TAP Miles&Go Program: How to earn and redeem miles, elite status and more

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.

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.

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%

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.

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.