TAP Air Portugal Expands To Cape Town, Cancun, And More

Woah... should've bought those 160,000 miles for $870 yesterday?

Still nothing official on the TAP page on the matter yet...

Did Cape Town fix their water shortage problem?

I would assume the cape town flight is year round.

At thar price is it worth it to just buy a ticket or use miles?

And to follow that what does award space look like?

I just had to cancel my trip to SA and this actually seems like a way more fun route to get there over the Ethiopian flight I was gonna take.

Would you guys prefer stopping in Europe on the way to Africa or just flying directly to the continent?

@Will

Depends on the cost to me. if TAP has some good pricing and i can do the lisbon layover for 3 days or so then that's perfect. Unless I have another stop on the trip this would be a great one-way and then maybe nonstop coming home on United or something else terrible.

I'm still hoping TAP follows through with service to ATL, my home airport. If they do they can expect at least some of my business.

Was real excited for LIS - CPT routing. Unfortunately, the daily IAD or JFK flight to LIS get's in after the flight. Would be a day layover :/

@JD If your able to fly out of EWR there are flights with a 5 hour connection in LIS arriving into LIS at 5:45am and departing for CPT 10:30am (4:45h layover) all business class.

I’m looking at Feb21 dates for example

@Will

Thanks!

Just flew TAP from Madeira to Lisbon to Toronto in Business on March 21.

The flight on a 320 neo was meh - standard 3 seat across "business" with the center full sized seat blocked off. March 17 - flight had zero service (a bottle of water for a 2 hr flight). Not much better in the other direction in February.

Flight on the A330-900 neo on March 21 was ok - booked the chef option but they had reduced service because of Covid but did serve a quick meal. The service was great as they plied us with decent wine the entire flight.

These new routes seem like a very attractive option as we for years wintered in the Western Cape (Stellenbosch) and haven't been back since the bad 'winter' with the water problems. I might be very very tempted if the fares are reasonable. Just wish they flew from the west coast.

@JD

You can take advantage of TAP's holiday in Lisbon offer which allows a stopover in Lisbon. Nice to break up a flight with a stop as the flight to Cape will be in the 10 - 12 hour range.

Why Cancun and cape town instead of Johannesburg and Mexico city? I

@Ed, yes the water situation has returned to normal in Cape Town

@lucky the TAP flights no longer seem to be showing up in the united system. I cant find any award flights from LIS-CPT now

@Phillip

Your question actually answers itself but here are some comments:

Both Johannesburg and Mexico City are not destinations but transfer hubs. The only reason to visit them is either for business or to connect to a real destination.

In the past you had to transfer in JNB if you were flying internationally on CX, SAA and most other airlines. In 8 visits to South Africa passed through JNB 14 times. Recently CX has been flying to CPT and also have flown QR. There is only one main reason to visit JNB and that's Kruger and associated game parks (which are probably overrated). Possibly golf at the Gary Player golf courses in Sun City. Definitely the transfer point for Victoria Falls.

And why would you ever want to go to Mexico City? One of the worlds most polluted places to visit with nothing appealing for a tourist. Cancun is a great destination but I prefer Puerto Vallarta. Besides which, MEX is at altitude and I would imagine that departure with full fuel to reach LIS would actually not be possible 365 with a full load.

No matter what, JNB and MEX would never be a reasonable choice for leisure travel.

@john the flight isnt even showing up on TAP's website and i cant find a press release anywhere.

what happened ben?

I see the flights showing up at the website. I think it is a brilliant move, and good to see an airline management that is willing to take risks.

i see the flights as revenue on the united site, but not yet as award

Looks like the Cape Town flights don't exist anymore. I was able to see them to book cash or points as of a few weeks ago.