TAP Air Portugal

...return flight I booked with TAP for a short break in Porto. I headed out from London Heathrow and returned to London Gatwick. Incidentally,
I booked the trip this way so as to have direct flights in both directions although, as you will read, it did not quite turn out this way. This is all relevant background to the following which might alternatively have been called 'A tale of two flights'.

The airline

TAP ...
...by friendly staff at the TAP desk that the flight was cancelled due to a Fire Service strike in Porto. The fact was later displayed on a screen. I was given the option of re-booking for the next day (hopeless to me as it was a weekend break) or flying to Lisbon and having what I was told would be a "two hour" road transfer.

We were not allowed to actually check in until some 90 minutes before departure which was a bit of ... more

Introduction

This is an account of the return flight I booked with TAP for a short break in Porto. I headed out from London Heathrow and returned to London Gatwick. Incidentally,
I booked the trip this way so as to have direct flights in both directions although, as you will read, it did not quite turn out this way. This is all relevant background to the following which might alternatively have been called 'A tale of two flights'.

The airline

TAP (Transportes Aéreos Portugueses) was founded in 1945; it commenced flights to London in 1949. The airline has grown in to a sizable operation with some 51 Airbus made jests of varied size and 16 propeller aircraft with a further 15 jets (and an option for a further 5) on order. They serve reasonable European network and a wider international network that primarily focuses on colonial destinations in South America and Africa; there is also a reasonable domestic network.

Booking

I booked with the airline by phone having been attracted by prices quoted in an advert. As any frequent traveller will know, adverts are designed to catch passengers attention and however quick you call the cheapest seats seem to have gone. That was the case with my flight but the price paid (see below) for what I anticipated would be a direct flight both ways seemed competitive. One friend booked much later than I did for the same flights and paid over £100 more so it does not seem to pay to wait with this airline even out of season. The web site was not anything special and did not seem to allow check in; this is however becoming an increasingly popular benefit so it may now do so

Check in

Arriving in good time at Heathrow in order to secure my very tall friend a suitable seat I was advised by friendly staff at the TAP desk that the flight was cancelled due to a Fire Service strike in Porto. The fact was later displayed on a screen. I was given the option of re-booking for the next day (hopeless to me as it was a weekend break) or flying to Lisbon and having what I was told would be a "two hour" road transfer.

We were not allowed to actually check in until some 90 minutes before departure which was a bit of a pain as we stood around for almost 2 hours (most airlines open check in 2 hours or more in advance). During this time I came to the conclusion the check in staff were also working for Alitalia and in fact were Italian (certainly their manager was wearing Alitalia ID). Though the staff were polite it was also evident they had little idea as to what the real implications of the delay would be.

When I got finally got to check in they took 15 minutes to find my e-ticket on their system. A nerve racking moment and don't you just hate the increasing suspicious glances you get in such situations? I suspect they made a common misspelling of my surname somewhere along the line; that always seems to happen to me. Finally I received my boarding pass and was left with relatively little time to pass security, eat something (I had to leave early that morning so was starving by this stage) and get to the plane for boarding. Quicker opening of the check in would have helped.

Boarding

This was uneventful, not especially well organised but by the same token not a complete shambles. The plane was however not very full; a lot of people opted to travel the next day rather than face an overland trip from Lisbon. Did they know something I didn't? Crew were at the door as we got on the plane to welcome passengers; again, nothing out of the ordinary in this process. The aircraft - an Airbus 320 - was clean and quite modern..

The flight

The flight effectively replaced the Porto flight and departed at the scheduled time together with passengers due to be on an earlier flight to Faro that was also cancelled. The cabin was clean and comfortable - leg pitch seemed tighter than some rival carriers in Europe (British Airways, Lufthansa etc.) to me, but the plan was half empty so there was plenty of room for my two friends. The safety demonstration was satisfactory if not memorable (those demonstrations that have an accompanying video demonstration tend to stick in my mind.

A light lunch comprising a roll with cheese (OK) and some cake (also OK) was served along with a drink of choice (I chose a bottle of Portuguese red wine and this was quite pleasant and suitably light for the time of day; more likely by luck than planning I suspected). There were drop down screens offering silent entertainment; I can not precisely recall what they showed but it was nothing exciting. The TAP magazine was fairly standard. The highlight was landing in Lisbon on a beautiful clear January afternoon; this yielded some stunning views. So far so good, but we had of course purchased a flight to Porto.

We were told to collect our luggage and board a bus to Porto. Assistance in luggage re-claim was limited to say the least. After an hour and no bags and with the lost luggage desk mobbed I suggested the Porto luggage must be stored somewhere to a passing official. She gave me such a mouthful of abuse and look of such content in return about how this could not possibly have happened I felt quite stupid. Just 10 minutes later the same woman walked over to a stand to make an intercom announcement that the luggage check through to Porto would be coming out. Needless to say no apology was forthcoming from her as she passed me by.

