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TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go Loyalty Program Review

Q: What is the Miles&Go login?

Access your TAP account by clicking Login at the top right of the login page.

Michael McHugh

- Updated: September 21, 2021|

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TAP Portugal Summary Table

Home Country Portugal
Airline Website FlyTap.com
Loyalty Program TAP Miles&Go Programme
Major Hubs Lisbon Airport (LIS)
Airline Alliance Star Alliance
Signature Lounge TAP Premium Lounge at Lisbon airport
Earn Points/Miles
- Best Ways To Earn Lots of Marriott Bonvoy Points
- Best Ways To Earn Lots of Capital One Miles and Rewards
Redeem Points/Miles
- Best Ways to Redeem Marriott Points for Flights [For Maximum Value]
- Best Ways To Redeem Capital One Miles [for Max Value]
Award Chart Link

Branded and Partnered Credit Cards

Earning miles in the TAP Miles&Go program does not come easy as TAP Portugal only has 2 transferable point partners and 2 credit cards (cards not available to the U.S. market).

With that said, you’ll need to focus your spending on the 1 transferable point program partner in order to earn TAP Portugal Miles&Go miles.

TAP Portugal Credit Cards

TAP Portugal has 2 credit cards that work great if you meet the residency requirements stated in the terms and conditions.

As a U.S. resident, you’ll need to focus your efforts elsewhere in order to earn TAP Portugal miles with your credit card spend.

Capital One Credit Cards

Capital One miles transfer to Miles&Go at a 1:1 ratio, often a better use of your miles than redeeming them for cash tickets for 1 cent per point in the Capital One travel portal.

Make sure you have a Capital One card that has the transferable miles feature.

Recommended Capital One Cards That Earn Miles (Personal)

Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards

The Marriott Bonvoy program is a transferable point program where you can redeem Marriott Bonvoy points in exchange for TAP Portugal miles.

On the surface this sounds great, however, the transfer time from Marriott to TAP Portugal could take months.

The upside with Marriott is the program’s transfer bonus when converting points into airline miles.

For every 60,000 Marriott points that are transferred to an airline partner, you’ll receive a 5,000-point bonus in the form of airline miles.

Marriott to TAP Portugal transfers are 3:1, so 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points become 25,000 TAP Portugal miles with the 5,000-point bonus (60,000 / 3 = 20,000 * 25% bonus = 25,000).

If you’re interested in pursuing this route to earn TAP Portugal miles, here are the Marriott Bonvoy credit cards we recommend:

Other Hotel Partner Credit Cards

TAP Portugal, unlike many of the airlines we’ve covered in these loyalty reviews, doesn’t partner with other hotel programs.

TAP Portugal Overview

TAP Portugal is the national airline of Portugal serving customers with flights across the world primarily out of its Lisbon (LIS) airport hub.

The airline has been a Star Alliance member since 2005 joining other member airlines like Air New Zealand, ANA, Brussels Airlines, Avianca, and United.

As many reading this likely know, membership in the Star Alliance has a ton of benefits. The primary benefit is that TAP Portugal miles can be redeemed for both TAP Portugal and partner airline flights across the Star Alliance.

TAP Miles&Go is the name of the frequent flyer program that allows members to earn TAP miles and redeem those miles for award flights.

In order to qualify for elite status, a member must earn the required number of Status Miles or fly the required number of TAP segments for each tier.

The program uses 2 different types of miles: Status Miles and Bonus Miles.

For every TAP flight that you fly, a member will earn the same number of Status Miles as Bonus Miles, assuming the route and fare class are the same.

Status Miles are required for elite status but are not added to a member’s TAP Miles&Go account, so members can’t use Status Miles for award flights or other redemption options.

Bonus Miles are the miles earned from flying and from using TAP’s partners that can be redeemed for an award flight.

The amount of TAP miles a member earns is based on the total distance flown in miles and the type of fare class purchased. For miles earned on partner flights, refer to the partner airline page to see the number of miles you’ll earn.

