TAP Airline Portugal Partners: What to Know – NerdWallet

While you may be aware that TAP Air Portugal is a Star Alliance member, the airline’s Miles&Go loyalty program might not yet be on your radar.

You can redeem TAP Air Portugal’s miles for flights on Air Portugal or take advantage of a favorable redemption on a partner airline.

Here’s a list of TAP Air Portugal’s airline partners and how to redeem Miles&Go miles with those partners — as well as a few sweet spots to look out for.

TAP Air Portugal partners with other Star Alliance airlines and several non-alliance airlines.

To redeem TAP miles for any flight, you must be a TAP Miles&Go program member. Once logged in to the website, go to My Client Area and click on the “Reserve with miles” button. You also can start the booking process from the homepage.

You’ll then see a search area where you can enter your flight parameters, including cities, travel dates and whether you want a one-way, round-trip or multi-city ticket. Make sure the “Pay with miles” box is checked.

If you’d like to book a ticket on one of TAP Air Portugal’s partners, start on this page and click on the “Star Alliance” tab.

If a route is serviced by TAP and other Star Alliance carriers, you can switch to “TAP + Star Alliance” from the flight results page, and the website will perform a new search.

Unfortunately, TAP Air Portugal partners that are not part of Star Alliance can’t be booked online, so you have to call 1-800-903-7914 to redeem miles on non-alliance carriers.

There are some good ways to use Miles&Go miles. Here are a few sweet spots:

Using TAP airline partners, you can fly nonstop from Dubai to Tokyo or Bali for — wait for it — just 50,000 Miles&Go miles one-way. That’s not bad for spending up to 10 hours in some of the most coveted business-class seats.

Another sweet spot comes out of Asia, for flights between Tokyo and New Delhi, which clock in at about nine hours in length. A one-way flight in ANA’s business class cabin will set you back 50,000 Miles&Go miles and $310 in cash.

TAP Miles&Go charges 30,000 miles for one-way economy flights within the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, so use this to your advantage by booking award flights operated by United Airlines from the U.S. to Caribbean countries.

TAP Miles&Go miles are not the easiest to earn, but you can earn them by flying TAP Air Portugal or its partner airlines. How many miles you earn depends on the fare type you book and the distance flown.

Flights within Europe and North Africa earn miles at the following rates based on flight distance:

Intercontinental flights earn miles at the following rates based on flight distance:

TAP Air Portugal partner flights earn miles similarly, but each airline has its own earning chart based on its fare classes and flight distances.

For example, here’s how many miles you can expect to earn by crediting a United flight to Miles&Go, based on flight distance:

• Fare classes G, K, N: 25%.

• Fare classes L, S, T: 50%.

• Fare classes Q, V, W: 75%.

• Fare classes A, B, E, H, M, O, R, U, Y: 100%.

• Fare classes D, P, Z: 125%.

The TAP Miles&Go program partners with two additional programs: Capital One and Marriott Bonvoy. You can transfer points to TAP Air Portugal at the following ratios:

The Miles&Go program has just two status tiers for its elite members: Silver and Gold. If you’ve reached one of these status tiers, you’ll be extended some benefits when you fly other Star Alliance carriers.

TAP Miles&Go Silver status equates to Star Alliance Silver status, which comes with the following perks:

• Priority reservation waitlist.

• Priority airport standby.

• Gold Track priority lane access.

• Priority baggage handling.

• Priority airport check-in.

As a TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go member, you can earn and redeem miles with the airline’s partners as well.

To be successful at redeeming miles for award flights, be aware of what airlines are partners with TAP Air Portugal and use your miles in a way that extracts the most value out of them.

It might take some time to learn the award charts for different regions, but it can be worth it.