TAP Air Portugal is making an aggressive push to increase U.S. traveler enrollment in its Miles & Go loyalty program as the carrier boosts its transatlantic network.
Since 2017, membership in TAP's Miles & Go program has grown from about 66,000 to about 280,000 in the United States, said Luis Gonçalves, TAP's loyalty, customer intelligence and proactive sales director. That figure still is dwarfed by those of TAP's two largest markets, Portugal and Brazil, which currently have 1 million and 1.3 million members, respectively.
TAP's strategy to push North American enrollment includes a new status-matching program, available only this month, in which travelers with Silver- or Gold-level status on non-Star Alliance carriers can get the same status when enrolling for Miles & Go, provided they also make a purchase for miles or one of the program's clubs. They then must meet a certain mileage threshold on TAP by the end of September in order to maintain the status into next year, Gonçalves said. TAP also is in discussions with credit card companies to offer a branded credit card, he said.
At the same time, TAP aims to make the North American market its "new Brazil" in terms of growing its share of business, said Carlos Paneiro, VP of sales for North and Central America. Over the past few years, the region has grown from ninth- to third-largest in terms of sales, and its share of total TAP sales has grown from 4 percent to 13 percent as TAP has added gateways and flights to North America, including Montreal.