Flying Machine

If you want to gamble a few $$.. Check Expert Flyer for the load, take note of the P (E+ seats) and you can access those for free upon OLCI (I did the same.. Hat tip to Sterndog)

Good luck and Safe Travels..

ewrfox

I already have E+ seats booked. When i spoke to TAP via twitter I was told there is a 30$ fee. I dont mind paying it, I just don't know how to.

Flying Machine

Call them and they will take your Credit Card info. If not. At about T-36-48 they will release them and assign you others. That's what happend to me, I did not pay, got downgraded and at OLCI grabbed the same seat for free..

Flying Machine

Hi there, for those whom chose to credit their TAP flights to UA Mileage Plus, how long did it take for the flights to post to Mileage Plus.. Thanks and Safe Travels

ewrfox

Did you only fly to LIS or you flew elsewhere? I'm wondering did you have to clear immigration in LIS or your final destination.

Flying Machine

I actually traveled to LIS (Immigration on arrival for all but EU Passports took almost an hour, it was a really long line) Transfer PAX were in the same line and representatives were calling out flights with tight connections to place those PAX on a Priorty Line.. So it seems all clear at this point of arrival..

Palal

LH in EWR, airport-operated in LIS.

TP used to have its own lounge in LIS, but it closed a few years ago.

Palal

If your final destination is within Schengen - you have to clear immigration in LIS - otherwise it's just a security clearance.

travelbunny123

A couple of things:

a) JFK-LIS- no WIFI but seats from front till row 18 were economy plus, fairly new airplane
b) Lounge in Lisbon can get very crowded and don't have too much hot food
c) Meals are avg to below avg but it's fairly short flights so don't care too much
d) In-Flight Entertainment is suffice and comparable to other US carriers
e) Credited to Singapore and credit was within 3 business days after flight

xSTRIKEx6864

Short trip report...

Departing Boston this flight leaves from Terminal C (which is mostly JetBlue) as JetBlue and TAP Portugal have a partnership, so people can connect from a JetBlue flight to the flight to Lisbon without changing terminals. The downside of this is that the seating by the gate was more intended for Airbus A320 capacity than the larger widebody A330. The TAP A330 seems to have slightly bigger overhead bins in the middle vs the sides of the plane, too.

About 1 hour after departure, economy cabin was served meals. There was a chicken and fish option. The chicken was pretty much inedible, the rest of the meal was fine. They did not dim the cabin lighting until nearly 2.5 hours after departure. Eastbound this is ~6 hours. There is decent in-flight entertainment with several movies, TV shows, and free games like Who Wants to be a Millionaire trivia. About 75 minutes before landing, they served sandwiches and Nature Valley granola bars. The sandwiches were terrible with cold bread that wasn't very good.

Landing at Lisbon there was a really long queue for immigration/customs. If you had a short connection, they were going around and moving those people to the front of the line. Leaving the Lisbon airport, you can get Uber - the pickup is in the parking garage area. Uber Black will be 20 Euro to city center, Uber X is less. The taxi drivers over there are upset about the competition from Uber, so apparently they don't pickup/drop directly curbside to avoid confrontations.

There is plenty to do in Lisbon and good dining options, so I won't cover all that. The Castelo de Sao Jorge and Torre de Belem are definitely worth visiting, especially if weather is good.

Departing Lisbon, at the airport there is the ANA* Lounge (*this is NOT an abbreviation for All Nippon Airways, it's a totally different lounge). The lounge was very crowded as several airlines grant business/first class passengers access, it is Priority Pass lounge, and you can get in by paying $25. There is supposedly a limit of 3 alcoholic beverages per person in the lounge, but I never saw anyone to enforce that and you grab/pour your own beer, wine, and liquor. There are some light food options, which were okay. If you are flying ex-Schengen (ie. back to USA) the lounge is before exit passport checks, but there is typically no more than a 10 minute line and shorter if you have an electronic passport. If you plan to return to the EU again on the same passport, you may want to ensure they stamp your passport with an exit (otherwise next visit to EU may get you more questions about why you have entry stamp without exit, especially if entering via Germany, France, or, for now, the UK).

The flight back to Boston from Lisbon had far better food/catering than the flight to Lisbon. Nothing special, it's economy airline food... but was all edible and the fish salad and chocolate mouse was actually quite good. Coffee and Tea not that great, and oddly they only fill cups up less than half way.

At Logan Airport, all bags will be delivered to baggage claim and need to be cleared through U.S. Customs. (That means you can check a bag and easily drop an additional flight segment after Boston as you would just leave the airport after clearing Customs instead of going to the Transfer Desk.)

Miles posted to SQ Krisflyer within 48 hours of taking the flights.

shuom

Belem is really cool. I think there's a Michelin starred restaurant in the area too.

I will add that my favorite part of Lisbon is Pena Palace over by Sintra. If I had to choose one thing to see, that would be it.

ewrfox

I took this trip to Rome and flew on the aircraft with the comfort plus seats. I opened up the check in and selected the comfort seats and there was no charge for it. The seats are very comfy with plenty of recline and legroom. As someone who skips on airline food, I can't comment on it.. The flight usually lands an hour early into Lisbon and as such we had a very long layover.

The second leg of the trip was from Lisbon to Rome and you don't know the gate number until it's close to departure . The aircraft scheduled was an A320 and it was swapped with an A319 and thus resulted in all 4 members of my family being assigned business class. Now that I was in business, i figured it doesn't hurt to try out the meal service. I only took a few bites of everything and it tasted not bad, but I still skipped it.

For the return leg, did online check in and choose comfort seats at no cost. The flight from Rome to Lisbon was delayed and after arrival we had only 30 mins to connect.. The staff directed those to jfk and we passed passport control and went straight to the aircraft.. Walking into the aircraft all the empty seats were taken by other pax who happily moved back to their original seats. As for food on this flight they offered fish and Shepard pie. I went with the the fish just to try it out and it was pretty good. Even with the sort connection , all our checked bags arrived.