As Frequent Flyer Bonuses was first to report, Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal is putting cash and points redemptions on sale so that the miles portion of a one way trip is just two miles.
For instance,
| Route | Normal One Way Redemption | One-way With Fixed Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Lisbon | 7.600 + 177 $ | 2 + 177 $ |
| Funchal | 7.600 + 177 $ | 2 + 177 $ |
| Europe | 7.600 + 177 $ | 2 + 177 $ |
For instance take this non-stop roundtrip that’s showing award space as of this writing:
It becomes 4 miles (2 miles in each direction) plus $444.08 all-in. Normally miles aren’t a great deal in economy, with all of the taxes and fees. But 4 miles saves you $184.77. That’s saving you $46 per mile.
- Book November 6 only
- Travel January 11 through March 15, 2021 or April 10 through May 31, 2021
- Date and time changes are $62
- Valid only on TAP long-haul flights booked online in economy with no stopovers permitted
Many of you may have TAP Miles & Go miles from their less than 1 cent per mile sale back at the start of March. We’re seeing a lot of creativity out of Lisbon, including their September offer of 10,000 bonus miles for booking an award on a partner airline.
Trying this within the dates given and it’s still coming up at normal price of 7600 miles each way even though it’s Nov 6 in Portugal…
This seems like a great deal but what if the Covid restrictions are still in place in Europe on January 11th?
You might as well light your money on fire — it will be less painful.
TAP has the worst record of not refunding money when they cancel flights, and cancel they will since COVID is going up both in the US and in Europe. They have the highest ratio of customer complaints per enplanement of all foreign carriers.
Of course, the blogger doesn’t mention this reality.
$300-450 round trip regular paid trips for round trip travel on TAP between the US and Europe is sort of normally encountered by me. Using miles to do the trip with TAP may lead to a higher cost in real money than just using regular paid tickets. Speaking of economy class at least.
I can’t find any flights that are cheaper using this promotion. Once the 2 miles promo kicks in, the fees go way up to the point where it is almost always cheaper to buy the ticket outright.