TAP Miles and Go American Express Card

Earning Rates

Key Benefits

• 3x miles on TAP purchases
• 2 Lisbon lounge passes per year
• Free extra checked bag
• Star Alliance redemptions

All Benefits

• $79 annual fee charged on the TAP Miles&Go American Express Card issued by Cardless; the fee is among the lowest in the U.S. airline-co-branded space and sits well below the $99-$150 entry tier on Delta, United, and American Airlines personal cards, positioning the card as an inexpensive way for U.S.-based TAP Air Portugal flyers to layer co-brand benefits onto an existing transferable-points strategy
• Welcome offer: earn 40,000 bonus TAP Miles&Go miles after spending $1,000 in eligible purchases within the first 90 days of account opening (the spend hurdle is unusually low for a U.S. co-brand card, reflecting the issuer's targeting of casual TAP flyers and U.S.-based members of the Portuguese diaspora rather than heavy big-spender SUB chasers)
• Earn 3 TAP Miles&Go miles per dollar on purchases made directly with TAP Air Portugal (flights booked on flytap.com, the TAP mobile app, or TAP ticket offices, plus TAP-coded ancillaries like seat selection, paid bags, and on-board purchases); this is the highest published earn rate on the card and one of the few ways to earn TAP miles at a multiplier on U.S.-issued plastic
• Earn 2 TAP Miles&Go miles per dollar at grocery stores in the U.S. (Cardless's grocery category is broad and includes most supermarkets, though warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's Club, and superstores like Walmart and Target, typically code as 'discount stores' and earn at the 1X base rate)
• Earn 2 TAP Miles&Go miles per dollar at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery in the U.S., putting the dining category on par with the Delta SkyMiles Gold and Personal Platinum cards at a meaningfully lower annual fee
• Earn 1 TAP Miles&Go mile per dollar on all other eligible purchases, with no published spend cap on any of the bonus categories (the absence of a category cap is a competitive note relative to a handful of co-brand cards that throttle grocery and dining earn after a few thousand dollars per year)
• TAP Miles&Go redemption value: TAP Miles&Go miles are valued at roughly 1.3 cents per mile on well-priced TAP-operated Star Alliance redemptions out of LIS/OPO, with outsized value on TAP's intra-Europe and U.S.-to-Lisbon Executive (business) class awards when no fuel surcharges are assessed on partner-issued tickets; the 40,000-mile welcome offer therefore frames at roughly $520 in expected award value at the 1.3 cpm baseline
• One free checked bag on TAP Air Portugal-operated flights for the primary cardholder when the TAP Miles&Go Amex Card is used to pay the fare; the benefit covers TAP's standard Discount/Basic fare class (which would otherwise charge for the first checked bag on long-haul Economy) and is one of the headline value drivers of the card for transatlantic TAP flyers
• No foreign transaction fees on purchases made outside the United States, an essential feature on a co-brand card whose target customer flies internationally to Portugal and across Europe; the no-FX policy matches the post-refresh Delta SkyMiles Gold and is a meaningful upgrade over pre-2024 entry-tier airline cards that charged 2.7% FX
• American Express network card: the TAP Miles&Go Amex is issued on the American Express payment network (not Visa or Mastercard), which means it is accepted at the same broad U.S. merchant base as other personal Amex cards but is meaningfully less accepted overseas in Europe than Visa/Mastercard alternatives; carry a backup Visa/Mastercard when traveling in Portugal and continental Europe
• Issued by Cardless, a San Francisco-based fintech issuer that powers co-branded credit card programs for sports leagues, airlines, and lifestyle brands without operating its own legacy card-processing stack; Cardless is the issuer of record for the TAP Miles&Go Amex (the card sits alongside Cardless's Manchester United, Miami HEAT, Alpine, Liverpool FC, and similar co-brand programs)
• Monthly miles posting: TAP Miles&Go miles earned on Cardless purchases are credited to the cardholder's TAP Miles&Go account on a monthly cadence (typically within a few days of each statement closing), rather than annually or per-transaction, which is the standard cadence for U.S. co-brand cards and accelerates the cardholder's ability to redeem earned miles for award travel
