TAP Portugal

OPO-LIS-FRA. My flight was booked with Lufthansa. Check-in at OPO was quick ground personnel was friendly and efficient boarding well organized and departed on time. First flight was very short no meals or beverages offered. Problems began at LIS. The gate was changed twice the flight to FRA departed 40 minutes late. This situation made me feel stressed because I had to make a tight connection in FRA with LH and they had assigned me a seat on the last row which I found to be inadequate. The flight was good seat was quite comfortable there were drop-in LCD monitors and breakfast was provided for free. In summary I found their service to be OK their short/medium haul planes are modern and clean; however I do not recommend LIS airport for connections it is unorganized and ugly. OPO is much better.

Very disappointed the food was horrible the seats comfortable but dirty and the entertainment systems were old and damaged on the way to Rio de Janeiro. On the way to Lisbon the service was ok but far away to justified the overpriced tickets. The customer service was disappointing after hearing great things. Expensive tickets but you receive a poor service.

Lisbon-Barcelona. Both flights operated with Fokker the smallest and old plane used in TAP Portugal fleet. Both flights delayed (1h40 on the go 2h50 on the back) boarding by bus (worse than Ryanair) and the plane inside looks very old and was dirty. The food was bad a pretty small card lunch box style with "low-cost" small 1/4 dry sandwich "plastic food". Staff professional but arrogant and the ticket extremely overpriced. (430 euros there and back economy).

18-7-2012 and 12/13-8-2012 from Amsterdam via Lisbon to Newark USA. Both flights Amsterdam-Lisbon v.v. we had old airplanes with little leg space worn leather seats and uninterested personnel. Flight from Lisbon to Newark was with an ancient Airbus after 2.5 hours delay due to technical problems and had no inflight entertainment. The flight from Newark to Lisbon had inflight entertainment and remarkable nice personnel. Leg space and food were reasonable on these long hauls. However the sorry state of Lisbon airport which serves as the hub for TAP made us decide to never ever fly with TAP again.

I have never had so many inconveniences during one flight. During one trip with transit in Lisbon our first flight delayed 2 hours our second flight for 5 and a half hours. On the flight from Madeira to Lisbon (1 hr 30 min duration) there was no meal service on board the crew didn't give passengers even a glass of water it was impossible to get meal vouchers at the airline service desk and finally our baggage did not arrive to our final destination. After 5 and a half hours transit time in Lisbon we are still waiting for them after 3 more days.

I flew Prague to Lisbon and back in one week. Flight to Lisbon was 10 hours late they said there was no aircraft available and on the top of it that the flight was oversold and somebody would have to stay in Prague. They left us waiting several hours without information. Flight originally scheduled at 7.30pm during check-in at 5.30 they said they might have some information at 7pm at 7 they said at 9pm and at 9 they postponed it to 11pm. Only at 1.50am we learned that we would fly at 5am. We got vouchers for refreshments and in the end also a hotel room. When we finally took off none of the crew found it necessary to apologize for the trouble. The flight back to Prague was 3 hours late they did not serve any food and explained that there was not enough crew to serve it. Eventually kids got their meals and adults got a cup of water on request.

I have flown TAP many times from Newark to Porto and I have no complaints. As TAP is the only airline that flies direct from the NYC metro area to Porto I frequent TAP when I go to Portugal. For about $100 more than airlines like Iberia that require me to transfer in Madrid I rather not give myself a hassle and fly direct. Flights are almost always on time. The food is average airplane food and 2 or 3 choices are always offered. Flight attendants are fulfil requests with a smile. The entertainment system on long haul flights is a huge plus. Updated IFE's on some of the planes are even better. Highly recommend!

Lisboa to Bruxelles on 29 July 2012 was more than hour late. Business class meal on this 2.5 hour flight consisted of nuts and a glass of water or orange juice. The inflight entertainment was the same Canadian hidden camera video as on my TAP flight six days earlier and some culinary videos.

Flew from Heathrow to Lisbon on to the Azores. Flight out to the Azores was 3 hours late because they said they had no crew. Coming back to Heathrow the flight was at first 15 minutes late then another 15 minutes late and then another 15 minutes late taking off because we were already late and lost our slot got to over Heathrow and the plane was again 15 to 20 minutes late landing because we were late leaving Lisbon and lost our landing slot. The planes looked dirty and worn but had leg room. The only positive experience of the trip was the cabin crew on all flights seemed nice but the offered "meals" were not very good.

We flew for £193 per person to Portugal from London. It didn't start well as our flight was delayed by 1 hour for an 'unknown reason'. However we soon boarded the plane and it was ok. TAP is a high class budget airline. Don't expect much. If you want a cheap flight I recommend them for their price. If your going on a long haul flight and your going on economy maybe look somewhere else.