Air Portugal

[KeywestK]

Researching flights for next fall.  Miami to Venice, one way.  Pricing is excellent.   Anyone have any experience with this airline? 

[Twickenham]

I assume you mean TAP?

 

Never flown TAP, but considered them. Members of Star Alliance, well-established airline. Wouldn't hesitate to book if the price/schedule was right.

[Zach1213]

I have a couple of experiences both regionally and transcontinental. They're...okay. Nothing special. I do have a friend who had a truly awful experience on them, decided to give them one more chance, and had another truly awful experience on them. But, eventually, someone is going to have a truly bad experience on any airline...I guess. But his experience has made me hesitant to try TAP again.

 

I'm sure you'll be fine, but don't expect much.

[KeywestK]

Thanks for the responses.

[iancal]

We have done  several short hops within Europe on TAP.   They were fine.  No issues.   Just the usual bus with wings.

 

 We looked at them for a transatlantic flight a few months ago.  Their prices were very attractive.  

Edited November 14, 2018 by iancal

[FionaMG]

I reviewed TAP last December (see post #2): 

 

I will be flying trans-Atlantic with them again next week as we cross the pond for a cruise next Friday, so I can come back and update if it would be helpful.

Lisbon is a very easy airport to connect in.

[em-sk]

On 11/13/2018 at 4:08 PM, KeywestK said:

Researching flights for next fall.  Miami to Venice, one way.  Pricing is excellent.   Anyone have any experience with this airline? 

 

I have been on TAP a number of time,  Toronto to Lisbon as well as connecting from Lisbon and Faro to other destinations in Europe.  No real complaint. 

 

They are a smaller airlines with around 70 aircraft that has been in business since the 1940s.  For long-distance flights they have a significant number of flights from their hub in Lisbon to South America, parts of Africa and a few destinations in North America.   On the short distance side they connect Lisbon (and Faro and Porto to a lesser extent) with major European airports.  

[Bramcruiser]

I flew with TAP Air Portugal in September one way Toronto-Lisbon-Copenhagen (due to use of Aeroplan points) to catch a transatlantic. My experience may be skewered because we managed to get the coveted business class tickets. I would say TAP is about the middle of the pack. They were definitely running on time the whole trip (not one minute late) and I found the staff to be somewhat friendly on both legs. I can't speak about the food in economy but the food I had was decent. There was no luggage problems. 

 

Perhaps the only complaint I had was a poor selection of choices on the IE on the transatlantic but since it was overnight I should be sleeping anyway.

 

Would I do TAP again? Given the right times and the right price I would consider them. I see currently they are very competitive price wise and are offering Portugal as a stopover destination similar to the success Icelandair had with it's Iceland layover program.

[sambamama]

Be aware their size for carryon is smaller than American standards, and they have a strict weight limit. The food in economy is pretty awful and even in business is nothing great. The attendants are friendly enough. They give the gate assignments out fairly late. I will fly them again, but need a smaller carryon. The seats don't have much padding. 

[Twickenham]

8 hours ago, Bramcruiser said:

I flew with TAP Air Portugal in September one way Toronto-Lisbon-Copenhagen (due to use of Aeroplan points) to catch a transatlantic.

 

Did you get lie-flat seats on the YYZ-LIS flight? This is what makes me hesitate to go with TAP biz awards - they seem to have about a billion different business class configurations going right now, and I'd hate to get one of their birds with the angle-flat seats.

[em-sk]

2 hours ago, Twickenham said:

 

Did you get lie-flat seats on the YYZ-LIS flight? This is what makes me hesitate to go with TAP biz awards - they seem to have about a billion different business class configurations going right now, and I'd hate to get one of their birds with the angle-flat seats.

 

YYZ use to have the Airbus 330 with the lower end business class.  (They got these birds from Singapore airlines).  The 4 QA aircraft are leaving TAP to go to Air Canada next summer.   

[cb1400]

We flew Miami -> Lisbon -> Heathrow with them earlier this month and I was really impressed. The prices were excellent (can't recall exactly now, but I think in the region of £400 pp). They let me off an overweight bag charge of $140, not once but twice (at both Miami and Lisbon). They also didn't charge me for a name change when the name on my ticket was spelt wrong (entirely my fault). They do have quite low weight allowance for cabin bags (8kg) and were weighing them. The food was nothing special, I'd say average. Cabin and airport staff very friendly. Entertainment OK but the free earbud headphones they were handing out were quite tinny and poor, much better to bring you own.