On the redemption side, TAP miles can be used with a number of non-airline partners that include hotels, rental cars, and retail partners.

Bottom Line: In short, TAP Portugal will likely not be your go-to Star Alliance program when the time comes to book award flights.

Joining Miles&Go

A Miles&Go frequent flyer account is free. Simply complete your application and confirm it from the email TAP Portugal sends to you.

Once your membership has been registered, you’ll receive the ability to earn and redeem TAP Portugal Miles&Go miles.

How to Sign in to Your Miles&Go Account

Use your TAP customer number or email and password to gain access to your account.

TAP Portugal Login Screen. Image Credit: TAP Portugal

Hot Tip:We recommend starting your Star Alliance award flight search on United and Aeroplan before using the TAP Portugal website to search for an award flight.

Viewing Your Account Activity

Follow these easy steps to check out the mileage activity in your account:

Log in to your account
Click Balance and transactions

Points Expiration

TAP Miles&Go are valid for 3 years from the date the miles were earned. In some instances, bonus miles may only be valid for one year.

Customers can pay a fee to extend the expiration of expiring miles for an additional 3 years.

TAP Portugal Miles&Go Program

Miles&Go Elite Status

TAP Portugal Elite Status. Image Credit: TAP Portugal

Miles&Go keeps it easy by only having 2 elite tiers in its frequent flyer program.

For the highest elite tier, members earn bonus miles, a companion ticket, extra baggage allowance, and exemption from their miles expiring.

Silver: Miles&Go’s lowest elite tier providing members with these perks:

25% bonus miles on flights
Priority check-in and boarding
Lounge access

Gold: The highest elite tier in the program offering the following benefits:

50% bonus miles on flights
Priority check-in and boarding
Lounge access
Companion ticket
Bonus miles do not expire

For those wanting a more in depth review of the Miles&Go benefits, head to the benefit’s page for additional info.

Bottom Line: TAP Portugal leaves much to be desired in terms of elite benefits offered to its most loyal customers.

Value of TAP Portugal Status

While most people would assume that the national airline of Portugal would have elite perks that are on par with other national airlines, that’s simply not the case.

Even at the Gold tier, additional bonus miles and a companion ticket are all that you’ll earn for your loyalty.

If you fly TAP Portugal on a regular basis, use wheretocredit.com to see what airline you should credit your airline miles to in order to pick benefits from another program.

Bottom Line: Due to the lack of elite benefits, we do not recommend working your way towards TAP Portugal elite status.

Earning Miles&Go Elite Status

TAP Portugal Accrual Chart. Image Credit: TAP Portugal

Status Miles or the number of TAP Portugal flight segments flown determine your elite status in the program.

Qualifying segments are earned from flights with TAP and members of the Star Alliance network.

The amount of TAP miles that members earn from flying TAP flights are calculated based on the distance of the flight and the type of fare class purchased.

What’s interesting about TAP is that members can qualify for elite status from Status Miles earned or TAP Portugal flight segments.

With some elite programs, members must earn both requirements to qualify at each tier.

Miles&Go Silver members need 30,000 Status Miles or 25 TAP flight segments to qualify. Gold members need 70,000 Status Miles or 50 TAP flight segments to qualify.

In the year after they qualify for status, Silver members need 20,000 Status Miles or 15 TAP flight segments and Gold members need 50,000 Status Miles or 40 TAP flight segments to re-qualify for status.

TAP has a unique elite status feature by which a member can convert Bonus Miles into Status miles to qualify for elite status. If you find yourself in this position, check out TAP’s Convert Miles page for more info.

Bottom Line: Miles&Go has a couple of interesting twists, 1) qualifying for elite status from flight segments must be on TAP flights, and 2) Bonus Miles can be used to reduce the amount of Status miles needed for elite status qualification.

How to Earn TAP Bonus Miles

Earning TAP miles is not going to be easy unless your Marriott Bonvoy or Capital One spend is extremely high.

