# Don"t Fly Tap Air Portugal....worst Airline Ever



## Linda74 (May 15, 2008)

This lengthy review of my recent experience is hard to believe, but true!!!!



We flew TAP from Newark through Lisbon to Venice and from Rome through Lisbon back to Newark during the past few weeks. We travel a lot. Let me say they were the worst airline we have ever flown. To begin with, seat cushions in economy class are no more than 2 inches thick on their Airbus 310's. On an overseas flight, this means much back pain. On the way over, an elderly man in First Class had an accident in his pants...they took him back to the economy class bathroom to clean him up....when they did not have space, they took him to the galley in economy, pulled the curtain. His wife and son were there and it was not a pleasant experience for anyone. After over an hour of the horrible stench and their spraying an equally horribly scented deodorizer, he was escorted back to first class. After that, they served dinner from same galley!!!! Mind you, even had the food been eatable we were in no mood to eat. Worst looking food we have ever been served....but thank god, by then we were nauseous. OK, we get to Lisbon, and are in line for passport control. We have about 45 minutes for the connection, but there is only one person at passport control, who leaves his seat for 10 minutes or so. There must have been 700 passengers in line. We tried to move ahead but weren't permitted. We barely make the next flight and surprise, surprise, my luggage doesn't. TAP only has one flight to Venice a day, and aren't very reassuring about getting the luggage to me. We are leaving on a cruise a day and a half later, and I am envisioning wearing Venice T'shirts the entire cruise. Luckily our hotel personnel are vigilant, make calls for us and somehow 36 hours later the luggage arrives. We have two and a half weeks consisting of a great cruise and a week in Tuscany before the TAP torture again begins.....Fast forward, we arrive at Rome's Fumacino 5 hours early for our flight home. Although the monitors say our TAP flight is checking in at a certain desk, it isn't . Finally we find the place they are checking in (even the people at the desk who eventually checked us in, had no idea they would be working the flight. We are told to move from one line to the next, then to get out of lines and get back in. There is a big mixup over which line will handle Business class and which economy. There are about 4 Business class passengers and 200 economy. Once the business passengers are checked in, the agent just sits, while the other agent single handedly checks in the whole economy line. These aren't even TAP employees and when I get to the desk, the agent is very confused about how to tag the bags for transfer to Newark and confused between Newark and New York....She asks to look at our luggage tags (more about this later). We are supposed to have 90 minutes to boarding when we hear last call for our flight. We are at that time in a Passport Control line. Everyone is getting upset....except passport control...he says the plane won't leave for an hour....why they make those announcements beats me...Ok, we get our seats, board the plane after some delay. And they have changed our seats and assigned my husband and I an aisle and a window. Nice....but there is a large woman in between us on her way to Brazil She refuses either the aisle or window when I offer to her so we can sit together. Finally, some of her Portuguese speaking friends in another aisle tell her she will have more room in aisle or window and she moves to the window. I am next to her. She is coughing up phlegm like there is no tomorrow. Blowing her nose in her coat and not covering her mouth. I am not making this up. She does not stop coughing. She is coughing up phlegm into the airsickenss bag. We are right behind the bulkhead curtains and all I can think of is this woman has one mighty upper respiratory infection or worse, TB, and we are going to get it. I ask the flight attendant if we can move, mind you there are empty seats, and he says no. Ultimately, I move myself across the aisle and hubby takes the other aisle but still in the same row. I ask the attendants to give her a candy or a drink and ask her to please cover her mouth. They decline. I am getting really agitated. So I get her attention and motion she has to cover her mouth. She looks at me shrugs her shoulders and coughs in my face. Finally, her friends seeing a major broughaha is about to begin, offer to switch seats and tell me they did not want to sit with her because she is so sick. 
We land at Newark, I go through Passport control and they keep examining my husbands Passport and ask him if he goes by another name. They say his name is listed as CTShelton (We live in Shelton, Ct.)...we ask where this information is from and they say TAP airlines.....after 15 minutes or so, they let him through.....
I am not a picky flyer.....and know that air travel today is painful, but TAP is beyond awful. Sorry, the post was so gross, believe me, I left out the worst......


----------



## x3 skier (May 15, 2008)

One of the better horror stories I have heard.  

I suggest you give it wider distribution including the FAA/DOT and other travel sites.

Cheers


----------



## Keitht (May 15, 2008)

Linda74 said:


> OK, we get to Lisbon, and are in line for passport control. We have about 45 minutes for the connection, but there is only one person at passport control, who leaves his seat for 10 minutes or so. There must have been 700 passengers in line. We tried to move ahead but weren't permitted.......



The whole thing does read like a horror story, but the section I have quoted above will be familiar to any foreign national attempting to travel to, or through, the USA.   There is now talk of checks similar to those on entry being applied on exit.  That should do wonders for the tourist industry. :annoyed:


----------



## Carolinian (May 16, 2008)

I beleive that the new mayor of London, and former member of parliament, Boris Johnson, once had such a horrible experience with US immigration, although he has dual US citizienship, that he threatened to renounce his US citizenship.

The one time I have flown R/T on TAP, it was fine.

I would suggest posting this account on www.flyertalk.com

The Graffiti Wall at www.ricksteves.com would be another good place to post it.


----------



## Keitht (May 16, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> I beleive that the new mayor of London, and former member of parliament, Boris Johnson, once had such a horrible experience with US immigration, although he has dual US citizienship, that he threatened to renounce his US citizenship.



With a name like Boris he has to be a threat to National Security doesn't he

Just to add to our fund of useless information, his full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson


----------



## x3 skier (May 16, 2008)

Off topic, sorry to see Red Ken replaced by Boris the Buffoon. OTOH fresh meat for the comics. :rofl: :rofl: 

Sorry, could not resist.

Be interesting to see what (if any) Red Ken's policies are changed by Boris, "don't call me de Pfeffel", Johnson. 

Cheers


----------

