TAP Portugal

✅ Trip Verified | Lisbon to Newark. On June 15, 2019, I purchased two seats on a TAP Portugal flight from Lisbon to Newark, for which I paid $84. According to the seat, map displayed, I choose the two seats, aisle and middle to get more leg room, as the row the two seats were situated was shown behind the divider separating the two economy sections. Upon arrival in the airplane on June 22, I realized the two seats were in the middle of one of the economy sections and not the seats displayed of the seat map a week prior when I purchased them. Even more, they were two of the worst seats possible, squeezed in the middle of the aircraft, seats that I could have gotten for free at check-in. I immediately talked with the flight attendant about this and was told to contact TAP Portugal for a refund as airplanes change often and so do the seat charts. Of course, three weeks have passed, and not only I didn't get a refund, but I also didn't even get any response or apology from TAP Portugal. I would also like to add that the flying TAP Portugal was a very unpleasant experience (and this is as nice as I can say it) that ended with a layover of 15 hours in Newark. I purchased these tickets in November 2018 and was notified in March 2019 that the last flight, EWR to CHS has been cancelled. I've contacted Expedia and TAP Portugal numerous times for ten weeks without getting any resolutions in this matter. Two days prior to the departure, the only option offered was a flight with a layover of 15 hours. Although I recognize that this was the responsibility of Expedia, through which I've purchased the tickets, I was informed by Expedia on countless occasions, that TAP Portugal would not respond to their numerous inquiries. I find the entire experience with TAP Portugal to be unprofessional and discourteous.

✅ Trip Verified | Lisbon to Funchal with TAP Portugal. They keep serving the same disgusting wrap on almost every flight. Check-in process at Lisbon airport is very complex for anyone less tecnhologically savy: you have to print your bag tickets and then stick them, I find this very hard because there are some code barrs which you should stick onto your boarding pass, others in the bag while the lady receiving the bags was very condoscending and just made you feel ignorant.

✅ Trip Verified | TAP was responsible for the worst travel experience I have had in 27 years of frequent flying. I was booked YYZ-LIS-CMN, all on TAP metal, purchased via an Aeroplan ticket (Air Canada’s frequent flyer program). The debacle began when TAP canceled its YYZ-LIS flight on 26 June. Since their mobile app clearly has not been updated since 1997, I received no notification from TAP about the cancelation (despite having enrolled in email and SMS updates) and only found out about the delay by proactively checking the flight status. I initially called Aeroplan to rebook me on an alternative routing because I had a (correct) premonition that TAP’s call centre agents would be useless. However, Aeroplan are only able to rebook if there are points tickets available, and for same-day travel this is naturally next to impossible. Ultimately, they advised me to call TAP. After waiting on hold for an infuriating 30 minutes, we finally reached an agent who advised us that due to the flight cancelation we would be reprotected on a new flight that TAP was “kind enough” to send the following day, departing at 6 pm. At our final destination in CMN, we were to start on a 7-day prepaid tour of Morocco, so a delay of 24h would be unacceptable. We explained this extenuating circumstance to the TAP agent and he did not even attempt to look for alternative routing. He simply said “sorry”, he would not even escalate to a supervisor. When he realized it was an Aeroplan ticket, he said he could not touch our tickets anyway and he would transfer us to the airline miles department. Ready to try anything at this point (even though it was not on TAP miles), we accepted the proposal. When the hostile Miles agent picked up, he made it clear that he could not assist since it was an Aeroplan, not a Miles&Go ticket. We asked to be transferred back to a main ticketing agent without a 30-minute queue, but of course he just shoved us back into the queue anyway. When we finally reached another agent, she was no more helpful. She drew the same conclusion that since it was an Aeroplan ticket, I ought to speak to the Miles&Go department, despite my pleas that she figure it out as Miles&Go could not help, she cut me off and transferred me anyway — making it clear that this is just a shameless tactic to deflect a difficult call and keep average handle times down. Ultimately Aeroplan agreed to rebook us on AC’s YYZ-LIS flight the same night and told me they did so because TAP had violated its passenger contract of carriage and refused to reprotect me on any flight — unbelievable. The next leg of my journey (LIS-CMN) was still on TAP metal. The AC agent in YYZ was unable to print boarding passes for that flight and advised we pick them up in LIS. When we arrived, the TAP debacle continued. There was not a single agent manning the TAP transfers desk in the international terminal, so we approached an agent at a boarding counter for a flight that had just closed. She was visibly annoyed that we asked for help but when we pointed out the deserted transfers desk she obliged. When she looked into the file, she found that we were not confirmed on the LIS-CMN leg! Her suggestion, naturally, was to call Aeroplan, who once again came to the rescue: they cited TAP as again having shirked their responsibilities to guarantee us on the second flight (whatever that means) and repurchased the two tickets out of pocket so we could be confirmed. I just cannot believe how TAP can be so shady.

