Review: TAP Portugal Business Class A321 Lisbon To Milan

How pathetic. I hope you at least petitioned management to refund the fare (or mileage) difference between business and economy as what you received on this flight was by no means a business class experience, from the treatment to lack of meal, etc.

Flew TAP in business last year and had a similar experience. They served a meal but did the absolute minimum required. Never again. I've decide TAP stands for Take Another Plane.

Judging from your past posts I suppose this is still better than British Airways Business Class, Lucky?

Wow! This is probably the shortest ever flight review I've ever read:) Technically speaking, it could include something like: getting on the plane and getting off it later on.

You should definitely lodge a compensation request with customer service... if nothing else, the rest of us will be interested to hear what happens!

Talk about bare bones service. But hey, power ports!

Thanks Lucky for this review. I have been looking at cheap business class tickets to BUD, and TAP came up around $2,200 from WAS, NYC, BOS (with a 22hr layover in LIS though). I was contemplating this option, but after reading your your post, I will not look at TAP anymore. I think when it comes to airlines selection, your posts help us in two ways: 1) what to choose, and 2) what to AVOID.

Wait.... you've done this report previously. You even got some FA confess the truth under anonymity.

Conclusion: their culture is a LAZY culture. All that amazed with lack of service or even corteous response while Lucky asking another glass of water MUST understand their culture.

TAP use the same planes for a 8 hours flight from Lisbon to São Tomé! Business class is the same as economic. The only difference is the price!

In my view, this is absolutely unacceptable. I think you should put the ticket in for full refund, and litigate, if necessary.

Why flying such a shitty airline again??? I remember a past review where you described the appealing lack of service in their business class. Were the cabin crew members attractive?

A bit disappointing that you just let it go, Lucky. If I had paid for business class from my own money and had that experience I would have been seriously upset. It would be useful for those of us who use TAP often, since we live in the region, to know what they have to say to a complaint from you and whether you would get any compensation or goodwill gesture.

I had the "chance" to fly TAP on the segment LIS-BRU with this new cabin.

I was very surprised to see that they installed two types of seats: the one shown by Lucky until the exit row, and then plain yellow seats without headrests or power, and with uncomfortable armrests two times smaller for some reason... As for the "meal" promised in economy during booking, it turned out to be only a tiny sandwich. Absolutely terrible.

Make sure to select a seat before the exit row or consider flying another airline as I can't say flying TAP was a particularly nice experience.

Your lucky I didn't even get on my flight with my luggage, it was lost for a week and no holiday I will never fly with them again

Strange, I didn't have to go through passport control when flying PDL-LIS earlier this year ...

I understand the FA decided to stage a fallen arms strike to punish the pax for flying an airline that puts profit before crew comfort. The still unanswered question is: how was management affected by this decision? Did the crew care for the pax with medical conditions that require proper hydration and food to prevent medication side-effects? Were children provided for? Were elderly pax asked how to attend to their special needs? Was the idea of leaving a cart for self-service discussed?

I didn't go through passport control between Porto and Ponda Delgada either. Maybe there's just an issue with capacity and certain flights land in non-Schengen gates? There certainly shouldn't be systematic checks on the route given it's not only domestic but both areas are also within Schengen.

Did you both really need to go in separate passport queues as well? The few times I've travelled back to Europe with someone without an EU passport I've just gone in the "other" queue with them and never been questioned why I've done so ("we're travelling together" would surely suffice if they did ask anyway?).

TAP is shameful to any Portuguese with morals. Most however love their flag carrier... You guessed it. Btw I am Portuguese.

DB, you are rigth that's how it goes, but for some reason the author keeps on posting every time that passport control "must be normal", well i am starting to think that no one here reads their ticket, flight code, or anything related to their flight. I was an INTERNATIONAL NON SCHEGEN AREA FLIGHT, read again INTERNATIONAL NON SCHEGEN FLIGHT, got it?

Err... It was an...

A union working to rule with paying customers as the victim, thereby ensuring those customers never return. And some people I know ask me why I'm a political conservative.

