ftrichard

Hi

First time posting in this forum so please be kind. I'm trying to work out what my best plan of action is.

Next year (2022) I will move from Hong Kong (Cathay's Marco Polo Club Gold) to Lisbon and need a strategy for Frequent Flyer membership. I don't care about any further earnings with Cathay and will burn my Asia Miles on a few long-haul business class flights if I can redeem them in Q1. I'm used to leveraging OneWorld partners Finnair and Qatar for cheaper business returns from HK to Europe.

By Q2 I will start paying for flights and moving forward I'm likely to have 2-4 long-haul business class flights from Lisbon to Asia and South America a year and numerous economy European flights going forward. I have time so do not mind connecting flights for the long-haul destinations. It's all leisure travel so I am reasonably price sensitive but will pay a bit extra for a better airline.

What would you suggest my strategy is (a) regarding TAP's FF programme, (b) regarding which airlines I should therefore use for the long-haul flights out of Lisbon given that Qatar and Emirates don't go near Star Alliance, and (c) how to best leverage a Millennium Bank credit card for status and earning (I have just opened an account with Millennium).

I am not a member of TAP's FF programme now and will obviously apply for a status match with Cathay's Gold but I believe there are timing issues with this and I'll need to ensure I prequalify within a certain amount of time to maintain the status?

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

guv1976

Given that you will likely need to connect someone for many long-haul destinations, have you considered Iberia Plus?

Mwenenzi

Is Lisbon for ever? Or a period of time?
For the "numerous economy European flights" you may be better selecting on schedule and price. (not consider ff miles) EU is small and has many low cost non alliance airlines and a good train network.
What airlines fly to Asia that my suit you needs? Wiikipedia entry for airports is a guide when working backward
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon_Airport

Map-->A map from Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper

What are you objectives from a ffp?
Do you want to stay in OW or move to Star or Skyteam

• Which Frequent Flyer Program to Join? Help Is Here!
• Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here

guv1976

Here's an interesting article from a couple of years ago about earning status on Iberia by flying QR Business between Europe and Asia:

https://insideflyer.co.uk/2019/03/qa...f-iberia-plus/

Also, it's possible to earn Iberia Plus Avios and tier points on Vueling flights. Vueling has several nonstop European destinations from LIS.

And, of course, LIS is also served by AY and BA.

Mwenenzi

And possible to have a BAEC account and move avios between Iberia Plus and BAEC, subject to t&c's. Threads in BA forum on this. So can pick/use the best of BAEC/Iberia Plus

ftrichard

Thanks for the quick responses everyone. It seems few people are fans of TAP here and Iberia may be a better option (indeed, Iberia has come up as a front-runner for return flights to Brazil in Q2). Iberia would also keep me within OneWorld which I'm familiar with from several years status with BA, five years with Malaysia Airlines, and four years with Cathay. And Qatar remains highly viable for flights to SE Asia.

Primarily I like avoiding check-in queues and heading for the lounge but I'm not going to focus on the wrong airline (TAP) out of sheer stubbornness if it's not going to meet my needs for decent long-haul business class at a decent price.

I'd be flying to my old haunts in Bangkok, KL, Singapore, and onwards to Bali, Philippines, Taipei occasionally. Within Europe, I'd fly most regularly to the UK and occasionally other capitals for city breaks. South America basically means Brazil.

I'm retiring to Portugal on a Golden Visa so there for the long term. Within Europe I'm not so fussed about the airline if there are significant price differences (I'd fly with Air Asia out of KL when it was significantly cheaper than Malaysia but would always check Malaysia first because of the lounge access) so you're right about choosing based on schedule and price. I just don't like leaving things on the table when buying long-haul business class flights which is why I was wondering how the TAP eco-system is for long-haul partners.

ftrichard

I didn't know Vueling also had a minor hub in LIS. That's a few interesting destinations. And we may be flying AY BKK-LIS in March. My mind is being opened to Iberia now.

No supporters of TAP in its home city?

IAN-UK

Iberia's getting an awful lot of love in this discussion, but the glaring problem is that Spain isn't Portugal. One you are settled in Lisbon you'll probably understand the significance of that difference. Selecting Iberia as the carrier of choice for a Lisbon resident would be odd unless you your travel plans mesh well with destinations unique to Iberia.

If travel is centred on a STAR hub, there's a lot of sense in going for a STAR programme: making European trips through Madrid or London could be perverse when TP and *A carriers offer direct services.

