Portugal’s Airline Has a New Credit Card
Tl;dr: The sign-up offer is lucrative, but few people will want to hold this card long-term.
TAP Air Portugal, Portugal’s flag carrier, just launched its first US credit card, an American Express card issued by Cardless. The $79-annual-free card earns bonus TAP miles on flights with TAP, hotel stays, car rentals, and rideshares, and offers cardholders priority boarding, extra checked luggage, access to TAP’s Lisbon Airport lounge, and a faster path to elite status with the airline. For those signing up for the new card by November 30, it has a significant bonus offer of 60,000 miles after spending $2,500 in the first 90 days. That’s enough for a flight to Portugal.
What’s great?
TAP is a great way to get to Europe, either by using miles from this card or paying cash. TAP almost always has flights to various European destinations available for around $550 or less.
Those flights will often feature a long layover that will allow you to explore Lisbon or Porto during your trip. Having access to the lounge in Lisbon is a nice perk, and the checked bag benefit means you can lug back some wine even if you buy a basic economy ticket.
What’s not?
While those perks are nice, the $79 annual fee is hefty . With checked bags costing $145 on TAP, the fee easily pays for itself… if you fly TAP each year and would have paid to check a bag. Few people will do both. Access to the TAP lounge is nice, but there’s only one, in Lisbon, and you can’t bring a guest. For now, there doesn’t seem to be a downgrade option, so if you want to escape the annual fee, you would have to cancel the card altogether.
Meanwhile, the card’s earning rate is unimpressive, earning 1x TAP miles on most purchases and 2x on a few bonus categories (3x on TAP purchases). Even if you only spent money on the 2x bonus categories, it would take about $30,000 in spending to earn a free trip to Europe and back.
How’s the sign-up bonus?
The current bonus, available until November 30, is 60,000 miles after spending $2,500 in the first 90 days. It’s good enough for a flight to Europe:
This Itinerary was from San Francisco to Lisbon.
Note, I didn’t quite say a “free” flight to Europe, because it’ll cost you the $85 in taxes and fees to redeem your miles, plus the $79 annual fee, which isn’t waived the first year. But a sub-$200 plane ticket to Europe is solid by any measure.
And this opportunity is unlikely to last. New cards usually launch with a very enticing offer, which will rarely, if ever be seen again. If that pattern holds, if you want the TAP card, now is probably the time to get one.
What are the alternatives?
If you want to fly TAP, you can transfer Capital One miles to the airline (although there are many better uses of Capital One miles). Capital One Venture cards also earn 2x miles or more on every purchase, meaning it would earn more TAP miles than TAP’s own card on every purchase other than TAP flights (if you book your TAP flight through Capital One Travel, the Venture would earn 5x, once again more than the TAP card). The Venture X also comes with Priority Pass access, which includes access to airport lounges in Lisbon—for both you and a guest.
As for the checked bags, the Amex Platinum offers a $200 annual statement credit for airline incidental fees like checked bags (though you have to choose a single airline for the year). It also offers 5x points for flights, and–despite it’s massive $695 fee–may actually be a more sustainable card to hold year over year.
Conclusion
This big sign-up bonus is a good way to get a quick trip to Portugal or elsewhere in Europe, but ultimately the card only makes long-term sense for frequent-ish TAP flyers.