I arrived from Lisbon at 5:15PM, and my connecting flight to Newark was at 6:05PM. I rushed to get to the connecting flight, since I was still hoping to be among the first onboard to get cabin pictures.
Continue reading: Review: TAP Air Portugal A321LR Business Class
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Service seems incredibly slow for such a short flight and that was my biggest gripe on my flight from ERW to LIS last month. On such a short flight they putzed around way too long and after the appetizer I told them to forget the entree.
I’m going to guess an Egyptair 787 on this trip (hopefully!). Also Lucky, I don’t know if this is news or not, but I noticed Turkish has scheduled their new 787 on flights to JFK in the fall. I found it on Oct 3rd and potentially other dates.
Wow lucky! This sure seems like a great way to get from Hartford, CT to Newark, NJ. I think it beats taking Amtrak 🙂
Ohhhhh this is exciting!!!! (Guessing your Itinerary and not TAP)
La Compagnie to Paris, then CDG to Mauritius and somewhere in there is Air Tanzania and then you'll get to Athens on EK from DXB.
"Trying new airline products and not necessary airlines"....
I just got off the A330 from LIS to SFO last week. I am not a fan of that flight. For one, the seat wasn't very comfortable. You can't recline the seat without sliding the seat forward or backward and it automatically kick the leg rest up. The cleaning crew did a horrible job in cleaning the plane, so I didn't bother using a lot of the bins and stuff. To get into the single window seat, you have to slide sideway into it. Even when I slide in, I feel like my knees touching the seat pod. The seat was even worse when you tried to turn it into a bed, not comfortable at all. When you are in bed, you just feel like you are sleeping in a coffin. The 777 on Turkish is way better.
The flight crew were nice, but they weren't attentive and honestly the service felt more like E+ on Singapore than business class. I experienced more attentive attendants on local US First class flights. The food was also crap. With the exception of the appetizer, everything felt like food from E+ on asian airlines.
Here is the worst part, the attendants don't really keep the cabins separate. People from the back would keep blocking the business class bathrooms, it happened on the A319 and it happened again on the A330. The attendants actually encourage them to use the business class bathrooms.
You had to clear security because you arrived from a non schengen country, the same as if you had arrived from US or Qatar. If you had arrived from a schengen port then you would have satisfied schengen security requirements and would have had to clear again.
@Iain Under EU law passengers arriving from any EU/EFTA country (not just the ones in Schengen), the US, Canada or Singapore, do not have to reclear security when transferring. AMS is the only airport I know to actually implement this.
Not enough footroom in the throne seat on this or MINT. Of course MINT is the best I can get from LAS to NYC .
@Lucky
MilesandMore now lets you transfer Miles to any other member for a fee!
Can you do another post about headphones.
I just took yet another $&#@!! Flight where the headphones require 3 prongs. My 2 Prong Bose adapter works somewhat but the sound is quiet.
Annoying that airlines insist on all theses bespoke headphone adapters
You went from domestic to international... doesn’t this happen all the time? does everywhere else...
You continue to perpetuate the myth that the taste/quality of sparking wine/champagne is mostly related to price rather than to clueless snobbery.
I was sitting right behind you in 3C on this flight (I recognized you but you were in full documenting mode, so I didn't want to bug you). I agree with your conclusions. After flying J primarily on Turkish I was underwhelmed by the food and service. The seat was fine and I was impressed by the screen of the IFE system, but I'm in no rush to fly TAP again.
Lucky, you're a plane nut. Please tell me you don't have to wonder if you're looking at a 727; the short and medium-haul workhorse of just about EVERY AIRLINE IN THE WORLD for more than three decades! You're young. But you're not THAT young!
I am booked to take this plane on TAP from IAD to LIS next March, after service begins. I have blocked "throne" seats for my daughter and I, but it appears that there is more room in the duo-seats. It looks like a tight squeeze to get into the throne seat, and the foot well is much narrower than the duo seats. I have set to see a full comparison of the two, at not for MINT, which is the longer product out there. Both the review of Aer Lingus' 321LR and TAP's, were in thrones. Anyone have a review of the duo seats?
Regardless of whether you’re transiting from an EU to an EU via an EU country (where yes, technically passengers shouldn’t need to re-clear security), the Schengen/Non-Schengen country division tends to dictate matters. I have had this in numerous EU airports. It’s simply how the sterile vs non-sterile parts of the airports are setup, more than overarching regulations.
TAP is in the process of revamping all their airplanes, which is a major step. Another one is to step up the "soft product". They have to catch up with the other europeans airlines if they wanna compete in a fair game.
They should offer an express meal service, like the one that Swiss does beautifully (even United does it quite well).
The amenity kit is cute. 🙂 Even better, the bag looks like sturdy material and is a good size so you can reuse it. I can't stand impractical and cheap amenity kits.
Look like Aer Lingus' A312LR business class product is overall better than TAP's.
That is indeed a 727 and it belongs to Gordon Getty. He was doing a tour of wine regioms in europe recently.
"I was surprised by just how much time it took to get to the departure gate. First I had to clear security (why, though?), then I cleared immigration, and then I made my way to gate 10, located at the far end of the terminal. Once at the gate I had to undergo the typical ridiculous security questioning for US-bound flights"
As a seasoned traveller, I am shocked that you considered a 50 minute connection to a US bound flight to be OK.
The "typical ridiculous security questioning for US-bound flights" is mandated by the United States government
The only TAP business class flights I’ve found with great prices between SFO and Europe are DUB-SFO one-way. Are there other route options available at that low price?
https://www.airliners.net/search?registrationActual=N311AG&display=detail
Here is your mystery 727! Truly a beauty.
