TAP Air Portugal, The easiest Star Alice Gold to Get?

Star Aliance has two tiers of status you can get with any airline in the aliance, wtich are Star Aliance Silver and Star Aliance Gold. Silver status mainly gives you benfits with the airline such as accsses to there lounges, priority check-in, priority-bording on your airline and priority on watinglist flights on other airlines in the network. The good benifits come when you get Star Aliance Gold status as it give you more perks with your airline along with accses to all Star Alaince member lounges, priority check-in, priority-bording on all Star Aliance flights.

Some airlines like Air Canada have ferther segmented there status folders with diffrent levels of benfits on AIr Canada flights. Being 25k and 35k Star Aliance Silver and 50k, 75k, and 100k Super Elite being Star Aliance Gold.

TAP Air Portugal is the national flag carrier for Portugal and is 50% owned by the Portugese government. In there lolalty program, called Tap Miles & Go, there are two tires of Star Alaince Status Tap Miles & Go Silver and Tap Miles & Go Gold.

To earn TAP Silver for the first time you need to earn 30,000 status miles or fly 25 segments with TAP, and to renew it for the next years you need 20,000 status miles or fly 15 segments with TAP.

For TAP Gold for the first year you need 70,000 status miles or fly 50 segments with TAP, and to renew it for the next  year you need 50,000 status miles of fly 40 segments with TAP.

What makes TAP such an easy yet pricey option is there club program. I have only seen similar programs with South American airlines, they way they work is you pay an annule price and in exchange you get miles and perks with the airline. TAP Club has four tiers:

with all the club tiers you miles and status miles. Miles and be used to redeem for flights while status miles are used to reach TAP Silver and Gold. If you buy a flight with your TAP Miles & Go accout you will earn the same number of miles as status miles.

If you have Club Extra, Top, or Platinum you also get priorty bording on TAP flights. Also if you have Club Platinum you also get TAP Silver for free.

You can convert your miles at a rate of 2:1 up to a max of 10,000 miles for Silver and 20,000 miles for Gold for both reaching the the status tier or to manitain it.

If you get even just the basic plan that menas you need to fly 7,000 less miles and if you get anything above club you can chosse to fly up to 10k less miles. The TAP Club also is not a ripoff with miles ranging from 0.01 CPM to 0.014.

TAP Club might  even make sence for poeple to get even if it is instead of paying out of poket, for example:

Tornoto-Vancouver in Air Canada's lie flat seats cost $900 CAD one way or 50k Aeroplan Points or 45k TAP Miles. Normally with no promotion Aeroplan Points sell at 0.03 CPP while the most expensive miles you can get from TAP are at a rate on 0.014 CPM. So it would cost you $900 CAD to buy the flight, $1500 CAD if you bough Aeroplan Points or $368* CAD if you bough TAP Club Top. That is alredy a reson to looking to TAP Club and see if it could benfit you.

*The poitns value is in Canadian Dollars at todays exchange rate of 1 Euro = 1.47 CAD.

In conclusion TAP Club could make sence for you if you fly a lot with TAP but it could also be a great opertunity to buy cheap miles and could be an easier way to earn Star Alliance Gold or Silver. Note that SA Silver is best on the airline you fly most because most of the benfits are with that airline. You should also look at Turkish Airlines and Agean Air as they also have some easy ways to get SA Gold.