Review of TAP Air Portugal flight Vienna → Lisbon in Economy

Hello and welcome to my report of a TAP Portugal flight from Vienna to Lisbon. This is the outbound flight of my two week-long journey to Portugal.
About a year ago, a Taxi driver in New York told me he was from Portugal. When I asked him how he flew there to visit his family, he answered that he takes TAP Portugal, as they offer the cheepest flights available to this destination. He also had an explenation for the meaning of TAP's name: Take Another Plane. I hope he was joking, but still wanted to try them out by myself, also because they offered a flight on an A330-200, interestingly my first ever flight on this aircraft type, after flying on so many other wide-body jets.

Itinerary

11.8.2017 / VIE-LIS / TAP Portugal / TP1273 / A330-200 / Economy ~ You are here

26.8.2017 / LIS-VIE / TAP Portugal / TP1274 / A330-200 / Economy ~ Click here

City Airport Train

I took CAT City Airport Train from the city center to Vienna International Airport. The journey takes 16 minutes and costs 11€ for an adult. It is rather expensive, but comes with free city-check-in for some airlines, including TAP Portugal, whereby you can check-in your luggage directly in the city center, without having to wait in the long queues at the Airport.

On board the train.

Vienna International Airport

After 16 minutes we arrived at the airport on time. As I already had my luggage checked-in I went directly to security.

Unfortunately, Austrian Airlines/Star Alliance has now made a part of the check-in area accessible only for business/first/Star Alliance Gold passengers, forcing all other passengers wanting to go directly to security to walk around this area.

Security.
As my gate for this flight was F11 I went to the SKY Lounge (Schengen) for F and G Gate passengers. The entry to this lounge is free with some credit cards or available for a fee of 29,90€.

The interior. This time the lounge was quite full and there were a lot of rather noisy children around.

A seperate computer room is available.

A large selection of snacks, cakes, cold meals and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) including various kinds of coffee, tea, softdrinks and beer was available.

Normally there also is one warm meal and a few soups, but these were only available after 17 o'clock.

As I had some time I waited for the warm meal, which was vegetable lentils with dumplings. It was quite good. Before I left the lounge I visited the toilet. Interestingly, a large pillar was in front of the men's toilets. Must be a mistake in building. The toilets, however, are modern and clean.

My flight on the FIDS.

At 17:50 (CEST), scheduled boarding time I left the lounge and walked to gate F11. Boarding had not jet begun but there was already a large queue.

Our aircraft today, an A330-200.

The Flight

Aircraft: A330-200
Age: about 18 years
Registration: CS-TOE
Airline: TAP Portugal
Flight Number: TP1273
Seat: 15J
Load: almost 100%

Boarding started at 18:05 (Central European Summer Time (CEST)). It did not really follow groups. I waited until the queue got smaller and then also boarded through the automatic gates.

My seat, 15J.

The seat featured a VERY small entertainment screen with bad resolution. Until the seatbelt-sign was turned off the screen only displayed commercials as well as the safety video.

Remote control for the screen, which did not have a touch screen. On today's flight, the remote control turned out to be useless.

Buttons for recline and to adjust the hardness of the seat cushion, a feature I see for the first time in economy.

Overhead panel.

Outside view.

Movable headrest.

Legroom is very good. The seat also features a footrest.

Cabin view. My overall impression of the cabin was that it appears rather dated, but the seat also has some features you do not see that often in economy.

At 18:30 (CEST), boarding was completed and the retro-style safety video was played.

Taxiing.

Taking off on runway 11/29 at 18:58 (CEST), 38 minutes late.

At 19:22 (CEST), the seatbelt-sign was switched off. A few minutes later, the safety video was accidentally started again. Afterwards, the IFE was switched on but the only available programm throughout the entire flight was the moving map. However, TAP Portugal offers a lot of international E-Papers in different languages to download on it's app prior to departure.

Seat pocket content.

Safety card.

Seat information.

Magazine.

Duty-free information.

Headphones.

At 19:40 (CEST), meal service started. Available was a selection of beverages as well as a snack box. I chose black tea and water. This was served along with a ham and cheese sandwich and a mango or apple juice in a small box. Everything tasted good, though the sandwich tasted of nothing in particular.

After the meal service I went to the front lavatory, which normally is reserved for business class passengers but was opened for economy as well.

At 20:27 (Western European Standard Time (WEST)), we began our descend to Lisbon.

At 20:58 (WEST) we landed, more or less on time.

Disembarking.

Lisbon Airport

We first went through a jetbridge, then walked down stairs and entered a bus. The bus first drove to the terminal, then turned and drove almost back to our aircraft until turning again and driving to the terminal. The walk to the baggage claim was rather long. Our luggage arrived at band 10. Then I had to wait a solid 40 MINUTES for my baggage to arrive.

After collecting my luggage I was picked up from the airport by car.

Bonus

Thank you for reading, do not hesitate to leave a comment!