Currybelly

Well here we are in July, almost 11 months on, and still no compensation forthcoming. Direct messaging on Twitter has fallen silent so I am going to submit a claim through the UK Small Claims court!!

corporate-wage-slave

If you are UK based then you also have the ADR route open to you.

https://www.aviationadr.org.uk/

estrela

The personal base should be irrelevant. The point of origin or final destination has to be in the UK and TP is subscribing to the ADR scheme.

TP also stopped replying on Twitter to me. I am running several cases with EU regulators and passenger rights agencies against TP. It takes a long time but TP just recently paid in one case.

AviosTreasureHunter

TP completely ignored me for my 261 claim. I used ADR in the end, TP just waited till last day then admitted the claim.
From every friend I have had who had issue with TP, they seem to have policy of ignoring all 261 claims. Have to use ADR or small claims court.

sfvoyage

I don't know if this is the right thread for me to post. In any case, I've been dealing with TP since last November for a small claim to repair damaged wheels on a flight LIS-SFO, and this has resulted in months of delays and obstruction from them.

In February they finally agreed to refund me, as "per EU Regulation 261/2004", but a few months later, they claimed that my bank rejected their attempt to transfer the money to me, so I gave them another bank info. They told me it will take a matter of weeks.

After another month or two with nothing, I asked again and they told me, again, it will take a matter of weeks. I expressed my dismay to them for the continued delay and implore them to expedite the matter so that it will take days instead of "a matter of weeks" again, so that I won't need to escalate the matter to USDOT. Immediately afterwards, they emailed me today and said this matter is now closed and they can no longer help me.

I filed a complaint with USDOT today. Is there a better venue for me to go through? It's not a big refund, but given all the run-arounds and empty promises from TAP, I intend to keep pursuing this out of principle.

estrela

I was once successful with a refund via the USDOT and TP. I would also make an official complaint in the Portuguese Livro de Reclamacoes, contact the regulator ANAC as well as the consumer support which provides an official email address:

https://www.livroreclamacoes.pt/Inicio/Manuais
https://www.anac.pt/vPT/Passageiros/...eclamacao.aspx
[email protected].

sfvoyage

Thanks for the 3 above resources, the first 2 of which have English pages. In regards to the third email address, is it OK if I email to them in English (or should I use google translate into Portuguese)?

Also, on the anac.pt webpage, I was redirected to fill out the EU Complaint form in regards to:

Passenger rights in case of denied boarding, downgrading, cancellation or long delay of their flight under Regulation (EC) 261/2004

So is this complaint form irrelevant to my issue involving damaged suitcases?

estrela

This is Portugal, I would expect that you only get 1 good answer maximum after submitting those forms and emails.
I would always use in addition to your English version a translated local language one. Imagine writing to the USDOT in Portuguese...

corporate-wage-slave

EC261 does not cover damaged suitcases, but it has a statutory basis, hence the handling process and forms. Baggage is covered by the Montr�al Convention. I suspect DOT may be your best remedy at this stage.

smbk83

So 3 months on since I requested the refund for my lounge access purchase to TP, I just received the following response to my complaint:

Dear Mr. ,
We refer to your contact with TAP Air Portugal, via the Electronic Complaints' Book, regarding your booking, which received our utmost attention.
We would like to apologize for any misunderstanding that may have previously occurred.
After further analysis of your complaint and booking record, we would like to inform that we have requested to the concerned department the refund of the lounge service acquired.
Certain of your trust and understanding, and hoping that we may soon welcome you aboard a pleasant TAP Air Portugal flight.
Kind Regards.
Customer Engagement | Fale Connosco

This is a response to my complaint through the Livro de Reclamacoes (thank you for the suggestion estrela).

It took the livro de reclamacoes complaint and a lot of DMs in Twitter/X before TP would acknowledge the mistake of their agent. The original complaint case got closed on TP's systems without any notice as well.

My suspicion is that TP's mail system never received any of my responses sent to [email protected]

Now let's see if it will take another 3 months for the money to reach my bank account.......

Note: As a comparison, last month I had a EU261 and delayed baggage claim with LO. The entire process was completed in 14 days (delayed baggage claim was sorted in 7 days). It can be done but I think TP tactic is to frustrate and hope the claimant just gives up and never bothers them again.

mmff

They basically bank on the fact that this is likely not worth anyone's time, and in the vast majority of cases people just give up on their legitimate claims. It's quite sad but it is what it is.

estrela

Happy it worked. TP is a special case, even worse than other airlines. A broken airline owned by a corrupt state not caring about its passengers nor citizen. In addition good customer service or admitting a mistake is not at all Portuguese.

smbk83

I would expect this kind of behaviour from the likes of FR, U2, W6, etc, not from a flag carrier. It is the first time I ever encountered any issues with TP (flown many times with them since 2008). It just left a bitter taste after some good flights with them in May.

I really hope the privatisation of TP (whenever it happens) will improve some of those services. It will also depend on how much interference the Portuguese government will make with their stake post-privatisation.

azc333

It has been very eye-opening to read through these posts and see I am not the only one who has had difficulty dealing with TAP. Currently struggling to get EC261 compensation from TAP and finally getting to the point where I have given them all the documentation and bank information they requested. Now they are asking for copies of my ID to release the funds. Is this routine?

estrela

Yes, any tactics to not pay you is TAP routine. At another case they now suddenly write that I was already paid which is not true. My advice: Use a passenger right agency (ideally not the Portuguese ANAC), use the Livre de Reclamacoes and thereafter claim with a claiming agency that will ultimately sue TP.