The Getty's 727 dates to 1971 and originally flew for CP Air (Canadian Pacific Airlines), and later for LAB (Lloyd Aereo Boliviano). My husband had business dealing with Gordon and his wife Ann, who refer to the tri-jet as 'the jetty'.
With such a big investment in their hard product, new planes and new seats it's a pity they haven't made much effort on the soft product. That plastic bowl with a tiny scoop of ice cream in it looks like the saddest business class desert I've ever seen. And from my experience on TAP smiling at passengers must prohibited by their unions!
For the security checks and Schengen rules, there are technically 3 flows of inbound traffic:
1 Schengen, sterile
2 Non-Schengen, sterile
3 Non-Schengen, not sterile
The Non-schengen, sterile flow is limited to EU countries which are not in Schengen (like UK, Ireland) and specific treaty countries. (e.g. USA)
So technically, connecting from DUB to EWR in OPO, you didn't need an additional security check.
However, separating three flows requires a lot of infrastructure and therefore most EU airports handle all Non-schengen traffic as non sterile (including big hubs like CDG and FRA).
AMS actually separates the three flows since 2015, eliminating security checks for all transfer pax from the above-mentioned countries. In order to do so, they added additional floors on the E, F and G piers to separate the pax.
Seems Lucky you expect wide body service on a narrow body. You're also departing from an airport that until recently has very few intercontinental services. Sounds like TAP ground staff need some training in Porto. The food service appears to cater its' passengers from Portugal. Typical negative food comments from an ignorant North American. Sorry they didn't have a steak for you.
Seems to me more like Ben expected business class service for business class prices.
We had that same ‘line ‘em up in a hot jet way’ routine with Vueling at OPO. That saves what-5 minutes on the turnaround (if that) for, in our case, a flight that was an hour late already.
I would love to try the narrow body service. I think I did LIS-JFK-LIS two years ago (in their then new Azul-configured 330s). I remember the meal service on the outbound to be quite different from the red-eye (the latter had a tray service which was good for catching some more zzzzs). The thing I remember most fondly was the cheese on the outbound, which was packaged in a plastic bag, because it was ultra gooey, stinky and delicious 🙂
Liquors were bottom shelf though - to the point of a G+T served as a glass of Tonic and a pouch (think ketchup packet - didn't know that even existed) of no name gin. Pretty disgusting. Very tasty wines though.
I've flown the A330 in business both ways to and from SFO. I basically like the seats for the all-aisle access and decent privacy (especially if you're in a window seat situated right next to the window as opposed to the aisle) , though agree that they have little storage space. The IFE screens and movie selections are pretty good. But like others here, I've found the service spotty: attitudes range from very friendly to indifferent (and I'm not sure all FAs speak decent English) and actual delivery of service is mediocre.
Also, LIS is not the most user-friendly airport to pass through, in terms of lines and signage. On the other hand, the city itself is a pretty nice place to visit if your flight schedule or deliberate stop-over allows you some time there.
As with my previous post here, I'm not sure of what all the great TAP low-cost trans-Atlantic business fares are to/from SFO, since I've only found them on DUB-LIS-SFO.
Interersting to read this honest review after reading rhe previous Are Lingus review (aboard the ame aircraft). For the airfare and subsequent airlmiles, these TAP flights seem like fun:)
Happy and Safe travels
I just read a report in the newest issue in Airways of Newark-Porto with TAP on their new A321LR and that report made it seem like the service in J was very average, and your report also makes it seem like J with TAP is a bit underwhelming.
Thanks for sharing!
TAP do seem to be very slow in starting service.
I flew LIS-BOS in February (thanks to you publicising a very attractive fare from the UK for £750) and thought the crew fairly friendly but the s l o w service was irritating when compared to other airlines when all I wanted to do was have my lunch and have a sleep!
More infuriating on the return leg when most people wanted to eat then try and get some sleep
I can tell you that slow service, no pre-deparure drinks and unappetizing food have nothing to do with single isle - same is the norm even on their old widebodies (you just have additional inconvenience of sleeping in lounge position). Crew had no clue which wine they were serving, there was only one red and one white, and breakfast was laughable (or good to cry over, if you decided to skip dinner in favor of sleep on red-eye flight). Price point is only thing going for them for tatl, frequent aircraft swaps spoil any bets on getting lie-flat product.
Economy class eats, economy minus service. What redeemed this barely disguised seven hours of community service for a crime not yet specified was the breakfast menu. YOU WILL BE SERVED! I can just see poor passengers cowering before armed cabin crew.
Excellent wording for all the shite about this flight.
My son is a minor age schooling in Seville, due to covid19 is captive in a room for two months. I am trying to getting him back home here in Accra... Tap after many emails is still silent. Tap is how you are? This is your policy? If yes....people beware of them.
Flew TAP last eve from Lisbon to EWR in business. There were three of us up front and roughly 20 in the back. The seat is fine but the service was awful. It started with a 20 min walk to the gate from the lounge, only to be bused to the plane after a 15 min wait. So silly.
Once we took off, it was exactly one hour before they offered us a drink or even appeared. Soon after, they dropped the food on us and that was the last we saw of them until landing in EWR. To be fair, the crew heading to Portugal a week earlier was much better.
TAP crew are not trained to work in the latest aircraft, and they are clearly not happy .. the seats on the new aircraft are fare too tight in the legs to be able to sleep - never again TAP Business class, food is below expectations, airline is not offering a "full service"