Planning a trip to Lisbon/Porto in February - Tap Portugal is the airline with nonstop flights from Dulles to Lisbon. I will do the overnight flight. Any one with experience with Tap Portugal? - I like comfort and will like to do the economy plus - cannot afford the business class.
shall I book the cheapest fare and then immediately try to upgrade -or just do the economy plus. Any advice will help. I am a very light traveller - not much baggage - Comfort is the most important to me
Posted by
Chicago
3125 posts
I flew with TAP this past March. I had an economy plus seat. It looks like I paid $980 for my roundtrip.
In looking at a random date, I see economy plus is around $875 and business is more than double that. I would go with economy plus. It was fairly comfortable from what I remember.
I wrote about my experience with TAP and the Lisbon airport, as well as my time in Lisbon, in my trip report. It might be helpful.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-lisbon-portugal-my-trip-report
Have a great trip!
Posted by
SF Bay Area
65 posts
We flew TAP from SFO to Lisbon, an 11 hour flight. I couldn’t imagine economy for that period, so we booked economy +. The seats are just a little wider, and the legroom just a little more (maybe 4 inches). My husband managed to sleep, but I couldn’t (I did sleep a couple of hours on the return trip). Economy plus wasn’t terrible, definitely better than economy, but not spacious.
Posted by
33 posts
We flew tap from IAD to Rome via Lisbon. Very pleasant flight (although we upgraded to business class). I would fly them again.
Posted by
OP
52 posts
Thanks all for the good information. I did call Tap Portugal and they were able to book my flights easily. The fellow was most helpful offering suggestions etc . I ended up booking economy premium as I need the comfort. I had no complaints as it was pretty easy but need to give yourself 1/2 to do it. I was unable to use their website and it was ridiculously unreliably, absolutely frustrating and not user friendly.
Again thanks for the good information all.
Now onto getting a hotel.
Posted by
Chicago
645 posts
Depending on the loading for your particular flight, TAP sometimes offers bid/buy-up
options to upgrade to business class. I've upgraded for ~$400 o/w, which is a lot cheaper
than buying business class upfront. No guarantees, of course, but you might want to
keep an eye out for it if you purchase on TAP.