I will be traveling from NYC to Madrid , from Lisbon back to NYC. I’m looking for a flight at the best price I can get but want a dependable , safe airline. Has any one used Air Portugal? It’s listed as an economy airline hence half the price of Delta and American. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5516 posts
Do you mean TAP? If so, they are fine. They are part of Star Alliance.
Posted by
Hudson Valley
2267 posts
TAP is just fine. Some of their fare structure can be a little "low cost" like paying for bags and such, but many European airlines lean that way these days. Some people are put off by less-than-warm service, but that's also increasingly common.
One note: They fly a rather new fleet, the greatest benefit of which is how quiet they are. The a330-900s are widebodies with 2-4-2 seat layout in economy. They also fly a321s to ERW and JFK—those are narrow-body, single-aisle planes with 3 seats on each side. Some people find those uncomfortable for longer flights.
Posted by
WA USA
1078 posts
I've flown TAP Air Portugal and thought they were fine. They are Portugal's flagship carrier and are a full service carrier. I'm not sure if when you say economy airline you mean low cost carrier. If so, they are not a low cost carrier but do tend to have lower costs then other full service carriers.
I haven't flown them since covid, but I did fly with them from San Francisco to Venice and was perfectly happy with the service I got and took advantage of their stopover program in Lisbon. And as a side note, Portuguese are very warm people which I found included their customer service and flight attendants.
Posted by
Bilbao
642 posts
Airline regulations both in the USA and in Europe are extremely tight and not dependable and not safe airlines do not have the (very strict) permissions to operate. So any airline flying in the European Union countries will be completely fine.
Posted by
43 posts
We just flew TAP from Madrid to SFO via Lisbon last week. All good! New plane - the Lisbon-SFO leg had the ideal 2-4-2 seat arrangement. The crew was really great. Seats surprisingly comfortable for coach. Entertainment and screens were good, as was the meal service. Got blankets and pillows. Checked bags arrived safely. Make sure your carry-on is the correct size and weight. Note that the Lisbon airport is complete chaos -- keep your sense of humor!