It doesn't have to be TAP, you could aim for one of the more easily maintained programmes (Aegean, Turkish). TAP is one of the few carriers offering privileges such as free bags to elites in other STAR programmes. I lived in Lisbon for years, and still spend a lot of time there. My Lufthansa membership serves me perfectly well.

The ability to get a status match so you hit the ground running, as it were, could be an important factor. Here TAP, Aegean and Turkish have a positive history.

TAPs far from perfect. Delays are endemic, without the support of the state it would be bankrupt. Cost-cutting has meant most contract lounges have been ditched and on-board service on European flights has been virtually extinguished. But that's a not uncommon picture among today's airlines.

mrow

I�ve recently been flying TAP a lot recently (2 UK - USA returns in last month and 1 more shortly) and have found them very good in J.

The ground service in LIS is a bit hit and miss if connecting and the passport control between Shengen and non-Shengen areas can be a real slow spot at times which is a pain if you�re in the lounge (Shengen zone) and are heading to a non-Shengen long haul flight.

I have found their J on board service to be pretty good and if you credit to Aegean you very quickly hit * Gold status.

Not had any irrops with them so not sure how they are with this, but did cut it fine for the Shengen to non-Shengen shuffle on my first flight when passport control was moving very slowly and TAP staff were on hand to proactively move pax on upcoming flights forward in the queue to minimise missed connections which was my saving grace.

estrela

No Asia flights with Tap. Worst FFP, Support etc.

Probably I would go with EK or via LH but don�t like the 5am LH flights.

mmff

They are terrible, sadly.

TP offers an overall competitive product in Europe, but when anything goes sideways the passenger often has a very nasty customer service experience. This is the case for Portuguese native speakers dealing with IRROPS at LIS, so you can imagine how well it works out for foreigners dealing with limited staff at outstations.

Mwenenzi

Generally you are better getting status-ff miles with the airline you fly most. An extension of that would be most distance (long haul).

With many options for (short?) EU flights you could discount the EU short/cheap flights from the evaluation. Would not get many ff miles, but possibly a higher segment count. For the "numerous economy European flights" you may be better selecting on schedule and price. (not consider ff miles) EU is small and has many low cost non alliance airlines and a good train network.

ftrichard

Thank you for the continuing advice. I'm now going to investigate whether Aegean or Turkish would be a better FFP to join. I can't see myself ever flying Aegean but Turkish is certainly an option for semi-regular flights to Asia. I'll look up other threads on this topic. I have loved flying EK between Europe and Asia but their lack of alliance membership means I get few benefits from their FFP that I wouldn't get simply by booking in J. I want something for the short-hauls as well as long.

I am of course already a member of BAEC but have no status any more and this could be a backup for the Avios on OneWorld flights (rather than Malaysia or Cathay that I'm happy to abandon) if I open up a *A membership with Turkish for the elite status.

The only other consideration would be whether there are any credit card benefits that people here can talk to. Millennium Bank has various TAP cards and I wonder if anyone values them for benefits beyond simple points accrual. The only downside I can see for joining Turkish's FFP is that without being a resident in Turkey I wouldn't be able to get an associated credit card. On the other hand, I could get a Bonvoy card in the UK and convert points to miles if necessary so certainly workarounds are always possible and accruing airline points is not my primary motivation as I always find them a PITA to redeem compared to hotel points. I'm after the check-in and lounge privileges.

ftrichard

Yes. This is why I asked the question because it's not obvious that TAP should be the FF programme from Lisbon compared to Cathay's MPC from Hong Kong or Malaysia Airlines from KL given that these are the default airlines from their respective cities. TAP's limited route map (well, non-existent to Asia) and mixed reports on the experience within Europe means they won't be the default choice. (I'm not so fussed about the miles earning on European flights as redeeming airline miles can be a PITA but I do like priority check in, boarding, and lounge access. On the other hand, I don't want to leave miles on the table from long-haul flights in J.)

In fact, the only route that they should be the default choice would be LIS-SSA which we will be doing to visit in-laws in Bahia but not if their pricing for the direct flight is completely out of whack compared to indirect flights via S�o Paulo. Hence my choice of FF programme when moving to Lisbon is not obvious.

mrow

Fingers crossed I won�t experience any IRROPS issues on my next couple of trips then!