I've taken the liberty of moving your post into this thread, since there are a lot of data points here. Broadly speaking the general pattern I see upthread is that people put a bid in either at the minimum or just above. You will get a better view of plausibility closer to departure, but TAP does tend to keep a seat or two back for late cash buyers. You will typically hear whether you have been successful a day or two from departure, and at that stage there is a Seatboost separate auction process, see the relevant thread on that. If you don't put any bid in, and there are still seats that TAP want to sell (noting oversales in Economy too) then at OLCI you may be offered a fixed price upgrade option, which is less hassle-some.

CWS/mod.