• Anniversary status credit: TAP Miles&Go cardholders receive a status credit toward TAP Miles&Go Club elite tier qualification on each card anniversary, providing an annual lift toward Silver, Gold, or Platinum Club Miles&Go status without flying additional segments (the exact credit value is published in the card's terms and is one of the few ways for U.S.-based TAP flyers to make measurable Club status progress on the ground)
• TAP Miles&Go is the loyalty program of TAP Air Portugal (the flag carrier of Portugal) and is a member of the Star Alliance, which means miles can be redeemed on Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, Air Canada, United, Singapore Airlines, ANA, and other Star Alliance partners; TAP's award chart is one of the lower-cost options for booking Lufthansa First Class out of Europe, though phantom award availability and partner fuel surcharges should be verified before transferring
• TAP Miles&Go points partners: TAP Miles&Go is a transfer partner of Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 base ratio, with a 5,000-mile bonus per 60,000 Bonvoy points transferred) and has historically partnered with select hotel and rental car programs; TAP Miles&Go is NOT a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou, or Capital One Miles as of the most recent program updates
• Stopover-in-Lisbon program: TAP Air Portugal famously allows free stopovers in Lisbon or Porto of up to 10 nights at no additional fare on TAP-operated transatlantic itineraries (the 'Portugal Stopover' program), which pairs well with the TAP Miles&Go Amex's 3X TAP earn and free checked bag benefit for U.S. flyers building a two-destination Europe trip
• Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty: Cardless-issued cards generally include American Express network-level purchase protection and extended warranty benefits, though the specific per-claim and per-year limits on the TAP Miles&Go Amex are set by Cardless's underwriting agreement with Amex and should be verified in the card's benefit terms (Cardless's benefit packages are typically lighter than the legacy Amex-issued lineup)
• Best-fit positioning: the TAP Miles&Go Amex is a niche co-brand card that earns its $79 annual fee back quickly for U.S. flyers who take even one TAP Air Portugal long-haul round-trip per year (free checked bag + no FX fees + 3X TAP + anniversary status credit), but is a poor fit for travelers who do not fly TAP and would be better served by a transferable-points card (Chase Sapphire Preferred, Amex Gold, Capital One Venture X) whose miles can be transferred to a broader set of airline programs
• Not offered: TAP lounge access (the card does not include access to TAP's Lisbon Premium Lounge or any Star Alliance lounge network; lounge access on TAP is reserved for Club Miles&Go Gold/Platinum elite members and for paid business-class ticket holders)
• Not offered: Priority boarding or priority check-in on TAP-operated flights (these benefits are reserved for Club Miles&Go elite members, Executive class passengers, and Star Alliance Gold members, not for TAP Miles&Go Amex cardholders by virtue of the card alone)
• Not offered: Companion certificate, annual flight credit, or annual airline incidental credit (the card does not include any of the elevated airline-credit benefits found on Delta SkyMiles Platinum, United Club Infinite, or American AAdvantage Executive World Elite tiers)
• Not offered: Centurion Lounge access (the Centurion Lounge network is reserved for the Amex Platinum, Business Platinum, and Centurion tiers and is not available to any Cardless-issued co-brand product, including the TAP Miles&Go Amex)
• Not offered: Membership Rewards points (the card earns TAP Miles&Go miles directly and does NOT participate in the Amex Membership Rewards ecosystem; Amex MR transfers to Avianca LifeMiles, ANA, Aeroplan, and other Star Alliance loyalty programs but not to TAP Miles&Go as a Membership Rewards transfer partner)
• Not offered: Trip delay insurance, trip cancellation/interruption insurance, or baggage insurance (Cardless's benefit package on the TAP Miles&Go Amex does not include the trip-protection insurance bundles found on Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve or Amex Platinum)
• Not offered: Global Entry / TSA PreCheck application fee credit (the card does not reimburse the $100/$85 application fee, which is a standard inclusion on $95+ travel cards like the Sapphire Preferred and a notable gap at the $79 fee tier)
• Not offered: TAP elite status grant (cardholders do not receive automatic Club Miles&Go elite status from holding the card; the anniversary status credit is a partial-credit lift toward qualification rather than an outright status grant, which differentiates the TAP card from the United Club Infinite's Premier Gold-level status accelerators)