TAP Portugal offers co-branded credit cards, however, U.S. residents will not be able to take advantage of them.

So that leaves us with only 2 options to earn TAP Miles.

Earning Miles Through Flying

As previously mentioned, TAP has Status Miles and Bonus Miles. Status Miles can only be earned on TAP and TAP-marketed partener flights. Bonus Miles are also earned when flying but can be accumulated from non-flying activities and partners.

If your goal is TAP elite status, earning Status Miles should be your focus.

TAP has an accrual rates page when flying its own flights where the number of miles that you earn corresponds to the flight distance and fare class of the ticket.

We recommend calculating the distance of your flight on Great Circle Mapper, then referring to the accrual page, and lastly adding any bonus elite tier miles to determine what you’ll earn.

Star Alliance members airlines. Image Credit: Star Alliance

For partner airline flights, TAP has a separate partner accrual rates page where the member earns a percentage of the miles flown based on the fare class of the ticket.

In addition to its Star Alliance partners, TAP has additional airline partners that include Azul, Emirates, GOL, Sata, Ukraine International Airlines, and Beijing Capital Airlines.

Earn Miles With Credit Cards

The only way for U.S. customers to earn TAP miles from credit card spend is to pick up Capital One miles-earning credit cards or Marriott Bonvoy credit cards.

The transfer time when converting Marriott points into TAP miles is unknown, so keep that front of mind.

Earning Bonus Miles in Other Ways

If you’re looking for more ways to earn TAP miles or can’t generate miles from flying, TAP provides its members with an array of options to earn miles without stepping onto a flight.

The list of partners that allow you to earn TAP miles includes the categories of hotels, leisure, rental cars, restaurants, and shopping.

The last way to earn Bonus Miles without flying is to keep a pulse on the TAP Portugal Facebook, Twitter, and Promotions pages.

Hot Tip: Airlines like TAP Portugal typically will not allow you to double-dip by earning elite status miles at the same time that you’re earning miles from shopping, hotel stays, and car rentals.

How to Redeem TAP Portugal Bonus Miles

Redeeming TAP Portugal Bonus Miles for award flights will yield the highest return with your miles. With that said, there are other ways to use Bonus Miles outside of award flights.

For those of you looking to use TAP Bonus Miles for award flights, TAP makes it easy by putting all of its award charts on the same page.

The award chart page lists flights when flying TAP, a Star Alliance partner, or Other Airline partner.

If you’re looking to fly TAP using Bonus Miles, start typing in your zone in the Fly From section and the search page will populate the number of miles required to fly to each zone below that section.

The number of miles required is driven by the zone you are flying to/from, the fare class, and season.

In addition to only using Bonus Miles for a flight, TAP has a Miles&Cash option where you can use a cash copay to pay for a portion of your flight plus a reduced number of Bonus Miles.

TAP Portugal Award Flight Search. Image Credit: TAP Portugal

After running award searches for TAP Portugal flights, use the search engine to see what other routes show award availability for partner airline flights.

Avianca Star Alliance Partners — Star Alliance partner airlines. Image Credit: LifeMiles

With a handle on running partner award searches, here is a potential sweet spot that yields value with your Miles&Go miles:

60,400 Miles + $267-$304 one-way TAP business class from North America to Europe/North Africa

Hot Tip: If you’re looking for additional ways to fly to Europe, we have an entire post on the best ways to fly to Europe with points and miles.

Star Alliance and Other Partner Awards

With its Star Alliance membership, members with TAP miles can redeem the miles for Star Alliance partner flights.

Simply head to the partner airline page to see how many miles are required, locate award availability on United and/or Aeroplan, and then find the same award availability on TAP.

Booking Online

TAP Portugal hits you with a double whammy in that it doesn’t have a favorable award chart and you will not see the same Star Alliance award availability you can find elsewhere.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that when booking award flights using the Miles&Cash option, you’ll be on the hook for high fuel surcharges.

