TAP Portugal re-opens their status match programme – get your Star Alliance Gold today!

To give you some context, TAP Portugal ran a status match promotion back in March, for which you could match *A Gold or Silver status to your Skyteam or Oneworld cards. The promotion has just re-opened, so don’t miss it this time if you didn’t join the party!

The promotion page is here. Terms are more or less the same with the previous edition, but things are a bit more detailed.

[Targeted Group]

You must be a new Miles&Go member, or have joined the programme this year. If you are an existing customer however, I guess you may be able to participate by creating a new account.

[Eligibility]

You need to have elite status with a competitor airline, and also purchase TAP miles or Club Miles&Go membership to qualify.

[Matching Airlines]

The following airline schemes are accepted:

AAdvantage; Aeroflot Bonus; Aerolineas Plus; Air Europa SUMA; Cedar Miles; Club Premier; Etihad Guest; Executive Club; Finnair Plus; Flying Blue; Iberia Plus; LATAM Pass; MilleMiglia; OK Plus; Privilege Club; Royal Club; Safar Flyer; SkyMiles; Skywards; Smiles; and TudoAzul

Unlike last time, it’s not open to all Skyteam and Oneworld airlines. Looking at the list it seems that Asian airlines are excluded on purpose, which is fair given TAP doesn’t fly to Asia.

Matching conditions remain unchanged:

• Silver (also *A Silver): Skyteam Elite and Oneworld Ruby
• Gold (also *A Gold): Skyteam Elite Plus, Oneworld Sapphire and Emerald

So British Airways Bronze will get Silver, whereas Silver and Gold will get Gold. This is a very decent deal as BA Silver is, in general, much more achievable than *A Gold.

Applications from Emirates and Etihad members are also accepted.

[How to Apply]

• During sign-up, you should upload proof of status with another airline
• TAP will get back telling you if your application is valid or not
• If it’s valid, you can make the purchase – done!

Once approved, your status should be updated within 15 days.

[Some Notes]

Your status is valid for 12 months. The matched status doesn’t come with the Gold nomination benefit, nor can you request a physical card.

Your re-qualification criteria are halved:

• Silver: 10,000 status miles and 2 TAP flights
• Gold: 25,000 status miles and 4 TAP flights

So here are my two cents. First of all, even if your airline is not on the list, you may still give it go. If TAP says no, it doesn’t hurt; if TAP says yes, then you can proceed to make the purchase and get your match.

Should you buy the miles, or the Club membership? If you are looking for the cheapest option, then you should just pay €70 for 2,000 miles. Of course you can pay more to get up to 300% bonus miles, but it makes no difference in terms of making the status match happen. Also, TAP’s miles are not super valuable, so I wouldn’t rush to squander my money on them now.

If you do intend to fly TAP however, I’d suggest you buy the Club Basic membership at €99. It comes with 14,000 award miles (accrued over a year), and some tiny benefits when you fly. Anyway I consider it a better deal than buying 2,000 miles despite being a bit more expensive.

Even if you never fly TAP, *A Gold entitles you to additional baggage allowance, lounge access and priority treatment when you fly any Star Alliance airlines. The list includes but is not limited to: United, Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, LOT, ANA and Air China.

You can potentially use your TAP Silver / Gold to match other airlines in the future too. Some people taking advantage of this offer last time also ended up with Juneyao Platinum and Qatar Gold, for example 🙂

It’s not clear when the promotion will end.

On a relevant note, TAP is also running a triple miles promotion. For Club Miles&Go members (the €99 membership we mentioned above), if you book your ticket before July 31st, and:

• Fly by July 31st, then you get triple miles
• Fly later, then you get double miles

It is only for TAP-operated flights though, so may not be useful to many. Also I’ve confirmed with TAP’s customer service that the bonus miles are not status qualifying – sad news!