TAM Airlines

I flew TAM Airlines from São Paulo Guarulhos to Frankfurt on a Boeing 77-300ER, and I must say is torture, the seats are very tight. TAM uses the 3x4x3 layout which leaves very tight aircraft, the seats are bad, just recline. The service is also poor, and with little food.

Yesterday I flew with my one year old child from Sao Paolo to London. Normally bulkhead seats are allocated for parents travelling with young children, disabled etc. But with TAM you have to fork out around 100GBP for this privilege one way! All bulkhead seats were empty during the flight but the flight attendants would not let passengers use them. They advised that an extra charge applies for those seats if we are going to use them. The food and drinks were quite poor. We were offered water only twice during 11 hour flight and breakfast was unedible.

Rio de Janeiro to Salvador with TAM. Check-in was messy and slow. Departure was delayed due to check-in mistake that let 2 minors traveling without any adult board and without the usual paperwork. Unbelievable lack of skill. They had to be expelled from aircraft and it took 1 hour to find their luggage, because TAM allocated only 2 persons to search. During this hour, no service at all was offered, FAs remained hidden, only preventing people to sit in the "seat plus" (that have a little larger pitch), and then running back to galley. Brand new A321, with pitch too small for someone taller than 1,75m. Sad experience.

London to Santiago via Sao Paulo, and on a tour of South America I took 7 flights with TAM Airlines and their subsidiary LAN. The international flights were business class which was excellent. Flatbed seats enabled a good 6-7 hours of sleep. The food was okay for airline food and water or alcohol was offered. All of the flights were on time and the staff were very helpful, even offering additional leg room seats when these were available. The inflight entertainment was limited however most people now provide their own.

London to Sao Paulo with TAM Airlines. Left London on time. Cabin staff very helpful and plane clean and comfortable. Food served for dinner and breakfast ok although only 1 alcoholic drink offered with dinner. VOD worked with latest films and water offered during the night. Arrived on time at Sao Paulo and then disaster struck, eventually informed after 1 hour wait that onward flight to Santiago would not be departing at 7.30am but 10pm. After walking around the airport and queueing for 2 hours and retrieving luggage we were eventually given vouchers for a taxi to dump of a hotel on the outskirts of Soa Paulo. Stuck there all day, no leisure facilities, industrial buildings surrounding the hotel and having to arrange hotel shuttle bus back to airport. Have several more flights booked with TAM Airlines on package holiday to South America so just hope things improve?

We booked and paid for a business air fare thru Expedia from Rio de Janeiro to Auckland. After booking we received an email from TAM saying aircraft change meant no business class was available are we are now premium economy. Turned up to check in at Rio to be told no premium economy or business class on flight, and are now economy! After 1.5 hrs being taken from one supervisor to the other with no success they finally booked us on economy class, and then informed us that our connecting flight with Air New Zealand also had no business class - a lie also as we are frequent fliers with them - so they would only book is in premium economy for the Buenos Aires to Auckland to flight. By this stage it was only 40 minutes to departure and just took the boarding passes! When we boarded the Rio to Buenos Aires flight, there was business class - then on our arrival in Buenos Aires we went to Air New Zealand and they changed our boarding passes to the business seats we had purchased! We were lied to by 5 different staff members of TAM airlines and just left at the counter for up to 30 mins at a time until we got hold of another supervisor. I would advise to fly any other airline unless you want to be lied or cheated out of your money! Also in flight entertainment broken to top it off.

Foz do Iguaçu to Rio de janeiro, and TAM Airlines is a prime example of rip-off non-service culture. Overpriced flights, designed to take advantage of tourists, unfriendly staff who pretend they don't understand what you want. Dirty plane. We tried to rebook and they kept us on the phone (via UK mobile) for 17 min without providing any information if it was possible, just asking same questions again and again. Awful attitude all around, but they have monopoly so get away with it. If you can, avoid!

London to Sao Paulo with TAM Airlines. Found drop down table was broken (I was not the only one with a broken table) and had to use a cushion to try hold it up while trying to eat a very poor tasteless diner. With dinner you get a drink - ok but when myself and other people asked for another drink the cabin staff never returned even when asked several times. Breakfast was even worse. My TV entertainment system did work for about 10 minutes then it packed up. The people sitting next to me did better - theirs lasted 40 minutes and packed up. Reported it to the crew that it was not working they tried for 2 hours and kept saying we are trying to fix it. Landed in Sao Paulo after a 12 hour flight still not working. One very long journey with nothing to do. Good luck to anyone going to the Olympics in 2016. I would say to people pay the extra and go with another airline. If you want to put a complaint into TAM don't bother they don't respond and give you the run around from department to department and you end up where you started. Save your time and money and don't bother complaining.

Flights were very close to on time, cabin service was good, IFE on the Boeing 767 was good. No luggage problems. AEP airport in Buenos Aires is a zoo. Was concerned about the lengthy connection times until I realized that we could access the Admirals' Club lounges using the lifetime membership I bought in 76. Lounge in Toronto was ok, JFK very worn, GRU was wonderful with a great selection of food and wines. All in, the price was right.

Travelled domestically on TAM from GRU-MAO in 'Relax' Business class on the A330 We were in seats 1D/1G, the seats were situated in the first class compartment of plane, which has just 4 seats. These were full flat beds and very comfortable, the cabin was quite dated and shabby, carpet all frayed and very dirty, and the seats were quite tatty. Upon boarding the cabin crew were sitting in our seats and seemed quite miffed that we'd been assigned the seats and that had to move. Cabin service was awful onboard, within 10 mins of seatbelt sign being released the crew came through offering a small cheese bun and a soft drink, they were not seen again for the remainder of the 4hour flight. Entertainment was okay but not as good as the 767 we travelled out on Flight was on time and actually arrived about 15 mins early.