✅ Trip Verified | A stain on the face of Portugal. Poor service - unprecedented delays - unscheduled tech stop - undeclared via destination for disembarkation and embarkation - lost bags - no priority for business passengers. I’ve never seen so many disinterested ground crew. Families with children then general boarding. No control whatsoever. - over the course of a disjointed 8 hour flight we received a glass of water during the 80 minute delay on tarmac, then nothing for the next 3 hours of flight time. One (single solitary) drinks service with food, then nothing for another 4 hours when we landed in Accra. The crew had run out of water, beer, white wine and juice after just one offering. Nothing further was available. - 8 flights in 14 days, only one keeping within 30 minutes of schedule. Cumulative 28 hour delay across the others. - A320 single aisle aircraft on trans-continental that doesn’t have fuel capacity for the route. Sadly the cabin crew, transfer team etc openly admit that this is the case with an estimated 50% of TAP flights. I hate it when people say this - however, I really have flown some 40 airlines in my time (economy, premium, business, first) and have had several shoddy experiences but I have made a personal pledge that I will never set foot on a TAP aircraft ever again. It’s truly soul destroying.

✅ Trip Verified | Lisbon to Dusseldorf. Amazing service, crew and food. Very personal service, clean aircraft and the food were amazing for a 2.5-hour flight. Could not have wished for anything more. It was a really cheap flight and competitors like KLM or LH were 4x the price and TAPs service was comparable if not better!

Not Verified | Lisbon to London. Extremely rude staff who demanded we check our hand luggage in. We deliberately booked not to check our luggage due to time constraints but were forced to check it in despite it meeting the bag requirements. This delayed us - the woman on duty was extremely rude - the fact that the flight was overbooked was the fault of the airline but she made it seem it was our fault and we were penalised. Another told us that our hand luggage would be given priority and therefore offloaded first. This was not true. The overhead compartments had room to accommodate more carry-ons. This was handled extremely badly and those of us who were delayed (the flight was late departing by about 1 hr, too). If the airline has made a mistake and overbooked, we should not have to be rudely bullied into checking in our luggage. Instead of persuading us or giving us an incentive, we were giving marching orders rudely rather than treated like passengers.

Not Verified | Newark to Accra via Lisbon. Horrendous service with this airline. Paid $2,500 for 2 intercontinental round trip tickets from New Jersey To Accra. A day before the flight they let us know that no checked bags are included! Who does that? We were told it would be $92 per checked bag each way so a for 2 bags for 2 passengers that would $736 extra. But as if that wasn't bad enough when we actually went to check in online 24 hours before the flight the price had changed to $120 per bag each way. Which is an extra $1,000 for two checked bags when every other airline gives 2 free checked bags. In addition, all the people I spoke to on their customer service line were exceptionally rude and condescending. I've never received such terrible service.

✅ Trip Verified | New York JFK to Rome via Lisbon. From check-in to luggage delivery, everything went smoothly. Luggage came out very fast in Rome and virtually I walked from the gate to the carousel and waited <5 mins and I was able to walk out of the airport. JFK-LIS sector: Only downside is that there is no lounge at JFK. On board service was efficient. Dinner service began right after airborne. Food was tasty and pasteis de nata was served as dessert, which was a nice Portuguese touch. By the time the first in-flight movie was done, the dinner table was cleared as well. Was able to sleep a solid 3 hours on lie-flat seat which was comfortable. Amenity kits was sufficient if not fancy. The morning breakfast service was a light meal instead of full breakfast and which was sufficient as had dinner a little over 3 hours ago. LIS-FCO sector: It was delayed a little over an hour which were not communicated until close the actual boarding time. Nice snack was served on board. All in all it was a nice journey.

Not Verified | Alicante to Amsterdam via Lisbon. Absolutely horrendous customer service and website! I've flown TAP multiple times in the past. I have no issues with the flights, the food or any of these other variables. Flights have generally run normally as other airlines. However, every time I get into a small issue, I can never fix it. Most recently I attempted (am still attempting) to buy a ticket and instead of saying my card was declined and telling me to try again, the website said "Booking confirmed, card did not work, call this number to pay". Stupid me decided to call instead of scrapping that reservation and doing another one. It's been 4 days on the phone and I still haven't managed to pay for this reservation. I've tried cards (over the phone - which I should not have done!!!) and most recently was told I could pay via invoice. I was promised to receive an invoice 2 days ago which still hasn't come. When I call Customer Service, I select "Payments" but always end up in "General Assistance" which cannot process my payments and thus have to redirect me to payments, which usually means hours on the phone. Also, they always take 5-10 minutes to find my reservation, which for some reason, I can find online in a few seconds. But why didn't you just scrap this reservation and buy a new one? Well, of course, since I entered the black hole, prices have gone up significantly, and I am not willing to pay the current price for the trip. And yes, I'm on the phone as I write this.

✅ Trip Verified | Gatwick to Accra via Lisbon. This is the worst airline ever. I booked for my 75yr old mum who asked for a wheel chair because she couldn't walk at the airport and this horrible airline was insisting that she walks because she did not arrange for wheelchair. Secondly, I booked through a 3rd party because of bad prior experience with TAP Portugal and my mum was stranded at the airport because TAP Portugal claimed she did not book after I had confirmed booking with TAP Portugal 2 times prior her travel date.