Hello Everybody:
I am in the process of booking a one-way ticket for my wife & myself at the end of August.
Looking online at carriers we have previously used many times - KLM, British Airways, Lufthansa. United ,,,,, etc.
2 tickets - one way Florence to New York - Mostly competitive all the way around - First Class +$4,000 each - Coach -
@ + $2000 each.
Then the TAP prices come up - $500 - or less - what's the catch? Has anybody ever have experience with this airline?
Thanks.
Calvin.
Yeah, dude...for real. Non-legacy (typically, although not always, budget) carriers tend to have better one-way pricing because they have a different pricing model. Legacy carriers like the ones you're used to tend to follow the "round-trip" pricing model, so one-ways are prohibitively expensive to discourage their purchase. It's like Southwest or Spirit or Frontier when you're flying domestically - you can easily do one-ways affordably or mix-and-match with another airline.
Wiki is your friend.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAP_Air_Portugal
TAP is fairly new as it has only been around for 74 years.
We flew TAP from/to Boston to Lisboa. It is OK.
TAP is the national carrier for Portugal. It is not a budget airline similar to the likes of Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet etc.
You can trust their prices, there is no hidden catch but check for routing and whether it's direct or not etc.
Of course - it is the national airline of Portugal. They're perfectly legit and quite good - better than most, in fact. They have been updating their planes in the past couple years, and usually have both decent fares and generally fresh, new airplanes. I'd fly them without any hesitation.
The mistake many Americans do is to only look at the major European airlines (Lufthansa, KLM etc.) when trying to book transatlantic flights. Often the "smaller" european airlines like TAP, Austrian, SAS, Swiss can have great offers. And they have the huge advantage of having a smaller airport as their hub(s) so the transfers are usually a lot easier. And usually offer better service than the airline giants, since their brands are not as well known. The drawback is that they usually only serve a handful of North American cities.
And yes, there are those that have experience with TAP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK2pN10_f3I
Your problem is, all the legacy carriers and their affiliates/codeshares (e.g. Delta is for all intents and purposes same as Air France) charge WAY MORE for a one-way ticket than they do a round-trip to and from Europe. It's madness. Are you doing a trans-Atlantic cruise? Why do you need the one-way? Are you trying to book two separate tickets, like one from US - City A, and then one from City B to US? If so, do a "multi-city" ticket, not two one-ways. The only way to get around high costs for a one way if that's what you truly need is to either a) book on points (the SkyMiles tickets are generally 1/2 the total ticket price when doing a one way) or b) use a budget-ish airline like Norwegian or a non-US legacy carrier, like TAP.
When we booked with TAP they priced each leg separately, even though we were booking round trip, so your price is correct. We paid extra to book our seats and to have a checked bag and the price was quite reasonable. We agree that the food and free wine is also better than some larger airlines.
An added plus is that they have good European films with captions, and it seems there's more leg room. I think the price went up a few weeks after we booked so you should book your tickets as soon as you're sure about your trip.
Take a close look at the restrictions. From the east coast, you can fly one-way to Porto and Lisbon for as little as $284 but you'll pay a lot of extras. If you don't need a checked bag, can fly on a specific day, or flight, and aren't picky about where you sit, TAP offers some great fares. You also might get a better fare with booking 2 one-way tickets, whether on TAP or one of the European budget carriers. Just read the fine print.
We just booked one way fares with TAP for a Transatlantic cruise. Toronto to BCN was $925CAD for the two of us. We went with the "Classic" fare. That included a checked bag each, and seat selection in the "Economy Xtra" section, which I believe offers 3" more legroom. It seemed worth it over the Basic fare.
I've read good things about TAP so feel confident!
Did anybody else on this forum grow up in Hawaii and know the Rap Reiplinger skit about the Portuguese airline?
TAP is consistently priced very well. From what I've heard, service is okay. On-time record approaches okay.
Now we know why the low prices: TAP is a terrible airline. Avoid at any cost. In the face of the Coronavirus crisis, they have behaved reprehensibly. On TAP's FB page one learns their nature. No traveller can contact them - after weeks of trying by every means. They will not waive change fees of as much as a $1,000. to change from one empty flight to another a day earlier. They are cancelling flights with no notice, and then offering only vouchers and not payment as required by the EU. In our case, they unilaterally changed our first flight leg from Boston-Lisbon to Newark-Lisbon w/o a US connecting flight!
No traveller can contact them - after weeks of trying by every means.
Every company in the travelling industry, especially airlines, are probably getting contacted by more or less everyone that has a booking with them at the moment. I'm sure the customer service department are doing everything they can.
hey hey
@morar
yes i did grow up in hawaii and remember rap replinger, even saw him in person. that skit was so hilarious along with all the other skits he did. those were the days to see comedy shows with the other local comedians. thanks for the memory.
@badger
thanks for reply, there is only so much that can be done right now with all the millions of travelers trying to "get what they want" and some not liking the response given to them. it's not only TAP airlines.
here and other forums are bashing different airlines in this trying time. have some respect and patience among customer service workers.
aloha
I love TAP airlines. Flew from Boston to Lisbon 3 years ago , nice service and one of the newer planes in their fleet.
As far as refund I had to cancel a flight from Boston to Rome on at May 7 2019, less than 8 hours from departure because of a death in the family. I had an executive one way fare, all was refunded to me. Hoping to pick up that trip this May 7 but we all know that is extremely unlikely to happen. So I have a refund in the system for a refund of the executive one way fare and I have every confidence that I will get the refund. I'm waiting for AA to cancel all returns from Europe for my booked with miles return, hoping they will waive the fee to put the miles back in my account.
