TAP Portugal

VCE-LIS-VCE 29 Jan 2015 and 7 Feb 2015 A319 and A320 with quite a lot of legroom. Both flights on time. The crew were friendly and professional. Only downside being the meal: now on the inedible side of the airline food. On the other hand wine is still good also in economy.

TP74 GIG-LIS 8 Jan 2015. TP956 LIS-GVA 9 Jan 2015. TP953 GVA-LIS 18 Jan 2015. TP73 LIS-GIG 22 Jan 2015. Some of the long-haul aircraft have a descent Inflight entertainment with on-demand music and films which works very well but many others have an extremely outdate inflight entertainment system which is not on-demand and is terrible. I would not reccommend it since all the times I flied TAP I had to worry if my flight would happen due to some pay rise strike.

Fly TAP regularly from Manchester to Faro via Lisbon. I really like them friendly crews food and drink (even in economy) included in ticket price comfortable seating with good leg room and free luggage allowance. What's not to like. Oh and never had much in the way of delays. Will use them as often as it fits with my schedule. A nice touch I have been upgraded a couple of times to business class very pleasant.

Business Class from Funchal to Lisbon and Lisbon to London Heathrow - we were pleasantly surprised at the efficiency of all the staff both at the airport and on board TAP airline. The only thing that lets it down is the service in the business lounge both in Funchal and Lisbon airport - the passengers had to get on a bus to get to the plane. Service on the plane was great food was good and drinks were plentiful. There were no delays and we arrived at LHR with our luggage on the carousel waiting for us.

Flew business from Lisbon to Recife return. On the way to Brazil we flew on the old A330 which wasn't too bad apart from the IFE which were very outdated and you had to basically follow the films on each channel as you could not pause them and there was a poor selection of films. The seats on the old A330 were quite good taking into consideration the aircraft's age - the only downside of the seats was that they didn't convert into flat- beds. On the way back to Lisbon we flew on one of the recently acquired A330's which had an upgraded IFE touchscreen and basically the same entertainment system of all other European airlines except from the fact that there were no options to watch the external camera - which for me isn't too much of a problem; the selection of films was quite good this time. Couldn't see too much of a difference from the old seats on the recent aircraft apart from a more modern design and the fact that it had a massage function and reclined 180 degrees but nothing compared to the seats on other airlines. Staff were quite friendly and always present (they would show up in less than one minute after pressing the button) - far too different than in economy. The food was indeed very good with a good selection of wines and main courses. On the way back from Brazil they served typical Brazilian dishes though breakfast was too simple for business class. The lounge in Lisbon is very good though avoidable on peak hours; the lounge in Recife is a joke: terrible! Overall experience with TAP business on long haul flights: quite good and not pricey which makes it worth it.

ORY-FNC via Lisbon. TAP provides a quite decent service on these routes at very competitive prices: free baggage on-time flights leather seats hot meal on international flights and a good choice of drinks free with good wines. Crew are of different moods: some do just their job but are polite and some are very attentive. The crews' uniform is very elegant and most of them are very smart. A nice thing to know: a large number of TAP agents and crew speak French some of them very fluently and are happy to speak it (not like in Swiss !). All check-and boarding in Portugal were made in French. It's a nice and professional touch.

8 December TP 571. Flew Tap from Frankfurt to Lisbon. Flight was delayed 20 mins but after that boarding was smooth and efficient. Especially want to praise the cabin crew who were delightful. They were friendly and helpful and constantly smiling. The hot meal was an unexpected bonus as was the drinkable wine both of which were complimentary. Our experience with TAP was perfectly fine.

LGW/OPO on 24 December returning 27th December. The fare was competitive check-ins fine the cabin crew smiled (on both legs of the trip) the flights were on time. Outcome: Excellent. What's not to like?

Porto - London Gatwick flight delayed 2hrs and 7 minutes for no apparent reason. Only explanation given was that the plane came late from Lisbon. I believe they should have provided phone email meal vouchers over 2 hrs of delay nothing like that happened. Be careful with them.

LGW-LIS on Dec 4 on an Airbus 320 in Economy - straight forward midday point to point flight. Flight was more or less on time slight delay into LIS not an issue. Web check-in was working fine and bag drop at Gatwick was friendly with no lines. Portuguese hospitality on board very pleasant friendly flight attendants. A salmon flatbread and drinks including beer and wine were served. FA's were present in the cabin throughout the flight and additional drinks were served on request. Bag out in LIS within minutes after arriving at the belt. Excellent product by TP with food drinks allocated seats and checked luggage included in the ticket price. Fare was also very competitive. Below GBP 60.- a one-way including ridiculous UK departure taxes. Unfortunately TP uses a bus gate for this flight at both Gatwick and Portela but that just a very minor inconvenience. The only negative was that TP uses a pay-per-entry lounge (No. 1 Lounge) for its frequent travelers. The lounge was hopelessly overcrowded. As I did not find a half comfortable space to sit I left again. It was much more comfortable to just wait for the flight in the general departure hall. (Star Alliance Gold).