Nick Walton travels on Portuguese national carrier TAP Portugal on a flight between Porto and Amsterdam and finds an airline that clearly doesn’t take its short-haul business class product seriously. 

Background

TAP Portugal is a Skytrax three-star airline based in Lisbon and serving 76 destinations in 29 countries. The airline is part of the Star Alliance.

Check-in/The Lounge

After a quick check-in process at Porto’s modern little airport, I made my way through to the ANA Lounge, a secluded and refined 400sqm space on a mezzanine level above the main concourse. The lounge boasts various seating arrangements, including ‘outdoor’ seating on an indoor terrace, a full bar and a great range of snacks and magazines.

Boarding

Despite a declared boarding time of 12.50 pm it wasn’t until 1.10 that boarding commenced onto a rather weathered Airbus A319. Crew at the door of the aircraft were far too busy chatting to notice arriving passengers, but the boarding process was fairly quick and painless. We departed the gate at 1.37 pm for an eventual take-off of 1.50pm. There’s no mention made of the delayed departure.

The snackbar at the ANA Lounge

The Seat

Like many European airlines with extensive regional networks, TAP Portugal offers a business class product that’s essentially economy but with a guaranteed seat in between each passenger. However, with armrests that don’t budge, you can’t really use the additional space offered. My seat, 2F, in the airline’s Executive Class, was still covered in crumbs from the previous passenger and at 18.8-inches (compared to 18-inches in economy) wide in a 3-3 configuration it’s no big leap up from economy, which was only half full. The seat does not feature any inflight entertainment options. TAP Portugal does not allow the use of Bluetooth in flight and after complaints a crew member apologizes and advises guests they should comment on the TAP website.

Executive Class seating on the A319

Service

Again, there’s very little here to rationalize opting for business class on a short-haul TAP Portugal flight, even with their seat bidding offer, which came through 24 hours before my flight and offered the upgrade for €75 (US$83). There is literally no pre-flight service – not a smile, not a wet wipe – so it’s not entirely surprising that there is only two people in the huge 48-seat (32 passenger) Executive Class cabin.

Crew finally emerge from the galley and began lunch service an hour into a two-hour 45-minute flight. They offered a pre-lunch drink – in my case a local Sagres beer – and a packet of nuts. While service was friendly enough you were never allowed to forget that this was a ‘business class lite’ offering.

Local Sagres beer is a highlight of the dining experience

Dining

Lunch consisted of an appetizer of smoked cod with a green salad. This was followed by the choice of seafood fusilli with dried tomatoes and rocket; or partridge with Marchand de Vin sauce, mashed potatoes and asparagus. The partridge resembled something that had exploded in the microwave but was a nice touch of local comfort food. For dessert, we were offered Abade de Priscos pudding, which I declined, opting instead for another beer.

Summary

We arrived in Amsterdam 35 minutes behind schedule at the end of an uneventful and utterly forgettable experience.

TAP Portugal Amsterdam to Porto return in Executive Class from €253 (US$280).

The author travelled on a fully paid business class ticket without the airline’s knowledge.

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