TAP Air Portugal Reviews

We flew TAP (London to Rio and back, via Lisbon) because they came in significantly cheaper than the competition, but it quickly became apparent why this was the case. Turns out TAP is a budget airline posing as a national carrier and I guess you always get what you pay for – they’re stingy with the drinks and the food is quite terrible (both included on their super long-haul flights only; you’ll pay extra for either on shorter flights) and the idea that you might not be able to charge your phone on a 9 hour flight in 2025 seemed ludicrous to me before this trip, but apparently TAP is an airline where this is a shocking reality… My main complaint with TAP, however, is their complaints resolution and claims process. On my flight from Rio to Lisbon, a flight attendant was pouring my drink literally above and over me, not over the cart as I would hope she’d been trained to do (sidebar, if they’re not trained to pour drinks over the cart, do we want to think about the quality of their emergency training…? Frightening thought) and she spilled a large quantity of red wine all over me, my clothes and shoes, and my seat (for context, there wasn’t a lick of turbulence during the service – the plane was perfectly steady). I didn’t kick up a fuss at the time because civilised people don’t cause drama on airplanes, but I did submit a complaint and a claim for compensation to TAP after the fact – their online form wouldn’t allow me to upload photos, but I provided detailed descriptions of all the ruined items with replacement costs and offered to email photos over to them. It took almost a month for them to get back to me, insisting that they can’t consider any compensation unless I provide them with receipts for my clothes – what sane person keeps all the receipts for all the clothing they buy? I pointed this out to them and their response was that I should go get my clothes laundered and send them an invoice… For nearly two-month-old red wine stains that a) I tried removing at the time without success and b) have now had two months to set in the fabric…? So, I can spend more money on top of the money for the clothes they ruined on the off chance they decide to pay back only the cost of (pointless) laundering. Nope. Absolutely ridiculous approach to dealing with complaints and compensation requests. Anyway. Avoid this airline – inter-Europe you may as well just fly Ryanair and long-haul, literally anyone else will do. You’ll get a more luxurious experience flying Norse long-haul, and they literally advertise as a budget airline.