TAP Air Portugal

newcavanman

I recently booked a weekend in Lisbon with TAP. Great prices and convenient times, fir me anyway. Just wondering has anyone flown with them,recently? we booked the cheapest option, Discount, and After looking through their site, i cant figure out is their free tea/coffee etc? And do they rigidly enforce the bag limits as we are i assume, covered for hand baggage, .. But tbh its a bit vague. The site says no baggage, but i reckoned that was for hold baggage

sidcon

newcavanman wrote: »

I recently booked a weekend in Lisbon with TAP. Great prices and convenient times, fir me anyway. Just wondering has anyone flown with them,recently? we booked the cheapest option, Discount, and After looking through their site, i cant figure out is their free tea/coffee etc? And do they rigidly enforce the bag limits as we are i assume, covered for hand baggage, .. But tbh its a bit vague. The site says no baggage, but i reckoned that was for hold baggage

There baggage allowance is very easy to find

Locker10a

Yeah it’s complimentary service onboard, yeah I assume you’re hand luggage only, and probably lowest on the pecking order in terms of boarding group, so you may well end up with cabin luggage checked into the hold anyway.

L1011

Proper old Euro legacy with all the bells and whistles.

Locker10a

L1011 wrote: »

Proper old Euro legacy with all the bells and whistles.

Well, not really, luggage isn’t included!!

ednwireland

L1011 wrote: »

Proper old Euro legacy with all the bells and whistles.

nah that's Aegean great airline

newcavanman

Cheers lads, when i actually bothered my arse to have a proper look at their website, all the info is there, just not too clear. I have to say, i usually do Ryanair, and i find their website very very easy to navigate, much easier than TAPs. The reason we went with TAP was, that they have an evening flight, both EI and FR have mainly very early morning flights, so i can get a days work done, on the day we go with TAP

VG31

I flew with them from Dublin to Lisbon a few months and thought they were pretty good.

The seats from the exit row back have very tight legroom so if you are in any way tall I would avoid them. However the seats in the front section of the aircraft have excellent leg room (the best of any European short haul aircraft I've been on). They also have power outlets and adjustable head rests unlike the seats at the rear. I'm 5' 11" tall and this was the legroom:



At online check-in (opens 36 hours before departure), you will be assigned a seat. However from 3 hours before departure you can go back to the online check-in and select any available seat. I would strongly recommend doing this if you aren't assigned seats in he front section. You will need to be quick off the mark.

Onboard service is free and isn't as good as what you'd get on the likes of Lufthansa for a similar length flight but free food is rare enough now and it was quite nice as far as I remember.

VG31

Also be warned that their on time performance is dreadful. Other than that they're a very good airline. Great crew as well.

newcavanman

VG31 wrote: »

I flew with them from Dublin to Lisbon a few months and thought they were pretty good.

The seats from the exit row back have very tight legroom so if you are in any way tall I would avoid them. However the seats in the front section of the aircraft have excellent leg room (the best of any European short haul aircraft I've been on). They also have power outlets and adjustable head rests unlike the seats at the rear. I'm 5' 11" tall and this was the legroom:



At online check-in (opens 36 hours before departure), you will be assigned a seat. However from 3 hours before departure you can go back to the online check-in and select any available seat. I would strongly recommend doing this if you aren't assigned seats in he front section. You will need to be quick off the mark.

Onboard service is free and isn't as good as what you'd get on the likes of Lufthansa for a similar length flight but free food is rare enough now and it was quite nice as far as I remember.

I prebooked the seats for an extra fee, as herself would have a canary if we were randomnly seperated. Got 9 B,C both out and back, supposed to be a 319

Mebuntu

VG31 wrote: »

free food is rare enough now

You don't seriously believe that all that food handed out to passengers on their flights is "free"?

VG31

Mebuntu wrote: »

You don't seriously believe that all that food handed out to passengers on their flights is "free"?

TAP can often be cheaper than EI or FR so it's not as if you're paying extra for it. BA didn't reduce their fares after they introduced BOB either.

Kcormahs

VG31 wrote: »

TAP can often be cheaper than EI or FR so it's not as if you're paying extra for it. BA didn't reduce their fares after they introduced BOB either.

But TAP is half majority owned by the Portuguese government and they have no profit meanwhile ei ba ryr etc arent and have huge profits

alentejo

Booked to fly to Lisbon in October. Tap were the cheapest and best times. Ps Ryanair depart from that kip terminal 2 in Lisbon airport which is the worst of all terminals in Europe.