The best strategy for TAP partner flights is to locate award availability on another search engine, and then try to locate the same availability on the TAP website or call TAP to search for and book the flight.

When the time comes to search for an award flight, keep these general rules in mind to help make the process more efficient.

Search the British Airways and Qantas websites for Oneworld flights
Use the Delta and Flying Blue (Air France or KLM) websites for SkyTeam flights
Search the United and Aeroplan websites for Star Alliance flights

Hot Tip: For partner flights that are hard to find, consider using Expert Flyer.

Featured Image Credit: Alberto Loyo via Shutterstock

Frequently asked questions

What is the TAP Miles&Go program? Is it worth it? What are the benefits?

Miles&Go is the free frequent flyer program of TAP Portugal. For those who sign up for a membership, you’ll receive the opportunity to earn elite status and miles, as well as redeem miles for an award flight.

TAP uses Status Miles and TAP Segments to determine which members earn elite status every qualifying period.

For those who are able to earn top-tier status, TAP awards those members with bonus miles, a companion ticket, extra baggage allowance, and exemption from their miles expiring.

With TAP being in the Star Alliance, members can use miles earned in the program for award flights on both TAP and Star Alliance airline flights.

In Miles&Go, who are the partners? Can I transfer miles to them?

Credit card spend, hotels, leisure, rental cars, restaurants, shopping, and flying are the primary ways to earn miles in the Miles&Go program.

As is the case with nearly every frequent flyer program, using your miles for award flights will yield the highest value.

It’s important to note that you can transfer points from Marriott Bonvoy or Capital One, but you can’t transfer miles from another airline program to/from TAP Portugal.

What is the Miles&Go login?

Access your TAP account by clicking Login at the top right of the login page.

Where can I sign up for Miles&Go?

A Miles&Go membership is free by completing an application.

What is my Miles&Go number?

You can find your Miles&Go number by signing in to your account, looking on your membership card, or through a variety of marketing emails TAP Portugal send to you.

If you can’t find it there, try using the “forgot my password” tool to reset your account so you can get in. Alternatively, try calling the customer service desk to find your number.

When do miles post in Miles&Go?

TAP miles should post into your account within 7 days after your day of travel.

When do Miles&Go expire?

TAP Miles&Go are valid for 3 years from the date the miles were earned. In some instances, bonus miles may only be valid for one year.

TAP allows its members to pay a fee to extend the expiration of expiring miles for an additional 3 years.

When does Miles&Go status expire?

The terms and conditions do not explicitly state the validity of TAP elite status.

With that said, it’s safe to assume that elite status is valid in the year in which it is earned plus the following year.

Is there a TAP Portugal credit card?

Yes, but unfortunately there are no cards for the U.S. market.

Can you hold an award flight with TAP Portugal?

TAP will not allow you to hold an award flight.

About Michael McHugh

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Michael took his first international trip in 2013 with friends to the Bahamas. Although he didn't travel much in his younger years, on that trip, he caught the travel bug and has been hooked ever since. Michael first caught wind of the points and miles game in 2014 while at a bar in Washington, DC where the conversation amongst friends was quickly derailed because of an alert on a friend's phone about a mistake fare. That's where the love affair with points and miles began.

Adventure NML April 14, 2020
Hi there, I think TAP Portugal has revised their partner status earning…the language on their site now says:
“Only miles earned from flights with TAP and members of the Star Alliance network are considered Status Miles and count towards Silver and Gold status.”
(for example, on https://www.flytap.com/en-us/miles-and-go/partners/singapore-airlines?accordionid=1)
- Stephen Au April 16, 2020
  Hey there,
  Thanks for the feedback. I went ahead and updated this to reflect the new partner status policy.
L3 May 2, 2020
Brilliant idea of you to refer to the award chart but not give the URL, requiring the reader to go on a lengthy fishing expedition. First article, right?
- Christine Krzyszton May 3, 2020
  You’ll find the link to book with miles in the first section of the article.