TAP Portugal

Lisbon - Barcelona (TP1048) - This particular flight is constantly delayed. Booked to depart at 20.30 on a regular basis leaves before 22.00. Its my 7th consecutive delay this year on this route and to be honest TAP Portugal have a serious problem with time. On this flight no information was provided first info comes at 21.00 the flight should leave at 21.30 then a second one putting the departure date at 22.00. The flight leaves at 22.40 arriving in Barcelona the next day. I leave the airport at 02.00 (expensive Taxi fare home). Onboard the staff were OK but keeping the low standard service. A simple excuse in Portuguese and in imperceptible English. The airplane was dirty and smelly and once more no food on board. For TAP Portugal frequent fliers its becoming a nightmare deal with constant delays bad service and no food on top overpriced tickets.

Manchester to Lisbon 7th August 2013. At check-in there were 2 very long queues. Near to the front of our queue the TAP staff just got up and walked away. What followed was further disarray as the other staff simply shrugged. Left to simply go to the very back of the remaining queue. On the return journey there was a similar case with half a dozen different flights merged into two queues which then resulted in 'emergency desks' being opened. Check-in took 2 hours on this occasion. Boarded on 07/08/2013 from Manchester to Lisbon. Departure time of 11.20am passed and we were delayed. No communication as to why. Then the cabin crew started to frantically count the passengers - with patchy information provided to individuals. Around 2 hours into this debacle passengers were each offered a small glass of water. 3 hours 10 minutes after proposed take off time we departed. No apology and no clarification given.

MIA-LIS-CPH 10/08/2013. MIA-LIS: Check-in was fine. Flight left on time. One of their older A330 with old interior. The person TV's didn't work. Flight time was 8 hours. Food was very good a choice between fish and pasta. I choose pasta and it was delicious. They came around with water during the flight breakfast was good as well. Landed on time at 5am. LIS-CPH: A320 Crew was very nice. Flight departed on time went smoothly. They served some kind of fish with mashed potato. Landed on time. Baggage was also very fast.

Worst airline I've travelled on. Flight Heathrow to Lisbon delayed missed connection issued connection flight to Funchal. Sent from Lisbon onto Porto more delays then Porto to Funchal 11.55pm had 5 mins to get flight told to run and as we took off the landing lights at runway were being switched off behind us! Then delays on 11 August 2013 3 hour delay at Lisbon to Heathrow. I think every TAP flight was delayed on departure board. No staff around so no proper info being given out.

TP2568 VCP-LIS on Aug 10th 2013. You pay a fortune for the worst service even a smile from the crew isn't included. Food served in economy is the worst I ever had (even for TAP standards) : dry bread for breakfast some cheesy fish for dinner. Inflight entertainment is a choice of 13 channels that play in loops (something I haven't seen on a flight for over 10 years). The only good thing is a bit of leg-space (better than some Air France Boeings) flying to Brazil. The ground personnel are not much better. Connecting flight to Brussels TP614 delayed 2 hours and they were not willing to put me on a Brussels Airlines flight that left in 60 mins even for a Star Alliance Frequent Flyer that I am! Result: 6 hours waiting at Lisbon Airport.

Can only talk of my one and only TAP flight Lyon to Lisbon. We were given an upgrade to business very lucky indeed. But more importantly the flight left and landed early important as we were meeting family in Lisbon they also arrived on an early TAP flight from Barcelona.

Flew CPH-LIS-EWR. First leg CPH-LIS: A319 nice comfortable seats friendly FAs. They served breakfast and it was some omelette with tomato sauce and mushrooms. For some it was tasty not for me. Flight was on time. Second leg LIS-EWR: Was planned as A340-300 got 3 hours delayed due to technical problem on engine. Very bad information at LIS about when flight was going to depart. Aircraft change to A330-200 old interior. Very bad food. Close to not being edible.

LGW-FNC 30th July 2013. I have to say I was dreading this flight after reading a number of reviews. I fly fortnightly on Business and regularly for pleasure and this was the first time we had used TAP. I was happily surprised by the service and quality of flight we received. As a regular traveller to Madeira from the UK it has become rather expensive to use so called low cost carriers and charters to the island so we turned to TAP in the hope they would be able to service our requirements and they far exceeded my expectations. Yes I agree their service could be improved by more presence in the cabin but the cabin crew were friendly and efficient. The leg room and seat space for a large build 6ft3 chap was brilliant for an economy seat. We boarded on time however 25 minutes late leaving LGW due to heavy traffic. Overall a really positive experience and looking forward to the return later in August.

AMS-OPO (TP651 on 25/7/2013) and OPO-AMS (TP652 on 29/7/2013). Inbound flight delayed 1hr 35mins for a 2hr 38mins flight. Outbound flight delayed 30 minutes. Delays are constant on this route. The last 10 flights I flew on this route were all delayed. The explanation was always the same: "late arrival of the aircraft" which really is no explanation whatsoever as to say that the flight is late because the aircraft is late amounts to say nothing at all. The delays led to the loss of takeoff/landing slots and/or to the allocation of the farthest takeoff/landing runaway in Schiphol which adds to the delays and is frustrating to the passengers. Priority luggage at the arrival of the aircraft in Amsterdam was delivered last compounding the delay. Boarding was chaotic with everyone boarding simultaneously and queues not being respected both in OPO and AMS. Aircraft on this route (Fokker-100) are old and outdated. TAP Portugal is expensive (flight costs are those of a premium airline while the service is certainly not) inefficient and its on-time performance is appalling. Although the food is decent in the business cabin the service is nothing special with attitude shown from both the cabin crew and the handling staff. It is dangerously placed in an airline limbo: its service is slightly better than a low cost - food/drinks and newspapers are provided - but its cost is that of a premium airline. However delays are a constant. All in all it would not be a sustainable airline if it did not have the advantage of the de-facto monopoly in certain routes. Not recommended.

My flight yesterday was from Brussels to Marrakech - connecting in Lisbon. Initial flight out was delayed causing us to miss our connecting flight to Marrakech which was the last flight and only flight into Marrakech out of Lisbon airport. The whole situation was preventable had the airport staff skipped us to the front of the customs line or even moved us to the European passport line. We waited in the US passport line for 30 minutes - while there was no wait in the European passport line. When I explained to staff that I was going to miss my flight he responded that the TAP Portugal flight had been delayed 30 minutes so I would still make my flight. When I got to the gate the plane was there but the gate was closed. In fact the flight was not delayed 30 minutes rather they waited an extra 10 minutes for late passengers but apparently not for us. The TAP customer service rep was rude and incompetent. She gave us bad instructions on retrieving our luggage and it took us almost 3 hours to get our suitcases. We arrived at Lisbon airport at 2.15 - by the time we dealt with all the unfortunate nonsense it was almost 6pm before we got in a cab. TAP Portugal's standards of service are unacceptable.