Locker10a

alentejo wrote: »

Booked to fly to Lisbon in October. Tap were the cheapest and best times. Ps Ryanair depart from that kip terminal 2 in Lisbon airport which is the worst of all terminals in Europe.

Spot on re: the LCC terminal in Lisbon

A very attractive and incredibly unspoilt destination that can be reached via TAP is the Azores. One of the few tea producing places in Europe, everything is quite old style. No resorts but plenty of wonderful and offbeat places to stay. Wonderful for walking. It has a similar climate to Ireland, but milder in winter. Well worth a visit.

newcavanman

Has our flights last week, pretty much ok, bar one thing . At a late stage, unbeknownst to me, the return flight was changed from an A319 to an EMB 190 . No problem with that at all, hadnt been on a 2+2 seater in a long time . The problem was, the boarding agent decided that my carry on bag was too big for the locker, whereas the other agent , who my wife went to, passed her bag, exactly the same, as being fine , turned out that the agent i went to, was tagging most bags, while the other agent was tagging nobody . I probably should have ripped of the tag when we got past that stage, . It reminded me of Ryanair in the bad old days when when they used to have their Baggage gestapo on duty,
We werent waiting long for the bag in Dublin , but i think thats more down to Dublkin actually being pretty good with baggage. i once waited 45 minutes for a bag in Birmingham

IngazZagni

People have to realise that there simply isn’t enough room in aircraft cabins for everyone to take their carry on bag onto the plane. It’s just not possible. If they don’t put some of the bags in the hold there will be delays trying to find space leading to missed slots etc. That’s why some airlines have monetised this by guaranteeing your bag in the cabin if you pay a fee.

Locker10a

newcavanman wrote: »

Has our flights last week, pretty much ok, bar one thing . At a late stage, unbeknownst to me, the return flight was changed from an A319 to an EMB 190 . No problem with that at all, hadnt been on a 2+2 seater in a long time . The problem was, the boarding agent decided that my carry on bag was too big for the locker, whereas the other agent , who my wife went to, passed her bag, exactly the same, as being fine , turned out that the agent i went to, was tagging most bags, while the other agent was tagging nobody . I probably should have ripped of the tag when we got past that stage, . It reminded me of Ryanair in the bad old days when when they used to have their Baggage gestapo on duty,
We werent waiting long for the bag in Dublin , but i think thats more down to Dublkin actually being pretty good with baggage. i once waited 45 minutes for a bag in Birmingham

Yeah like has been said, irregardless of aircraft type single aisle airplanes are designed with, on average overhead locker storage for approximately* one third of the actual seating capacity.
So on every full flight on every airline where people bring carry on cases, a certain percentage will have to be checked in

newcavanman

all accepted, but the EMB has very small lockers, so the fact they hadnt advised of the type change meant there were going to be quite a few people in bother. I always like to know what the limits are and then stay within , but its difficult when they change types about. As an aside, we were supposed to go out on an A319 non the thursday morning and it was changed to an A320 , so their loads must be all over the place

chicorytip

Are both the ground staff and cabin crew fluent in English?

Locker10a

chicorytip wrote: »

Are both the ground staff and cabin crew fluent in English?

Cabin crew yes, and I’d imagine ground staff are too

Tenger

I flew with American 2 years ago internally in the US. I was impressed with their system.
All pax had a boarding group so no scrum at the gate. Might have been 25-35 in each group, I was in group C or D (vague I know)
I do clearly recall that I allowed the 2 people with me Togo ahead, they were 89th and 90th to board, with their Wheelie bags. As I was 91st my Wheelie bag was automatically taken for the hold.
No questions, no debate, just "you can remove anything you need here"

I liked the system, as it was very black and white for staff and crew. No arguments about size or "look at her"

anewme

Flew with TAP last year from Lisbon.

No problems and would happily travel with them again.

Locker10a

Tenger wrote: »

I flew with American 2 years ago internally in the US. I was impressed with their system.
All pax had a boarding group so no scrum at the gate. Might have been 25-35 in each group, I was in group C or D (vague I know)
I do clearly recall that I allowed the 2 people with me Togo ahead, they were 89th and 90th to board, with their Wheelie bags. As I was 91st my Wheelie bag was automatically taken for the hold.
No questions, no debate, just "you can remove anything you need here"

I liked the system, as it was very black and white for staff and crew. No arguments about size or "look at her"

Yeah I think assigning a boarding groups is a good idea, people who purchase priority boarding in one group, then groups perhaps divided based on fare type/cost, those who pay the lowest low fare being the last boarding group who’s bags automatically get gate checked, similar to Ryanair but not quite banning cases unless you pay extra