[sambamama]

They were charging people like crazy on my flights for overweight luggage. All four of my flight's were intra - Europe, Madrid-Lisbon, Lisbon-Faro, Faro-Lisbon, Lisbon-Barcelona. One meal in economy was totally inedible. Would I fly again? Sure, but I have low expectations. The economy price gives you an 8kg carryon. I had an American size carryon-if they had put it in their measuring bin, it would not have fit. I bought a new European size carryon in case I have to fly on any European airlines again. 

[Clay Clayton]

We flew TAP from MIA to CPH via Lisbon in business, we were on one of the old Singapore aircraft with angled lie flats.  While not as nice as a newer plane with full  lie flats, for 1/2 the price of other carriers, it was great. The service was great and the food tasty...and the after dinner port really good!

 

We flew TAP several times while in Europe last year. We were very impressed with TAP's short haul.  Even in economy we were served at least a snack and often a hot meal.  On the 45 minute shuttle flight on a prop plane from Porto to Lisboa we were served ice cream! Much better than Southwest's pretzels. 

[FionaMG]

On 11/15/2018 at 5:59 PM, FionaMG said:

I will be flying trans-Atlantic with them again next week as we cross the pond for a cruise next Friday, so I can come back and update if it would be helpful.

So, we are back home. 

 

Our outbound transatlantic flight from Lisbon to Miami was due to depart at 10.30 am but a last minute issue with an on-board computer between boarding and take-off resulted in us sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half while they fixed it. The Captain and crew kept us informed during the wait and the crew went through the cabin offering everyone water. Then, once we were in the air we encountered very strong headwinds, resulting in the flight taking even longer than usual - a full 10 hours!

 

The in-flight meals were edible. We have found that meals on this route tend to be better on the westbound leg than on the eastbound, and that continued to be the case, but there was definitely an improvement in the quality of the eastbound meal this year and, in fact, the dessert was a very good cheesecake. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pics of the meals on the return flight, only on the outbound one.

 

On the return journey, our scheduled departure time was 4.45 pm but the flight was delayed due to late arrival of the incoming aircraft as a result of fog at Lisbon airport and the actual departure time was around 6.30 pm. 

 

We had booked and paid a supplement for exit row seats on this leg of our journey but a last minute change in the actual aircraft meant we didn't get them, which was annoying, and as a result the flight was a lot less comfortable than we were hoping for. TAP have already resolved the problem (within 24 hours of my contacting them about it) by issuing credit vouchers for the amount paid for the services not received. I don't really agree with this approach - I think they should be refunding the money - but it is clearly stated in the terms and conditions of sale that we accepted when we made the booking, so I was fully aware of the possibility and am not going to argue with them. 

 

I mentioned in my last year's review that they were in the process of upgrading their in-flight entertainment system and this has now been done, at least on the two aircraft we travelled on. Alongside the seat-back screen there are video sockets, an iPad port and a USB port. The screens are not touch-screen, however, but are still operated by a bulky and not very responsive remote control, although the location of this has been moved to just below the screen itself rather than set into the armrest, which is much better than before. The entertainment on offer has also been upgraded, with a huge choice of films, TV series and games, as well as music and stuff for kids. There is also a fairly powerful light along the bottom of the screen, which is handy for reading or if you drop something.

 

The transatlantic section on our return journey took just seven and half hours. It was a bit bumpy at times with tailwinds of 150 km/h. We arrived into Lisbon to discover it blanketed in fog, resulting in the cancellation of many flights, including our connecting flight to our local airport. This meant we had to wait seven more hours for the next one. We were given vouchers for breakfast and lunch, but no compensation is due since the issue was caused by bad weather. Our late arrival into Lisbon also caused some passengers to have a very tight connection for connecting flights (those that had not been cancelled) and, as usual, TAP had people in the security and immigration lines to rush those passengers through a priority line in an attempt to ensure they were able to make their connections.

 

Overall, we had three different administrative issues with this booking but all were dealt with and resolved promptly, two through TAP's FB page and one by their call centre. Although we use TAP fairly frequently, I have to say this is the first time we have had any real issues.

 

TAP's big problem continues, in my opinion, to be their poor customer service on the ground when flights are delayed and there is little to no information from the staff on the ground, leading to disgruntled passengers. However, in the case of the cancellation of our (and many other passengers') connecting flight on the return journey, they handled the whole situation very diplomatically despite the rather aggressive attitudes of some of the affected passengers.

 

I hope this will be of help to anyone considering using TAP. Feel free to ask if there is anything I haven't covered and I will do my best to answer.

 

 

[Globehoppers]

Flew TAP Business class twice across the Atlantic last two years with on ward connections from Lisbon.  Great prices, good airline, comfortable and good crews.  Better than US airlines.