I recently flew with TAP Air Portugal A330-900neo from San Francisco to Lisbon in early June. It was my first time flying with TAP, as their advanced purchase fares are some of the lowest in Trans-Atlantic. You can often find round-trip fares between the US and Europe for less than $2,000.
The flight I was on turned out to be the first TAP Air Portugal flight to/from San Francisco in 2021, after a 10 month temporary suspension due to COVID. We had a healthy load of about 230 passengers onboard, which was great to see. TAP currently flies to Newark, Boston, Washington DC, Miami, Chicago and San Francisco in the US.
Currently, there is no lounge open at the San Francisco International Terminal. I was connecting at SFO from LAX on United, I had checked in on-line and got my boarding pass ahead of time so I didn’t have to go outside to the Int’l terminal to check-in. I simply walked from the domestic walkway to the connected international concourse G.
Business Class on TAP A330neo is arranged in a staggered 1-2-1 seating, it looks very similar to United Polaris or EL AL Business Class. I’d strongly recommend a window seat for best privacy, as the aisle seats are quite close to each other. The cabin was surprisingly fresh, given that the plane is a 2 year old A330-900neo. I do quite like the colour scheme used by TAP.
We taxied out to the bay and took off from Runway 01R, we then flew over Oakland and the bay area. Flight time to Lisbon was 10 hours and 20 minutes and the plane registration was CS-TUF. I was able to visit the cockpit prior to take-off and asked the pilot about the differences in performance on the A330neo.
Our cruise speed was Mach 0.82, which is faster than the previous generation; also the cabin is noticeably quieter.
Video
Dinner was served 2 hours after take-off . TAP surprised me with some very good food, I chose the beef with Madeira sauce and a glass of Portuguese red wine.
There was free Wi-Fi for messaging on board, but it was a bit pricey for anything more.
I was able to sleep for 4 hours after food, however the seat is a bit to narrow for my large body size. Just like any staggered 1-2-1 seating, my foot was inside a box, which I always find to be a little restrictive. However, the bed is long enough for my height (6’1). Although the seat is similar to United Polaris, I can honestly say I that I feel like there is a bit more room on TAP.
A cold continental breakfast was served 1.5 hours prior to landing.
Passengers were treated to a scenic arrival into Lisbon International. It seemed that most of the passengers were in transit at Lisbon, given that TAP Air Portugal has one of the lowest Trans-Atlantic fares as a full service carrier.
Conclusion
To be honest, I have been avoiding TAP for years. I have been warned by a few fellow travellers that TAP don’t have the best reputation; but my flight was pleasant enough. TAP has a good catering standard from my experience.
Prior to COVID, TAP had been in expansion mode into North America and promoting Lisbon as connecting gateway . With over 20 A330neo’s in their fleet, a lot of planes are currently parked so the timing of expansion was not in their favour. The good news is that, Portugal is opening to vaccinated US tourists from 15th June. I know the airline offers a free Portugal stopover, so if the price is right it can be a good option for a Europe holiday on TAP Air Portugal.
Thank you Sam for a super review. Love the detail getting into the cockpit and showing the pilot’s former experience in Mozambique.
I have flown with TAP a couple of times now to Miami. All I can say is never again. They moved our flight by a day going to Miami and this meant an extra night at US$350 in our hotel. The lounge is very poor at Lisbon. The food on board is certainly not premium. They serve it all together, so you eat your starter whilst your main course goes cold. No glass of champagne as you board. Everything is very rushed and the crew just want to get service over and done with. As we live in Portugal it was the only direct option to Miami so sometimes needs must. They really do need to up their game if they want to compete in the premium sector. Personally I will not fly long haul with them again.
WORST AIRLINE EVER. I am still waiting for refunds on my fully flexible fully refundable business tickets LHR-LIS-Recife that I cancelled in Oct 2019 when the day flight was suddenly rescheduled into an overnight flight. TAP still say they are “processing the refund”. Later when the TAP CEO reached out in a marketing puff email requesting customer feedback I wrote to her personally, but she did not even bother to reply.
