TAP Portugal

✅ Trip Verified | Disclaimer: I am not petty. I don't normally go "full Karen" in most cases. I know it's hard to make everyone happy when you're an airline dealing with many different needs and demands. TAP has some of the best pilots, planes, and flight attendants. However, please be aware of this company's bureaucracy and its horrible customer service. My complaint was filed with TAP 5 days ago and I have yet to receive a reply, forget about a resolution. I went to their Lisbon "Headquarters" and the Lisbon terminal customer service desk about being denied travel from Porto to Newark, NJ on November 19, 2024. No one was able to help me. They also told me there were no managers to speak with customers. How are there no managers, supervisors, or persons in charge to speak to customers whenever an agent can't or won't help a customer? They just gave me a phone number or said to check online. This is the mindset of TAP and Portugal's public workers' sector. They feel entitled and arrogantly emboldened to not give a damn about the public. My matter would've been resolved with a simple phone call to US Customs. Bear in mind that I was traveling with my 89-year-old father who was in a wheelchair. Not another red cent of my money will go to TAP.

✅ Trip Verified | I was traveling with my sister and elderly mother who required a wheelchair. We paid extra to be seated together at the front so it would be easier for wheelchair boarding. We travel regularly on different airlines and we always pay for seats upfront for ease of boarding. Never had a problem until we took this airline. Upon trying to check in online, the airline was giving my mother a seat at the back (29B) separating her from my sister and myself. I messaged their staff on the problem but they insisted that wheelchair passengers have to be seated at the back and did not even offer a refund for the seats we bought. At the check in counter we requested if we can have our original seats (4A,B,C) that we paid for be given back to us but the rude and condescending agent insisted on 29B seat and told us to get a refund in Lisbon. What infuriated me more was seeing another wheelchair passenger given a seat at row 10. So what was that rule that wheelchair passengers were to be seated at the back?! Until now the airline has not refunded us for the seats we paid.

✅ Trip Verified | TAP is the worst airline and customer service! I recently cancelled my fully refundable ticket due to a medical emergency (I have a doctor's note as well confirming this). I had also won an upgrade on this flight as well. However, TAP would only refund my flight and refused to refund my upgrade $1800. I called multiple times, the reps would put me on hold then hang up. After emailing as well, I was told to keep trying via their customer service phone number (which they would hang up anytime I was placed on hold). After 3 calls, I finally reached a person who did not put me on hold and was told they couldn't do anything. Only to be told they cannot refund a "service" fee despite me not even receiving that service! They will not even take the medical incident into account. They will just steal your $$ despite not even being on that flight. It is a scam, hidden fees and terrible customer service who are completely inept.

✅ Trip Verified | Captain left the seat belt sign on for more than half the flight with only a few light turbulence that lasted only a couple of minute each, Lady in bulkhead seat 6F was told harshly to sit down when she went to the WC, . After a while she got up again and entered the WC. I got up (6A) to stand in line and was told to sit down until she left. My husband (7A) spoke to the attendant about it and was told he was only doing his job as the seat belt sign was on. After an exchange of words my husband said the attendant should tell the captain to turn the sign off as there hadn't been any turbulence for a while and people needed to use the WC. The sign was turned off a short while later so people could line up to use the WC. There was insufficient offers of liquids on an 8+ hour flight.. One small paper cup of wine with dinner, Meal was tasty but sparse - 2 tbs veal stew, 2 tbsp roast potato, 1 tbs chickpeas, small pudding - no salad or other greens. Several hours later - For breakfast, 1 small cup of water (or pop of juice) with 1 slice of ham, much smaller than the bun, and a smaller piece of very wilted lettuce. A small chocolate desert was tasty. No offer of coffee or tea, no other service to offer a drink,even water, between meals. Overall our attendant was arrogant and petty during the flight - including serving breakfast to 6 B, C, D, E and F and then me in A. This airline used to be equivalent in service and seats to another airline. But no longer. Its Premium Economy only meant a bit more leg room; nothing more. From now on we will take another airline in our twice yearly flight to Lisbon.

✅ Trip Verified | Tap Air Portugal (LIS), avoid if you can, airline only interested in getting your money (not getting you safely where ever you are going to). We’ve missed the flight in October half term as the queue at the customs (after Security check) on 29/10/2024 between 6-11pm, was over two hours, there are no airline staff on the ground by customs and you’d be refused help if you’d ask to be fast tracked or given priority, even though the airline is aware you are checked in and queueing inside the terminal - third of passengers do not make it on the plane because of the delays inside the terminal!! If you miss you flight you’d have to queue again for over 2hrs to get your stamp cancelled and then someone at Tap Air customer service desk will laugh in your face and say they are not responsible and the next available flight is in a weeks time. No matter if you complain no one will try to assist or help you, the only option is to raise a complain with highest authority (custom police) but do you really want to risk it and possibly get locked up?

