Star Alliance Silver), but there is the interesting one at the start – Club Basic.
This gives me a yield of 14,000 (2000+12000) spending miles, 600 status miles over the year, as well as 15% bonus miles on TAP flights (limited to 5000 miles).
All for €99 a year (the trick will be to add to the diary to cancel the renewal a year later).
A bit of umming and ahhing (as well as digging out my Curve card because there is no way in heck, I am paying 2.95% currency conversion fees), and I was a member of Club Basic.
With the Club TAP&Go Basic membership purchased, it was time to return to the wonderful waiting game again.
A few days later, two wonderful emails popped in. The first one confirmed that I had met the requirements of the status match programme.
Thereis the first one
And finally, the email I was looking forward to on the 11th of May.
And finally – I got another gold card (electronically of course).
What if I want to retain TAP Gold?
In normal times you would need 50,000 status miles to retain gold and four flights, or 20,000 to retain silver with two flights.
The airline is running an offer until the end of 2021, for status retention – where to retain status, it is 25,000 status miles for gold plus four flights, or 10,000 miles and two flights for Silver
The minimum requirement flights must be with TAP Air Portugal (Remember when you could be in an airline’s loyalty programme and climb through the status ranks and not step once on an airline. Many did years ago…).
Considering that there is a handy shuttle service between Lisbon and Porto… well, I do not need to spell out how to get the segments, do I?
How long did it take?
If we set the start date on the 8th of April and the end date of the 11th of May when my Gold card status went live, it took a grand total of 33 days to complete the status match.
A bit long compared to some matches I have done in the past – but better than the airline never responding…
Was it Worth it?
As travel resumes, it gives me one thing I like most in the world (and not luggage allowances and lounge access amazingly). Namely, flexibility.
It gives me the ability to plan travel a little more flexibility, whilst enjoying premium benefits in the air. This also allows me to be completely disloyal to my other frequent flyer programme (British Airways Executive Club) and not feel guilty in the least about it.
Remember, the best loyalty programme is the one that fits your needs, not the one that is closest to your airport or credit card.
Over the next 12 months, I will see if TAP Air Portugal is a good fit for me. Having 12 months to try it is helpful. Having reduced earning requirements to hold onto it make it extra tasty.
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