TAM Airlines

EZE-ASU-EZE same day business trip. Outbound delayed due to weather. We were informed at all times. Check in fast and easy. Boarding organized. Once on board nice crew very polite and attentive. Snack both ways with drinks on a 2hr flight. Seats comfortable for an A320. Will fly them again.

Flew CNF-GRU-LHR-GIG-CNF in business in July. For the most part an OK experience. Check in was fine and quick. Seats comfortable more shell shaped than lie flat I was able to sleep for a few hours on both legs. Service was courteous. Outbound flights on time but lounge at GRU way to small. Return flight had a one hour delay on the GIG-CNF leg. Food OK but nothing special and IFE screen big and easy to use but limited selection. Priority tag on bags meant nothing on last leg. My bag was one of the last ones to be delivered. My main gripe is that even if booked in C you end up flying Y in domestic sectors.

MAD-GRU First Class July 16th 2012. Extremely friendly check in staff at Madrid Barajas was a good start. Lounge is a shared one for multiple airlines and a bit downbeat. First Class passengers can board early and if so are provided with quality drinks and tasty snacks. Plane was fully boarded 30 minutes before departure despite being 100% full and departed 20 mins early. Delicious light healthy meal and slept for over 6 hours. Early departure ensured we were the first plane to land early morning at 04.30 in GRU allowing me to beat the dreaded immigration queues and be downtown by 05.45. Return flight next day was equally good and First lounge a haven from the horrors of GRU. Plan was at remote stand and was driven to the plane as the lone F passenger. Excellent Brazilian dishes on board in addition to a really good top quality wine selection. AVOD was ok . Slept comfortably for 7 hours. Overall great crew and ground staff that make a real difference. Will fly TAM again whenever I get the chance.

I flew GRU-FRA after having flown FRA-GRU with Lufthansa on an old 747 with only one overhead screen. Perhaps my flight down to Brazil with LH was so bad but I was pleasantly surprised by the service TAM offered in Economy on their 777. Wonderful entertainment system with AVOD. Choice of menu's and free alcoholic drinks. Granted their knowledge of English was limited but that should only be a problem for monoculture passengers. A few words of Portuguese did miracles.

POA-GRU-LHR Tam are getting worse. Nowadays they don't even offer simple sandwiches on short flights just biscuits and sometimes a bit of cheese! Breakfast on the international flight is always horrible. The choice is between eggs and a bread roll and butter or a sandwich and bread roll with butter. What does one do with so much bread and butter without jam or cheese for breakfast? If you are vegetarian dinner is less than delightful! Be prepared for pasta which that is always glued together and dry. The meat dishes are marginally better. I fly quite regularly between POA and LHR via GIG or GRU. Food has become the major issue apart from the poor leg room in Economy. Staff are generally quite helpful and are trained to tell you to 'Talk to the President' about all problems and those people can be down right rude! Recently they have started charging between 180-220k miles each way for an upgrade and keep offering tickets for 40-50k miles upgrades which don't exist. In my opinion anyone who wants a bit more comfort should not bother with them. I prefer putting up with rude flight attendants from BA and purchasing a Premium Economy ticket rather than this mess with Tam. And finally when you travel LHR-GRU-POA be prepared that your luggage does not arrive at the same time that you do in POA! Out of 20 flights in the past 36 months my luggage was 'lost' 5 times and arrived on average between 48 and 96 hours later. No compensation offered.

I have recently travelled to Brazil from the UK. I took a total of 6 flights including 2 international and 4 domestic flights all with TAM. I found the staff to be unhelpful the airline food was terrible (relative to other airlines) the planes were dirty and the entertainment choice was very limited. I have flown with many airlines and found this company provided the worst conditions I have experienced.

MIA-GIG on June 16. Plane was an extremely old and shabby 767-300. Business seats completely outdated 1970-style. No "cocoons" at all. Crew was attentive but food was just acceptable without any special charm. No in-flight entertainment at all. Quite a disappointing experience in contrast with the GIG-JFK leg on June 3 (on a comfortable A-330).

Non-stop Airbus A330 from New York to Sao Paulo. I had an aisle seat and I found the flight attendants to be very polite and patient. The movies on the flight were good the headphones were horrible and I was glad to have brought mine. The leg room was good as I was in an Aisle seat but the folks in the middle seats looked crammed in. The food was okay it was like a traditionally Brazilian "fast food" type of dish. The flight attendants are great about refilling drinks and do not complain about it. The bathrooms were generally clean and towards the end of the flight of course became dirty but did not run out of toilet paper or soap.

JFK-GRU-EZE EZE-GRU-JFK. I was pleasantly surprised. The first leg of my trip from New York to Sao Paulo was on a nicely kept A330 for the 9.5 hour flight. Flight attendants were friendly and spoke decent English/Spanish in addition to their native Portuguese. Seats were comfortable and had lots of leg room and the AVOD was great. The meals weren't anything special but they were ok. The flight from Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires was on an old but well kept A320. Nothing special about this flight good or bad. My return from EZE to GRU was on a A321 which had minimal leg room. Again the attendants were friendly and the drinks and food weren't bad. The second long haul leg from GRU to JFK was just as good as the trip down. TAM is miles ahead of any US carrier that flies to South America. The only downside to TAM is having to connect in GRU which is one of the worst airports I've ever been in. Overall highly recommended.

Frankfurt - Sao Paulo. Arrived at the airport 2 hours early there were only 3 people in the business class queue check-in was very fast. Onboard Boeing 777 offered champagne and orange juice then brought 2 bowls with 2 different kinds of cheese. I had 2 meals during the flight dinner and breakfast the food was good nothing special. A good experience flight attendants were polite and elegant the aircraft was immaculate.