Two hours after landing we were finally getting on the coach to Porto. Directions on where to find this was poorly managed and some passengers had given up all hope and gone into Lisbon with the intention of catching the train. For those of us on the coach no extra refreshment was on offer. I again asked the duration of the drive and found that now I was on Portuguese soil it had increased to 3.5 hours from the two the (possibly Italian) check in guys had told me back in London. I was not overly surprised as, whilst not very familiar with Portuguese geography I did think that 2 hours sounded optimistic.

Unfortunately the 3.5 hours did not include the time the driver decided to spend at a service station a good part of the way to Porto. He announced in Portuguese only we would stop for 15 minutes. Some passengers still had no Euro currency and there was no prospect of using any other currency at this place so they remained both unfed and un-watered. I did have some currency but having got a seat at the rear of the bus I had to wait ages to get off and into the packed self service cafeteria to buy some much needed food and drink. By the time I was anywhere near being served 15 minutes were up and assuming a ban on food and drink on the bus I aborted my wait. Most annoyingly the driver did not return to the bus for a further 25 minutes.

Next people asked if we would be dropped in Porto as the airport is to the north of the city. No way was the answer to that, the driver apparently explaining that his contract was to the take people to the airport only. The airport is 30 minutes north of Porto - what a pain! Another hour effectively lost plus - given we were now 6 hours late, we had missed the free airport bus TAP passengers can usually board and, in the apparent absence of any TAP representatives, were left to pay for a taxi to town.

Was the return better?

I don't think it could have been much worse. In the event though it was a fairly standard mid range European flight of the sort that would have probably resulted in me regarding TAP as a fairly standard operator on European routes.

Check in was quite slow in the half built Porto airport and facilities there, though modern, do not lend much to passing the time. There was a short delay for the return flight but at least it was going; information about the anticipated duration of the delay or the reason for it was not provided before boarding. On board service was similar to the outbound flight. It was once again an Airbus 320 although this time it was a more or less full flight. Food was similar to the outbound flight though the roll was smaller. After eating passengers were offered a second serving from the full range of drinks (I had exactly the same wine as travelling out) and a third bottle of wine came on request which I shared with my friend. They had beer too and I think some limited choice of spirits as well as the usual selection of soft drinks. The crew were perfectly OK, more mature than many airlines but reasonably professional. The drop down screens we had on the flight out did not seem to have been fitted on the return service.

On arrival at Gatwick baggage emerged quicker than it normally seems to at Heathrow but it was January and thus loading at the airport could have been as much as a factor as the contribution TAP made to that. I do not even want to consider what assistance would have been available if our bags had not materialised.

Value for money

I paid around £100 for my return ticket; I paid a premium so as to get direct flights which was of course a mistake. The duration of the London - Porto flight is around 2 hours for a journey or about 900 miles so in theory the price is reasonably good for a full service airline like TAP. I have marked TAP down in this review for failings associated with my journey but I put these issues aside in my assessment of the value for money it offers which I think is relatively good.

Conclusions

In summary, TAP cannot be blamed for the strike, but the lack of information check in staff had on the alternative transfer and the dismal contingency arrangements were pitiful. The return flight to Gatwick a few days later was much better though far from outstanding (check in was not the best experience, information was lacking about the short delay) so I cannot help but conclude TAP are not one of the stronger partners in the Star Alliance along the likes of Singapore, Thai and Lufthansa but they are probably shade BMI in so far as they do at least offer a full service rather than charging for meals! It is hard to match like for like with LOT as I have travelled business class on the Polish flag carrier and economy with TAP.

As I remarked in the body of the review, the shambles in terms of organisation when things go wrong has clouded my judgement and as hard as I try to be objective it is a challenge when one looses half a day of a three night break. However, arrangements were so poor it is a warning sign that I feel obliged to point out. A passenger on the Lisbon to Porto bus said it was not the first time she had faced the experience but explained she travelled many times a year to Porto and considered it the best option as it "usually works". Not a glowing endorsement but the other direct options to the UK are low cost airlines out of Stansted and lets face it, their record in comparable situations is not great.

By way of comparison for when things go wrong I compared the trip here with various British Airways flights I have taken recently and on which I have also written a recent review. Though they are not always brilliant there is for the most part better information flow and a clear strategy of how the situation will be resolved. I can well imagine some people reading this will be falling off their chairs laughing at such a suggestion (and historically I have had some bad BA experiences when things have gone wrong) but in recent times they have worked hard to resolve matters whilst with TAP the sum total of their efforts was seemingly to contract a coach and hope everything fell into place. I suspect they felt it did too; they certainly did not respond to my letter of complaint and that is another thing BA have always done.

I would not say avoid this airline all together but if there was an alternative scheduled service I would be inclined to try that if the price was comparable or not too much more. I do not like no frills airlines and try to avoid them so would probably chance TAP again to go to Porto in the absence of any direct full service competition. If you are like minded on the low cost option and do not want to transit Paris or Madrid at a high premium you will similarly have little alternative. British Airways once did serve this Porto but alas no longer.

To be fair on TAP I will use them again some day and when that time arrives I will update this review. Can't say any fairer than that. 

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