TAP Portugal

I travelled from London to Lisbon on Friday 12 September 2013 the flight was more than an hour delayed there was no food on the plane we were given vouchers to get food from Heathrow food shops. There were no space between the seats even though I was sitting at the aisle. If I wanted such service I would have booked a ticket with a low budget airline and not with TAP. On the return flight the flight was delayed only 45 min we were given food but they were short of staff so when one of the cabin crew from the business class willed to help his colleagues in economy he was told off by his other colleague and probably superior from the business class. If I was you I would think twice before I book with TAP Portugal again.

I have just travelled form Lisbon to Amsterdam and 5 minutes before boarding we were told there was no service on board. This is the second time this has happened to me on TAP. In June I flew from Zurich to Lisbon and was also told there was no service on board. I don't suppose TAP has ever heard of the word replacements so when one of the crew cannot make it then someone replaces them. TAP is the best advertisement for other airline companies. I shall do everything I can NEVER to fly TAP again. I am a frequent flier but can also get miles when I fly Lufthansa. I travel to Amsterdam every other month so I shall fly KLM. TAP has just lost another customer. I am appalled at the lack of care TAP gives to its customers.

Disgraceful business class flight flight 346 from FNC to LGW on 14th September. No food or drink served for entire flight other than one small glass of water as they were operating to "minimum safety" standards. No warning prior to boarding so no chance to even get a sandwich and a bottle of water from the airport departure lounge. I understand that emergency staff shortages can and do arise however this has happened on several occasions recently and seems to be something more than just a shortage of one member of cabin crew. Flight arrived from Lisbon short crewed so the airline had several hours before the Gatwick flight departed to either arrange for another member of crew to join our flight or to make provision for passengers to be given a voucher for food/drink before departure or at the very least to make passengers aware of the situation on check-in so they could make their own arrangements to take food/water on board. The lack of communication was disgraceful. The entire episode was very poorly handled and not what one would expect from a national carrier airline. It's really not good enough when you pay a premium to not have to travel with a "no frills" airline and get less than basic service. Passengers have a choice of airlines on the Funchal - Gatwick route and TAP would be well advised to re- think some of their policies if they do not want to lose their market share of this route.

Flight from Lisbon to Salvador (Brazil). We left on time but staff was very rude and never took care of the requests of the passengers. I asked for headphones but they took 2 hours to arrive and half an hour for a glass of water. The entertainment system was not working properly and some movies never started playing. The speakers were really bad and we could barely hear the announcements. The seats are old and quite uncomfortable. Food was ok and we arrived on time.

GVA-LIS then LIS-RAK. I should have booked a low cost company. Onboard the crew did not smile. On top of that our seat had broken individual air conditioning thus we had all the air on our face. Requested a seat change however they definitely make us feel like a burden during the flight which was only 1.5 hrs long. Scheduled to fly back on Monday. Can't actually call it service but forced attendance!

Flew from Zurich to Lisbon and then from Lisbon to Paris on a different trip. Zurich to Lisbon was the most uncomfortable flight I've been on (until the one from Lisbon to Paris). The seats are minuscule and legroom is non-existent. I'm 6'3 and my knees were unable to fit behind the seats large metal plates and brackets from the seat in-front of me on both flights were cutting into my legs. My legs literally had to be set all to one side and somewhat on top of the armrests in order to not have metal gouging my knees. My Wife is 5'4 and also had problems sitting in the seats without her knees hitting the metal plates on the seat in front of her. The 1st flight was only delayed 20 minutes. The flight from Lisbon to Paris we waited at the airport for 14 hours from the time we got there with minimal or no updates. Of-course when we got to Paris all of our bags were lost. But luckily we got the bags 3 days later. I will never fly TAP again.

Flight from Portugal to Brazil the seat had no working entertainment system when they came to me they had run out of all items except lasagne. The staff were rude and had no interest in solving the problems.

FNC-LIS-FNC. You should choose a low cost airline rather than this. The price paid does not reflect the service. Most of the time there won't be any meal due to their constant policy of flying with minimum crew. Can't understand why this happens but it seems to be a general policy of the company now. Flight attendants seem miserable and unhappy doing their job. It's incredible how much their service has decline in recent years mostly due to their comfortable monopoly of profitable routes. Avoid at all costs.

I flew GVA-LIS-ACC on 24 August business class. The first 2 hour sector was very average with no inflight entertainment (A319). Lounge in LIS ok but very busy. The problem was the LIS-ACC sector. Business class. The seats were economy 1970 style. I thought there must have been an equipment substitution but the crew informed me this was indeed Business class. Truly a 3rd world set up and I will avoid TAP at all costs in the future. Crew were disinterested and the food offering miserable even for economy. Someone needs to wake up in this airline's senior management.

LIG-LGW and LGW-LIS. 23rd August and 27th August respectively. As mentioned in many other reviews here there was an extremely long check-in queue with only two check-in desks open. The flight was over an hour delayed in departing. This was followed by a very long delay in luggage retrieval at Gatwick which to be fair might be more the disorganisation of Groundforce. Return flight on the 27th was appalling. I was probably one of the first people to check-in so did not know there was no inflight service available until we had been in the air for almost an hour. I had to virtually beg for a cup of water. What I would like to know is how TAP thinks it can hold on to its share of the market in this way. The Star Alliance has given them a huge advantage by using the names of other well-reputed airlines to sell tickets but I warn other to ensure that their Lufthansa flight is not run by Tap Portugal because the flight I took on that occasion was the worst flying experience I had ever had. This last experience has simply ensured that I will do my utmost to avoid flying with Tap again.