Does TAP weigh hand baggage?
 

Should I worry about the 8 kg limit or the 8 inch thickness limit for hand baggage? I might be slightly over both limits.

I recall fretting about strict enforcement of limits on RyanAir years ago, but when I flew them I saw almost no enforcement.

!00's of flights with TP, and no-one has ever shown interest in my hand-baggage. Although I have seen them getting busy with interesting looking bags on long-haul services, particularly to their niche destinations in africa (Sao Tome, Bissau etc).

I've heard friends complain of over-zealous agents at US airports, but these were friends likely to have overshot the limits by generous margins.

So I'd say you could relax - with the caveat you might find yourself with an unsympathetic agent on the day.

in general with the national carriers if your bag isn't bloated looking they won't bother weighing it; it's not worth their time they have too many customers to service - believe me - i've been flying with an overweight carry on for years

Same here.

Even Ryanair is like this. I have seen many rucksacks clearly exceeding the (tiny) dimensions for small bag allowed for free with Ryanair but as long as it is not too obvious or a trolley it will be fine. However, trying to bring a carry-on trolley as your bag without purchase of "Priority and 2 cabin bags" add-on, is likely to fail, i.e. you will be asked to pay at boarding.

No experience with TAP directly but I travel with a single 30L (so small enough to fit under a seat) black bag that has everything I need in it. It is small but exceeds the allowed weight on some carrier by a fair margin. Because it is fairly small, black and I carry like a back (and not a backpack) when boarding I have never been weighed, thankfully. Even on some carrier with a reputation for doing so. Basically if you are going to exceed the limit do it in a non-obvious manner and you'll probably be fine.

Result: Hand baggage (of reasonable size near the limits) was not weighed.

Anyone have any recent experiences with TAP on this, especially in business? They allow 10kg, but I'm usually around ~12kg, especially in colder months. I've read reports on other forums of checks at the jet bridge.

No they are most unlikely to weigh bags. On shorthaul services (Europe and North Africa) then if the flight is full the sizer may occasionally be deployed, but even then a business class passengers is unlikely to have much difficulty. Clearly if you want certainty then you best pack 9.9 kgs since no-one can be sure that a blind eye will be turned.

Thanks, I'm looking at TLV-LIS-TLV. I have seen reports of checks, especially at LIS, when people are boarding.

I did four flights with TAP this year. The only place I saw them checking bags was at gate in Lisbon for return to US. This was based on size not weight and they gave a pass to folks in J. My bag is more than 10KG always but because it is a small 30l bag it never attracts attention anyway. That said I have a day backpack inside that I could move stuff to if I had to gate check.

They did have a scale at the gate for my LIS-IAD flight last Saturday, and a passenger ahead of me was directed to check their bag when it exceeded the limit. I didn't see anybody fussing about bag sizes, though.

Just an update: I checked in online, so didn't have to go through the check-in desks. No one at the gate in TLV paid any attention to carry-ons and there was no scale even if they were interested.

Does anyone have any recent experience with this out of LHR or OPO? I recall hearing pre-COVID LHR T2 would often weigh carry-ons at the gate. Any reports on if that is still happening?

I've been through T2 to LIS qute often in recent months and I've never seen them weigh anything there. Occasionally, if it's a full flight, they are looking for excess sized bags, or too many bags. OPO - no recent experience, but I doubt it is a daily practice. But as ever, if you want total confidence you will need to stick to the limits. Welcome to Flyertalk.