TAP out of San Francisco- do they weigh personal items???

Does NOT matter what our experience is.

If your gate agent says "we are weighing" you will be in trouble. A defense of "well I saw people on Rick Steves who said they didn't get weighed" has never helped.

Always assume they mean those rules.

“ since it’s only 4.4 pounds allowed,”
Well no. The maximum allowed weight is 8 kg. I’m not sure what that is in American pounds, but I do know it’s a whole lot more than 4.4 pounds. I think you did the conversion the wrong way round.

Hey…. The carry small suitcase allowance is 22 pounds but the personal bag allowance (small backpack or purse) is only 4.4 pounds, that’s what I’m referring to.

Here's TAP's webpage with the cabin baggage allowance: TAP cabin baggage allowance.

The personal item is, indeed, limited to 2 kg (4.4 lb.). I agree that's pretty ludicrous, but the weight limit for the cabin bag isn't bad at 10 kg (22 lb.).

[Edited to add the missing link.]

Ah okay I misunderstood your question.
In that case, see the reply from Carol. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t way the personal item when I flew them, it matters what they will do on your particular flight. And what you will do when they tell you your personal item weighs too much.

Scott's Cheap Travel frequently posts TAP fares because they are good but they "warn" people not to go with the lowest basic fare, apparently there are several options and they recommend a step or two up because of this sort of thing.

I would count on any airline that posts a weight limit to enforce that limit. They make a ton of money with the checked bag fees, especially when they make you check it at the gate. I’ve had carryon bags weighed and measured for other European airline with similar limits. But no experience with TAP. With Lufthansa, they weighed and measured bags at check in, then at the gate there were also random bag checks.

Being told by the agent at the gate that my carry -on needed to be weighed, ie, that last minute and unexpected surprise has never happened, not in Europe nor the USA, also not even stopped for exact measurement. At check-in most of the time, ie 80% or so, the carry-on is not even weighed either.

The best practice in life to avoid bs is to learn to read, to understand, and to follow rules.

I go by the notion when dealing with officialdom , even by way of explanation, ie don't bother: you argue, dispute, or what you choose to label it, you lose. They won't back down.

we're also TAP Boston to Porto and I just measured our Rick Steves luggage we got just for this trip. Their measurements are 1" deeper than TAP's dimensions. (21x14x9 RS vs 22x16x8 TAP). Think that'll pass since we're actually smaller on the other sides?

Well you don't have to automatically roll over when an "official" says something, you can politely probe and query and perhaps negotiate or seek counsel elsewhere. But in general, what they say goes and you deal with it.

I've flown TAP and will be flying with them again in the fall. When I was coming back from Italy in December, they didn't check the weight/size of bags from Florence to Lisbon, but did from Lisbon to US. Several people were arguing with them. I prepared to put my carryon backpack in the weighing thing, but the lady said no, that I was fine. In addition to my backpack, I had a gym bag type personal item (within the measurements, but probably not the weight) and they never even glanced at it. It seemed they were focusing mostly on people with actual luggage rather than backpacks.

I'll admit, I've been known to wear a jacket with inside and outside pockets that can hold some of my smaller, but heavier things like chargers, long enough to make it through to the plane just in case. You might also look into a lighter weight backpack. The packing forum has lots of good suggestions.

Good luck!