AVOID TAP PORTULIKE THE PLAGUE
Sept ’21 booked a return flight from Toronto to Spain via Air Canada. The return portion from Málaga to Lisbon and then to Toronto was supposed to be TAP. Arrived at Málaga TAP check-in top be told the flight was oversold. We were left stranded at the gate. Missed the connection to Toronto. Since then, trying to get TAP Customer Service to honour their own Denied Boarding Compensation Vouchers provided to us has been a nightmare. And in my view, deliberately so to avoid having to pay.
Never ever again.
TAP stand a for take another plane. LOST luggage. Two
Canceled flights. Old planes.
TAP deluge me with marketing emails, but the most recent one was from their CEO Christine O-W, inviting travellers to raise concerns direct to her office email account. This is said to be ceo@tap.pt.
Perhaps worth a try, but I have yet to receive a response from the CEO to my complaint about the TAP breeching their own terms of carriage in serially delaying a Business Class refund due in Oct 2020 but still unpaid.
Sam. I saw your flight with TAP and felt comfortable booking with them.
I wanted to move my earlier flight by a day as my fiancé has a little bit more time off now.
Not only have I been unable to get ahold of them via phone for 3 days, they ignore all my tweets.
Now my return flight is moved ahead by two whole days.
Nobody’s answering the phone and idk how long a refund/cancellation will take to process. I got through only once after over 30 minutes of waiting. They transferred me to a voicemail and then the call dropped. I see other people reporting the same since the end of June.
Please do not recommend this airline in any case. Just look at their Facebook page right now. A lot of people are having the same issues.
I called Emirates for my fiancé’s flight out of DXB…only took 8 minutes to answer.
sorry to hear about this. I will post this to warn people.
Terrible terrible terrible experience with them last year. We had Tap Executive – or whatever they called it – with FULLY REFUNDABLE terms – and no refund. Had to fight tooth and nail and then only got relief from charge back on my credit card. One RT flight we actually did successfully complete (18 mos earlier) was fine, not great. Flight attendants were not service oriented. Same class – Tap Executive was at best average. NEVER AGAIN with TAP. Get what you pay for.
The issue with TAP Air Portugal is not so much the in-flight experience, it is the complete absence of customer support when you run into trouble or worse when TAP actually causes you trouble. You can’t contact them by email, calling them is an expensive joke as their customer support number is overtaxed and it is not uncommon to have to wait for more than an hour to… receive no help at all. Getting cash refunds for flights that they cancelled is a nightmare, and the same is true now too for a simple voucher.
TAP has become a castle of lies.
You ar so right about TAP. Getting a refund for a flight that they cancelled is impossible, the only way is to wait 6 months for your credit card bank to file with TAP’s bank for refund for non-service.
Going to Lisbon this weekend by Air Canada who requires totally vaxxed passengers
Agree about not refunding their covid-cancellation flights.
Not only that, they’ll give you 3 vouchers which you cannot use with one booking.
On European flights they refuse to accept the fact that it is allowed to use your phone and keep headphones on, if in flight mode.
I’m Portuguese living in nothern Europe and I avoid Lisbon Airport / TAP as much as I can. That should tell you something.
We flew Business Class on TAP from Washington, DC to Barcelona, with a stopover in Porto. I was pleasantly surprised by the service and the level of comfort. I would fly on TAP again.
Beware, be very wary of their flexible business class cancellation terms. I pre-booked a fully cancellable business class day flight London-Lisbon-Recife on the A330neo last year. The flight then morphed through two successive schedule changes into a full night flight, so I cancelled in Oct 2020. TAP have then spent the past 8 months ducking and weaving and delaying paying the nearly £2000 cash refund. They keep saying “it takes time to process refunds”. They agree they owe me the cash, but just will not pay. SO BEWARE, ignore the fancy seats and book with a different airline.
We have flown TAP twice, YYZ-LIS return each time. Lisbon is a great jumping off spot. Great people, excellent food, comfortable seat. I too am 6’1″ and had no trouble stretching out.
I had to fly this product a while back. Boarding was a total zoo (because of gate agent). Staff in business class couldn’t care less. I have Tap and Alitalia on my avoid list.
Both are good in promises, but not in delivering them.
Care to write your name if you want to make a valid comment?
Bad company didn’t refine my trip to dakar/Washington.
“The seat is narrow for my large body size.” The picture right below that text shows the armrest up. Lowering the armrest gets you a lot more width.