Ben, you had to go through passport control upon departure in Ponta Delgada and arrival in Lisbon for the sole reason that your flight was YUL-PDL-LIS, ie, an international non-Schengen flight. If it had been a purely domestic or an international Schengen flight, you'd have skipped passport control.

What a bunch of a**holes the entire crew are.

Same experience here on a flight last year. FNC-LIS. We were informed at check-in that there wouldn't be any meals onboard. I could also smell the food as I was booked on business class. But only for the crew, not even a glass of water for us. FRA-LIS was strange, breakfast was served and then the crew vanished for the rest of the flight. No refills etc. So TAP, welcome on my personal black list. By the by, LIS-FRA was then on LH. Although there were almost 50 passengers in C, we got refills galore and very friendly treatment.

KLM has power ports in her intra-EU business class (EBC) and economy comfort on 737 aircrafts. No USB though

I recently flew NYC-LIS-LHR in Business Class. The old J class is laughable. The cheap business class fares are just not worth it. The meals are served with plastic covers. In fact everything is covered in plastic. The crew laud over the non revs in the cabin, and ignore paying passengers.

Also, there is no access to a lounge from International to non Shengen transit unless you go through passport control and enter/exit Portugal. The queues were terrible so not worth the effort.

I will never fly TP again.

I never understood why flight crews (cockpit and cabin) take their frustrations out on passengers when the pissing contests begin.

Guess what? I AVOID airlines where this happens. I'll gladly fly another airline where I don't have to deal with their crap, even if it's more expensive. My time is money.

Good review - only thing that seems too much for me is when you write it is shockingly common. It is not and based on one flight that you took that you can say it is so common- it is strange someone like you would make that statement.
Even with the dozens of comments you got (TAP carries several million per year). It is not common. Surely if you make a ratio of the comments you got and the number of passengers they take you will get a similar conclusion.
What is shockingly common is that it has been happening every summer year after year and affects about 5-10% of their short-medium haul flights (last year exactly the same happened) - It only happens during the high peak summer period when everything is strechted, from planes to crews...this is bad management. If a problem repeats itself every summer, it is bad planning.
I am a TK Platinum member now living in Maputo, Mozambique, so I end up taking TAP on average 30 times/year (including intercontinental and european flights) in Business. It has never happened to me, so it can't be that common.
TAP has a better service in their european flights than most European carriers. Lisbon is also nicer to connect, because it is smaller. To Maputo I tend to get their A340 which has one of their oldest business class versions so I can't say very good things about it. It is an old product that they use to Maputo and Luanda apparently. But frankly, they are perfectly decent and better than any other EU carrier for intra European flights in terms of service. BA is now charging for food. When I was a Platinum with Skyteam, in Y, Air France would give one cookie only. One cookie! With TAP you get a sandwich and a choice of wines. In business they usually have a good hot meal. I personally never found the service in C in Europe to be disappointing.

I just flew TAP from Rome (FCO) to Lisbon (LIS) in Business and it was a complete joke... a glass of water is all we got for 3 hours. This was the final leg for the AZ deal but why anyone would pay for Business Class seats on TAP in intraeurope is a surprise to me.

Hear hear. It may not be common from Maputo, but looks like a standard on LIS-MXP. Had the single glass (& doggy-bag) experience on TP804 19th Sep 17.
I got 2 extras:
- a forewarning by sms at 0943 (flight scheduled 14h40) of "exceptional circumstances" ... which is clearly a misstatement
- no pre-landing security check (belts tight, seat upright, ..).
The purser (at least) should be grounded.
To my American co-travellers: TAP may be European but still will not let you sit in plane for 3 hours in blazing heat with no water, no comment, no apology, and no compensation (against IATA rules which FAA does not implement), and barely a smile in the air.

The only thing going for TAP is the biz prices. The staff -- phone, airport, and plane -- are unprofessional and lazy. Even worse than some American airlines (not including good Delta), and much worse than the best of Persian Gulf and some Asian airlines. They simply don't care or provide wrong information just to get rid of you. Why do I return? Again, the price. Their transatlantic biz seats can be okay and comfortable. Their intraeurope biz service is woefully inadequate. Buyer beware.