y-oh-y

On 30-Aug I flew in C on a Swiss codeshare flight TP921 from ZRH to LIS.

Prior to boarding the ground crew made the following announcement:

"Due to a strike of TAP air crew there will be no in-flight service on board. If you need anything you should buy it in the terminal prior to boarding"

I arrived on a connecting flight and had not exchanged currency so was unable to purchase food or drink as suggested. When asked, ground crew informed me that since the reason for no service was a "strike" no refreshment voucher is made available.

Once boarded, sitting in row 2 I heard the following exchange between the purser and ground crew:

Purser: "You announced a strike. I will report you since there is no strike"
Ground crew: "I told passengers there was a strike since I had no vouchers"
Purser: "I reported this to the office in the morning. I told them there will be no service since there is not enough crew. I asked for vouchers"
Ground crew: "I think they don't want to give vouchers so they didn't send us the vouchers. That's why I said it was a strike because then we don't have to give vouchers. Passengers are asking and I had none to give"

I was obviously shocked by them discussing lying to passengers. Later in the flight I was not only shocked but also thirsty and frustrated.

cziwkga

I was on a TAP flight from LIS to LHR last night with a similar problem. We were only told that there would be no service as we boarded at the gate. No reason was given and it was then too late to go and buy anything. One glass of water was served in 3.5 hours between boarding and arrival. No vouchers were offered. I overheard another passenger complain that the same thing had happened on their outbound flight but that vouchers had been offered.

They also claimed that the flight was very overbooked - at least 20 of us were placed on standby and only allocated seats at boarding, though the flight still left with empty seats. As I bought my ticket very late and there were still very low prices available compared with other departures on Friday this seems surprising, although not impossible.

psollitt

I was just on the TP364 LIS-LHR and had EXACTLY the same thing, but got a few more gems from the cabin crew ... After a protracted argument/conversation with the rear less senior crew member and the stand by number 3 on the flight ... this is OBVIOUSLY to do with union issues regarding the Portuguese government refusing to hire any more crew over the busy holiday period , so they refuse to serve ANY food or beverage service due to what ever unwritten rules they care to fabricate .

If the flights do not have enough crew to operate a food or beverage service they are not safe to operate AT ALL ...

This is a union issue between TAP, the crew unions and the european union.

I as a passenger who had a 2:30 hr flight with nothing other than a half glass of water am utterly furious with TAP and will construct a letter to inform them of this ..

Why at LIS , tap's own home base they could not inform the full flight about this so we could buy food and refreshments for the flight I have no idea

...

psollitt

going from what people are reviewing on Airline quality.com ( http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/tap.htm#cmnt ) I would avoid TAP like the plague from now on , on Euro short haul ... as a carbon copy of the reviews happened to me ! I wished I had cancelled my TAP flights and flown with a real carrier

Koby

Wow... I have never seen so many bad comments on TAP. I have always enjoyed flying them and normally book them without questions, but looking at the reviews of the last few months I think I might hold off for a while.

GBM.flights

You should make sure you file a complaint with TP.
You can do that via:
- This online form
- mail: [email protected]

TP is clearly stretched over the summer. They are operating more flights with the same # of crews. No margin for crew subs.
The no service due to minimum crew is a recurrent theme over the past few summers, which besides the annoyance will further dent their (any? ) reputation.
While they are getting better results operationally and financially, which good in the long run, we have to keep them honest and make sure they do not get away with poor service. So please complaint.

To my point TP just reported a new daily passenger record Sep 1st.

Palal

If you can still do it, file a formal complaint in LIS (ask for the complaints book - livro de reclamações).
The unions are letting them not work if they don't have 4 crew on an A319/20/21 and TAP is letting them get away with this. If you file enough formal complaints, they will change what they're doing.

Also, post on their facebook wall and message them on facebook.

bruno-s

Had the same issue on TP 358 LIS - LHR on 22/09. Communication that there was no meal service was done as part of boarding process.
Captain apologised and said that the cabin crew would provide more information. I was expecting details on how to claim some compensation, vouchers, anything but the cabin crew said that it had been a company decision to still go ahead with the flight with the reduce cabin crew. I thought it was very strange, after all are they not part of the company that made the decision and are they not the face of the company during the flight?

I didnt see anyone complain during the flight. I remembered what I read in this post and decided to handle it afterwards as well.

Has anyone had any response from TP to their complaints regarding this issue? Which way did you use to contact TP? Should I bother doing it or will I just get more upset with the entire process?

Thanks

Koby

Anyone with recent experiences on TAP? Are things back to normal?

As I wrote above, I normally enjoy flying them but they seem to have serious problems lately. (A took a quick look at Airlinequality, and their reviews are still pretty horrible...)

TAP-A343

I flew with TP on 21/12 FRA-LIS and LIS-FRA on 01/01 in Y and there was meal service on both flights.

Palal

I have had no problems with them serving meals on 6 flights in nov/dec/jan.

GBM.flights

The no meal issue is IME a seasonal event (typically JUL-SEP) as there are more flights and less available crew due to holidays to manage.
Which means flights do operate but with only 3 instead of 4 as mentioned by Palal on post #7

tff

True indeed. And it only happens with A319s and A321s, not with A320s.

TAP-A343

It doesn't matter what the reasons are, from a customer's perspective it's unacceptable.

GBM.flights

I don't disagree it should not happen (And that TP should even be proactive in the compensation IMO). I was merely trying to answer Koby's question, if the event reported by the OP was still ongoing.
An additional data point. Flew TP Dec/Jan and there was a meal service

As you can see from my post up thread if it happens we should be vocal about it.