I reserved my tickets with TAP weeks ago. I tried to register for an account to get updates etc, but for weeks I’ve been unable to do so. Apparently they were hacked not long before I made my reservations, which I guess is why they won’t let me sign up. When I flew with United, I was able to get in the site to make sure nothing had changed (turns out they downsized the planes on my last flight, which changed the seats I’d paid extra for, so I’m glad I checked). Can anyone offer any insight or ideas? I don’t fly often enough to feel confident about it. Thank you!
Posted by
11 posts
KRS:
Greetings we recently flew TAP. Boston to Brussels, then to AMS to Lisboa and back.
their website is very unstable and hard to navigate IMO. They do have a toll free number and their
reps speak English well so this is what we used to change seats and handle TAP equipment and departure changes.
hope this helps, Fred
Posted by
OP
MD
488 posts
Thanks Fred. I wish I had more confidence that everything will go smoothly, but I like to be prepared for issues in advance as much as possible. I’m glad to hear it’s easy to call them if needed. Now fingers crossed that I won’t need to!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6788 posts
@KRS - I've flown on TAP several times, also had to cancel booked flights and get a refund. I had no trouble at all, was able to reach a customer service agent easily, they were professional and helpful, everything smooth. I just went to their website and logged in to my TAP frequent flyer account, all seems perfectly functional to me.
That said, I just went to their website and tried to register for an account...and failed. I filled in their form (using fake info, but all should have been properly formatted), and after churning for about 20 seconds, it coughed up this error:
Some error ocurred
FlyTAP.DataAccess - BWENGINE-100029 - Activity timed out
I checked elsewhere online (the TAP forum on FlyerTalk) and the problem is well known and reported by many people. It stems from a cyber attack which took place around August 28. Since then, many people report they are unable to create a new TAP user account/frequent flyer account. Some people (myself included) are currently able to log in to their existing TAP account, access their currently-booked flights (I have none booked but can log in and see how many miles I have with them - not many!).
Here's a message that one user saw when they logged in:
"Due to a cyber attack, which TAP has blocked, the website and the app are registering some instability. Without login, online bookings and check-in are functioning properly and miles can be claimed later. Sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for understanding."
One user reports they called TAP yesterday and were told TAP knows about the issues and they were working on it, and they hope to resolve things by the end of the month (!). Yikes.
So, on one hand, it's a known issue, pretty much everybody gets hacked (it seems inevitable that everything will be, I say this as someone who has worked in IT most of my life...), they're working on it, it will be resolved at some point. Things at the airline appear to be functioning more or less normally other than things that require you to log in to their online systems -- you can buy tickets, planes are going on time, things in the real (non-online) world are normal.
On the other hand, sheesh, they HOPE to have things resolved by the end of the month (that would be more than a month after the attack), that seems incredibly slow. TAP is a big airline. Large companies live and die by the internet, and it's hard to imagine a large, modern business that would be unable to recover from a cyber attack in much less than a full month. Then again, TAP is state-owned, so the government of Portugal is not going to let TAP fail (cynics might point to this to explain the slow pace of recovery). The attack was ransomware, by the way -- plenty of governments and institutions worldwide have been targeted by these bad guys.
The good news is that the airline is still flying, and - as best I can tell from a quick look at the people posting on FlyerTalk - operations seem normal: flights are on time (as on-time as ever), people are getting the things they need, and TAP is still functioning more or less as usual, except for some things that require a log in (some people are able to log in, some are not; once logged in, some functions are working, some are not). Creating a new account is one thing that's still broken for everyone. For other things you might hope to accomplish online, you may have to call them. I would expect there to be longer-than-usual waits on hold to speak with someone, though I have not seen anyone complaining about that online.
Bottom line: the aftermath of the ransomware attack is certainly an inconvenience for some, and it doesn't make the airline look good. But I would not worry too much over this right now. If you are flying TAP very soon, then be prepared for the need to call them if you need something, and maybe expect long hold times. Hopefully your flights are not soon?
Hope that helps. Good luck.