Boarding felt a little chaotic as everyone was waiting around the gate. Food was great, service was good.
On both flights, TAP Air Portugal messed up the seating choices that I paid for. They acknowledged that I had purchased seating, that they were errant in ensuring my choices, but told me nothing could be done about it. When I asked to be refunded, I was directed to "talk to someone from Air Portugal" Mon-Friday, and then I was dismissed. No help, no phone number provided to me. I was very annoyed both times and feel cheated.
Chaotic boarding with no announcements. Carry on luggage needs to be checked. Bare minimum zero frill flights. Not a whole lot of anything positive to be said .
The chicken was so dry it was impossible to eat. No substitute was offered. The port to charge my phone was broken and all I got was a shrug from the crew. The entertainment system was glitchy and subtitles didn’t load. Crew seemed fully uninterested and unfriendly.
We were unable to check in due to technical problems on TAP’s end. The flight was delayed forty minutes with no reason given. We received timely notice of the flight delay. We were also notified of a gate change. The new gate was at a different terminal. When we got to the new terminal, we learned that we had to go back to the old terminal first to check in. This information should have been included along with the gate change notification. Also unexplained, the steward skipped us when offering breakfast.
It poured rain, our luggage was sitting out in it uncovered on the transport cart while our plane was delayed! Nice business class plane for short flight to Lisbon, but more delay & rain in Lisbon, with terrible Business class seat with no entertainment & cold food on longer flight to London…ALL LUGGAGE AND CLOTHES INSIDE THEM WERE SOAKED THROUGH!!! Could only try with hair dryer to get some drying before quick turn round to train trip.
They left our luggage uncovered on tarmac in pouring rain during an hour delay of departure! At our final destination, we found ALL OF OUR CLOTHES/SHOES soaked all the way through!! Our 1st connection plane was a great business class accommodation but only 50 minutes long. Our 2nd connection from Lisbon (another delay with luggage uncovered on tarmac) had only the extra legroom and mediocre food in business class - no entertainment and no extra comfort seating. Will not use TAP Air Portugal again!
The plane was small and one felt the turbulence much more. The lines to get through immigration were insanely long.
It was a good experience overall. We were however delayed by over 3 hours due to a security issue with one of the passengers inadvertently leaving a power bank in a luggage she was using as carrying on but then had to be moved int check in due to spacing issues. The airline staff had requested that she checked her bags in, but should have reminded her about removing all hazardous material like her power bank. When she eventually remembered as we were on the plane, we had to turn back and go through security all over again. Hence delaying our takeoff. The incident could have been prevented if staff reminded these passengers to remove their power banks.
We upgraded to business class. Nice seat with lots of room but otherwise not impressive.
