Cliff358

Tap has a sale going on from SFO-LHR for under $350 in economy. It can be booked through July 2021 and allows 1-5 day layover in Porto or Lisbon. I know Covid is still a consideration. I am hoping that the situation will be better by next spring. I am considering booking this and would like some feedback from members. Your thoughts?

36902BRF

Nobody can predict that far out. Personally I consider that booking to be fairly speculative. I will only book on points with low surcharges/taxes at this point where I can cancel relatively easily.

Caranmellon

I did decide to book it for a long weekend in early March, in the hope that the situation might be better then. I obviously will not even consider booking hotels and such at this stage. If it all goes through, brilliant. If it gets cancelled, that's a pain but no major loss and I am sure I can find a use for a voucher. The only issue I see if is the flight goes ahead, but for some reason or another I cannot be on it. What then? Changing might be more economical than refunding. I did opt for Basic rather than Discount, primarily for the extra miles.

AHC96

Anything can happen between now and then, so the only thing you can do is taking precautions. Don't book non refundable hotels, for example. Worse case, you can cancel your hotel and get your money back, and a voucher for TAP.

IAN-UK

I think you are asking if the flights will go ahead, and if you'll be free to travel to Lisbon and onwards. Of course, no-one can offer reassurance on that.


So what you might reflect on is how you will fare if things go wrong. Trawling through these posts you can see TP has performed spectacularly badly when it comes to dealing with cancellations, rebooking and refunds: so you need to set that against what is a very attractive ticket price. I'd suggest you take advantage of the low fares but ready yourself for action required in the event of cancellaions.

Cliff358

Thank you all for your input. If I've learned anything over the years it's that asking a question can clarify whether you asked it properly. I didn't.

Everything I could find for fares out of SFO were over $600 (excluding TAP). I know a lot of airlines aren't flying everything at the moment and probably wont' be for quite a while. TAP allows a 5 day layover which would allow me to see two countries on one trip. I know they don't have a good reputation for refunds, cancellations, etc. I was more interested in how their flights were. I expect more international flights will be available by next summer (I prefer being an optimist). I just wanted to know how good a bargain this is since I have never flown to Europe. I don't watch fares to Europe usually so I was interested in the price, nothing more.

IAN-UK

Tbe price is excellent, and TAP is OK. Economy is never going to be much fun for 10+ hours flying. The big problem with TAP is its time-keeping: but if you are not making direct connections at Lisbon, or at SFO on your way back, you can probably roll with any delays.

Lisbon is a delightful city, so the possibility of getting to know something of its charms is a great plus to flying TAP, especially at such a good fare. And flying with the Portuguese national carrier, your introduction to Lisbon begins at SFO.

Cliff358

After some consideration, and talking to several people I decided not to book this flight for two reasons.

1. There are simply too many unknowns still as far as when international is going to open up to most countries.
2. I believe when it finally does open up there will be a lot of sales as the airlines fight for passengers.

Thanks everybody for your help.