FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Life Before COVID: 32 Flights 3 Continents in 80 Days to Grounded

Apr 10, 2020, 10:23 pm

#18

Long Train Runnin

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Trip 5 Annual Pilgrimage to Corporate Headquarters February 1st to February 9th

Like most global organizations, there tends to be some effort to bring members of global teams together once in a while to chat, exchange ideas, and most importantly be indoctrinated with next year’s corporate vision. For my company, which is based in Austria, this event takes place each year in the winter and is followed up with a weekend ski trip for the attendees to have a bit of fun. It is hardly an imposition when they request that I attend each year. I usually attend a few other functions each year over in Europe, but this one by far has the best fun to work ratio.

About 40 hours after returning from San Antonio I was all packed and ready to begin my journey to Europe. I was looking forward to the journey as it meant trying out a new airline and a couple of new aircraft types.

February 1st, 2020 JFK-LIS on TAP Air Portugal Flight 208 Airbus A330neo

There were several reasons not to take this flight and routing, but I was willing to overlook pretty much all of them. The first issue being that TAP does not serve Salzburg Airport which was where I was actually supposed to be going. I also am allowed to book overwater flights in premium economy, a cabin not offered by TAP. Lastly, I had an absolutely awful experience entering the EU with some of the longest immigration lines I’ve ever faced the last time I entered via LIS.

Any one of those three factors are probably enough for almost any sane person to book away. I, however, am not rational when it comes to my transatlantic travel arrangements. Ever since I sat down and started cataloging my flying on FlightMemory I have become a little too obsessed with trying not to repeat any flying. I always look to see if I can route a different way each time I go back to the same location. In the past I have gone to Austria via Moscow, Istanbul, Copenhagen, just to name a few. I always look for new ways to add to my route map. Flying out of the New York area, I am very privileged to have a seemingly endless number of transatlantic flying options. So, for this trip I decided that TAP would provide the companion line to my previous EWR-LIS flight. Might as well add JFK-LIS for good measure.

I had read quite a lot of very positive coverage of the new aircraft TAP has placed on their long-haul US routes. So I decided that I would give them a try to pick up new equipment types and add another airline to the list of airlines flown. Much like my country count, I hope to fly over 100 unique airlines at some point.. So, with all the negatives listed above for reasons only I can justify, I found myself doing the 3-train shuffle once again over to JFK.

This time taking a moment to stop at Penn Station for a couple slices of good pizza. It had been weeks since I had a decent slice, and I knew with my upcoming schedule it would be awhile until I would have another chance. Normally, I would have headed across the street from Penn Station to NY Pizza Suprema for some of the best pizza found anywhere in the world. However, I didn’t have a ton of time, and with my bulky suitcase thanks to all my cold weather gear, I settled for the best pizza in the train station. It would have to hold me over until I got back.

Penn Station Slice

I got to Terminal 5 at JFK about 90 minutes before departure. This is one of the better terminals at JFK by a long shot. Although, since I am only a Star Alliance Silver member it meant that I would have to make do without lounge access. Check in with TAP was quick and easy, and I learned that they actually do participate in precheck. The only downside was at that late hour there was no full precheck. It just changed where I entered the same line as everyone else. With the time I spent checking a bag, and waiting in security I only had about 20 minutes to wait for boarding to begin.

JFK T5

As T5 is pretty much dominated by Jetblue I don’t think there are very many widebody capable gates in the terminal. TAP was using the last gate in the concourse. I used the time I had before boarding to send some messages to folks that were waiting for me in Europe already. I flew out on Saturday night so that I would be able to watch the Super Bowl with some coworkers the next night in Salzburg.

Boarding was pretty efficient and the flight was a lot busier then I would have thought for a TATL flight in the middle of the winter. I can’t imagine there was anyone else in the gate area because this represented a chance to fly an A330neo other then myself. I had booked myself a seat in the Economy Extra section of the plane. This fare class came with check bags, and a few other benefits, but for me the extra legroom was certainly the draw. The seat pitch was comfortable at 34 inches, italso had a very large and crisp IFE screen, a USB port, and a universal power plug. It would be more than enough for the short overnight flight to Lisbon.

TAP A330neo Economy Extra

We pushed off the gate around 11:30PM and had a quick taxi out to the runway. I was impressed with just how quiet the A330neo was on our take off roll and climb out, the cabin noise is dramatically less than the previous generation. Considering it was now around midnight I didn’t really need to eat anything. I put on an eye mask and as is typical for me had no trouble getting to sleep. I will say that this seat had excellent built in adjustment, and provided some great head and neck support.

I slept quite well thanks to the late departure. I find for me that is the key to flying to Europe the later flights suit me so much better. Nothing is worse than those 6pm departures to London and Paris in my opinion. They would be approaching their destinations around the time I got to sleep on the TAP flight.

This being Flyertalk I will mention the only thing that surprised me on the A330neo. If you get the chance to fly a Boeing 787 and the 747-8 you will see that they took the new modern style faucet from the 787 and put in the new generation 747. I was curious to see if Airbus would take the A350 faucet design and bring it to the A330neo. At least the way TAP had the panes delivered they did not have the newer style faucet. Probably something almost no one notices or thinks about, but after being surprised on my first 747-8 flight to see the new style faucet I had wondered what Airbus would do. I now had my answer and now you do too.

I didn’t partake in any of the service on board, so I can’t really comment on that aspect but I expected to take advantage of it on the way back. I did find the seat to be excellent and for the overnight flight that was all that mattered.

The first time I visited Lisbon it took almost two hours to clear immigration so I was really hoping that it was a fluke caused by peak tourist season. I was hoping a Sunday morning in February would lead to a shorter wait which it did if you consider 90 minutes, shorter. I am not sure what they can do to improve, but I really would avoid entering the EU via LIS if at all possible..

I had a long layover so it was never an issue in that respect, but I would have rather spent that time either heading out into the city a little bit, or in a lounge. My 3 hour layover turned into roughly only 90 minutes after it was all said and done. I was still able to grab some pasteis de natas (custard cups) for breakfast. I also popped into the priority pass lounge where unfortunately there were no showers. The lounge was pretty basic all the way around. However, the terminal area in LIS is far from world class, so it was an upgrade in that regard.

LIS Terminal

February 2st, 2020 LIS-MUC on TAP Air Portugal Flight 554 Airbus A319

I headed to our gate about 10 minutes before boarding was scheduled to start. My heart sank immediately as instead of a brand new A320neo there was 20-year-old A319 sitting at our gate. I was a little bummed as I had booked this trip hoping to fly all three neo aircraft in one shot. I was booked on an A321neo on the way back from Munich to Lisbon. This equipment swap meant that I would miss out on the 320neo. It also meant that all the seat assignments needed to be redone.

Thankfully, this plane was still fitted with economy extra seating. I have to say it felt like a real pleasure to be on an Intereuropean flight and not be jammed into 29-inch seat pitch. I understand that they’re different markets and price points and all that, but with TAP it almost made flying in Europe a pleasurable experience.

TAP A319

The flight was comfortable, and they did serve a meal, but I didn’t partake. With the flight time and time change we landed in Munich around 7pm. My coworkers in Austria were very skeptical that I would be making it from the Munich airport to the bar that was staying open late for the game in Old Town Salzburg. With a kick off at 1:30AM I felt pretty good about my chances.