Just last month, I wrote about how you could use a match to Turkish Airline’s Miles and Smiles program to gain Star Alliance Gold status. They offer 4 months of elite status that correlates to Star Alliance Gold.
In this article
TAP Portugal Now Has a Status Match
This one is arguably easier, though in one way harder.
The easier part is that it’s a straight match, valid until the end of September, meaning approximately 6-7 months of status.
Here’s a link to the status match offer page.
This is TAP Portugal’s chart for Gold eligibility (TAP Gold = Star Alliance Gold)
| Airline / Alliance | Status | TAP Miles&Go Equivalent Status |
|---|---|---|
| Azul | TudoAzul Diamante | Gold |
| Emirates | Emirates Skywards Platinum | Gold |
| Emirates Skywards Gold | Gold | |
| GOL | Smiles Diamante | Gold |
| oneworld | oneworld Emerald | Gold |
| oneworld Sapphire | Gold | |
| SkyTeam | SkyTeam Elite Plus (i.e. Delta Gold) | Gold |
The Hard Part?
OK, it’s not “hard” – but you’ll have to spend a few bucks. The match is only valid if you meet the criteria and purchase TAP Miles&Go miles by March 31st, 2020. You can either join a TAP Mileage Club or buy miles outright. And if I’m not missing anything, the cheapest you can do this is $87 for 8,000 miles. And while you could ultimately buy a round trip Business Class to Europe for about $1,600, that’s hardly a great deal. So, I’d say spend $87.
That said, they are doing a 25% off promotion on TAP metal awards on many routes right now if you want to fly economy. In that case, buying just enough for one award could make sense.
How much should you buy? I’d say as little as possible. While the price per mile can get under a cent, you have to look at the redemption table. 160,000 round trip US <–> Europe doesn’t have me super excited, however the table does specify that you can get one free stopover, which could make it more appealing – maybe.
You also can’t transfer from any bank points to TAP to top off. Only Marriott transfers in and I *definitely* would not waste Marriott to transfer to TAP.
Hat Tip to Gary at View From The Wing for finding this promotion.
Would you pay at least $87 to notch Star Alliance Gold for 6 months?
Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? The MilesTalk “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