✅ Trip Verified |   This airline's gate staff walk around the departure gate areas to force passengers to check in their carry-on, even if the carry-ons are within airline carry-on specs. They refuse to measure the carry-ones with their card box for carry-on specs. They use all kind of lame excuses for why the carry-ons should be checked, such as they are "heavy" or for "security" reasons. They do this despite protests and appeals. This is infuriating, unfair and causes inconvenience when collecting checked-in carry-ons at destinations. This is also a shame because their flight attendant staff are professional, helpful and kind during flights. Every one of my flights for this airline out of Lisbon airport is delayed by at least an hour because of air traffic congestion at the airport. Passengers for domestic flights for this airline out of the Lisbon airport must be bused for a long distance from the terminal to the airplane. That is because the airport (Terminal 2) is undersized and outdated. The airport is in need of renovation and expansion. Seats are not comfortable. Your knees (I'm 5' 10") bang against the seat in front. All food and drinks on European flights are for purchase, except for drinking water - Thank goodness!

✅ Trip Verified | Ground staff lack of any sort of communication skills. They have taken our hand baggage and checked it in because flight had “full occupation”. They wouldn’t even care to explain, just put the tag on at the gate and gave a nod to carry on. When we asked to keep the baggage they only said “it’s a low fare flight and cabin baggage is not guaranteed”. Would not fly with them again.

Not Verified | What does it state about an airline when their baggage handlers protested to go on strike. I think it means that airline doesn’t care about their employees. Which leads to question if they care about their customers. If you try to file a complaint. It’s a run around about which digits you need to input from TP number, flight number, date of flight and so on. It’s cluster mess with no end in sight. Maybe that’s the idea to confuse the complainant to give up. I’m not the typical person to give up. I will fight for the 65€ TAP doesn’t want to refund me. Their automatic email states that their policy is that they don’t give refunds. I guess it’s written in stone. No wonder the baggage handlers wanted to go on strike, because they wanted change. I guess that also was written stone that they can’t ask for more or change. The question is who wants to fly an airline doesn’t view change as good or be employed by them. Are their employees happy? I suggest they fight against TAP. Fight for what you need from TAP. Make them TAP OUT!! I will make my comments public. I just want a refund. I will never fly TAP again.

✅ Trip Verified | TAP Portugal might be just fine for someone flying alone, who doesn't care where on the plane you sit. However, you should NOT pay extra for "Comfort Class" assigned seating, because you are likely to end up being put in Economy, with no opportunity for a refund. My wife and I paid $170 each ($340 in total) for Comfort Class assigned seating by the window, but for both flights (TO Lisbon and back to Chicago) we ultimately had to fly in Economy section seats in order to be together. We did "on-line check-in" the day before our flight and discovered we weren't in the seats we had paid for. We called Custormer Service to ask why we didn't get our assigned seats, and for the first leg (to Lisbon), the customer rep said that despite what we saw on the App, we really still had our assigned seats. However, when we got boarding passes at the airport (2 1/2 hours before our flight) we were in the center section (not by the window) and when the gate attendant moved us to window seats, we didn't realize she was moving us to Economy. For our return flight, the On-Line Check-in showed I was assigned to Row 9 and my wife was in Row 32. We called Customer Service (20 hours before the flight) and when we explained the situation and requested our assigned seats, the first Rep "put us on hold," but then hung up on us. The second rep did the same thing. When we got the THIRD representative, we explained we had "been disconnected" twice already, so she took my cell-phone number. After 10 minutes or so of her explaining they had "overbooked" the Comfort Class she gave us two choices - either go to the gate the next day and hope they could assign us seats together, OR choose Economy Class seats by a window now, but accept that there would be no "refund" for the $340 we had paid for assigned seating. As we continued the discussion, the Rep claimed that my cell-phone signal was "breaking up" (even though it had been fine all along), and when I said to my wife that I wasn't going to hang up on the Rep because "the signal might come back," the Rep obviously heard that just fine, and hung up on us (and didn't call back). Overall, if you fly TAP, don't pay for Comfort Class assigned seating, because you might not get it.

Not Verified | Potentially the worst ground staff I’ve ever experienced anywhere! I’ve got numerous flight under my belt and I have never seen a more disorganized, uninformed and uninterested group of individuals in any flight I’ve been on. And then on board “I can’t commit to time of arrival—so sorry”. Just a true mess and really enormous lack of timely information or updates. Potentially one of the most terrible flight experiences I’ve had. Terrible.