Sexten - I have the CPH-LIS-MIA flight on 12/2, so have been watching this situation intently. At one point last week it was looking like the CPH-LIS leg disappeared from sale (presumably as it couldn't position to CPH on the Sunday night due to the strike).
I called to try and have them move me onto the MAN-LIS flight on 11/2 (operated by Portugalia, still seemed to be for sale) but they wouldn't entertain it. My worry was turning up in CPH at 0610 on 12/2 with family and being told I'd be bumped onto the next day's flight (possibly downgraded in economy if J was full) without any compensation other than the 75% fare refund (which given the whole point for me of flying from CPH in the first place rather than MAN is the cheap business fare would have been very annoying!), rather than being moved onto another carrier's flight in J to MIA ASAP.
As it was a strike I'm assuming EU261 would not apply, so their only obligation would be to fulfil their contract with me in the cheapest possible way (so a hotel and a meal, rather than booking me into J on another carrier, or an offer of a refund) - I just wondered if there was any experience with TAP or other carriers (or maybe any assurances you had from them in this case) that led you to believe that a likely outcome would be getting rerouted on an equivalent/better service as quickly as possible?
This is my first EX-EU with family (including a 6 year old!) and price wise it's an appealing way to travel J as a UK resident. However the prospect of being overseas, having paid to position there and for an overnight hotel, to find myself maybe in limbo for 24 hours or more makes this more of a gamble than I'd first considered.
Needless to say I'm glad it's a non-issue in this case, and even if not it would probably have been nothing worse than inconvenient, but wondered in general if experience dictates that the passenger is normally 'looked after' in situations like this, or if airlines simply look to discharge their responsibilities to us as cheaply as possible? This will probably impact on whether I bother with EX-EU in future (particularly on airlines that look pretty ordinary in terms of how they manage labour relations - seems like TAP strikes aren't rare occurences!).