TAP the Worst Airline in the World! (TAP Air Portugal)

Member Name: justog

Product:	TAP Air Portugal
Date:	11/07/06 (314 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Late services, rude staff

I am a frequent flyer, who has been travelling to Brazil from UK on business and pleasure, about 3 times a year, for the last 16 year. I have not travelled to Brazil with TAP for over 10 years but since TAP has joined the Star Alliance, I have decided to try it again. Unfortunately, I have to say that I’ve had the worst travel experience of my life! My flight to Fortaleza was 3 hours late but my return was far worse. After over 7 hours from my scheduled time (longer than my flight from Brazil), I have finally reached London! The worst of all this dreadful experience was that during the whole time I did not feel anybody cared or tried to do anything to alleviate my inconvenience! Also, the fact that I was travelling Business Class and have a Star Alliance Gold card did not make any difference.

During my transfer, when I complained to the “GroundForce” staff (I later found out that they are a TAP subsidiary), they told me that they were not TAP staff and they could not do anything about it but there was no TAP staff to help! Repeatedly, they reinforced that they were not TAP staff and the only TAP desk was after immigration at the check-in desk! My feeling is that staff believes that customers travelling to Brazil do not deserve any attention and treat them with total contempt.

Since my return, I have been monitoring the TAP flights to Brazil and it seems that a 2-3 hours delay is a norm! If only I knew this before I travelled with them.

Summary: I hope nobody will have to go through what I did!