On my way to Faro from Paris, I’m connecting in Lisbon for a short hour before flying to Algarve. The opportunity to enjoy the airport and the lounge a little bit before jumping on a domestic flight.

You will ask me: why take a business class seat on such a short flight? And my answer will also be clear: absolutely no interest unless you are connecting from a longer flight in business and you “inherit” the same travel class for your domestic flight.

Of course, sometimes there can be good surprises and we will see if this is the case with TAP (although if you have read the title of this article you already know what to expect.

Here is the routing of this trip :

And the list of articles dedicated to it:

#1	Type	Review
1	Flight	Paris Orly-Lisbon on TAP in Business Class
2	Flight	Lisbonne-Faro on TAP in business Class
3	Hotel	Pine Cliffs Hotel Ocean Suites – Albufeira
4	Flight	Faro-Lisbon in business on TAP
5	Flight	Lisbon-Paris Orly in business on TAP

Ground experience and boarding

First thing: visit the TAP lounge in Lisbon that I don’t know yet, having only the experience of the nearby ANA lounge that I used when I was traveling with Air France.

I go to the “central plaza” of the terminal around which are located most of the stores and bars/restaurants and from where the gangways start to reach the boarding gates.

My gate has not yet been announced and as is always the case with TAP, the boarding time announced to call people at the gate has nothing to do with the official boarding time. When you’ve been fooled once you learn your lesson quickly.

My stay at the lounge will be short so I won’t do a specific review this time, just a quick presentation in this report.

It is therefore located above the said square, next to the ANA lounge, accessible by escalators.

At the entrance the list of the airlines it hosts, i.e. all the Star Alliance, and an XXL reminder of the health rules in force.

There are several areas to settle down.

First, a “lounge” area with comfortable benches.

On either side of the lounge there are two areas dedicated to catering.

The cold buffet is varied but not very well stocked.

A nice buffet but which seems a bit abandoned.

As for drinks, there is a wide selection of soft drinks in fountains, a nice selection of wine and even a real bar where you can have cocktails prepared.

I’ll settle for the minimum service and I don’t have too much time on my hands.

The lounge is bright and quite pleasant even if the fact that it is in one piece makes it’s a bit noisy. The enthusiasts will appreciate that it overlooks the runways. But considering the number of airlines it hosts and the fact that it is the only TAP lounge in the airport (passengers to non-Schengen countries also go to this lounge before going through police control) makes me fear that it is quickly saturated during rush hour and when the airport is in full operation. As for the catering, even if it is of good quality, it seems to me to be a little light or the buffets are badly kept.

Now it’s time to go to my gate.

It cannot be said that the corridors leading to it are particularly attractive.

The boarding gate itself does not look like much.

As usual, the passengers are made to come too early for a later boarding. But for once the wait is not too long. Bad omen?

I hardly find the badly signaled priority lane because it’s behind the passengers and I rush into…the stairs that lead to a bus.

Re-waiting downstairs for the bus to arrive. Then wait again until it is fully loaded.

After a long walk we arrive at the foot of the plane…but this one is not ready therefore we wait. I take the opportunity to take a picture of the neighboring DHL with its sinister registration.

We are finally invited to disembark and then to stop ten meters further on. False alarm, the plane is still not ready. But it allows me to make beautiful pictures.

After 2 minutes we can finally board the aircraft. I have the impression that boarding management is not an area that TAP is working or trying to optimize…

The business class cabin of the TAP’s A320

There are the same Recaro seats as on the A321 Neo that brought me here.

The appearance is pleasing and the legroom is sufficient.

Unlike my Paris-Lisbon flight, the separation curtains are not in place between the economy and business cabins.

On such a short flight I won’t feel the hardness of the seat as much as on my flight from Paris;

Apparently bus boarding is a national sport here. As much I understand in peak season but in the middle of February I have trouble, unless Lisbon is really limited in the number of gates available.

No more grumbling, we are finally ready to leave.

There will be four business rows on this flight, so one more than on the Paris-Lisbon…and it will be full. In my opinion we are all connecting and no one has Lisbon as a departure point.

The flight and the service

At least we leave on time but I don’t remember being as exhausted by boarding as I am todayafter the painful one in Paris a few hours earlier.

After a short taxiing we line up on the runway to take off.

Goodbye Lisbon…

The flight being short the service starts quickly. We have the choice between water and orange juice. Not even a little cookie to nibble. When I told you that there was no reason to pay a business class fare on this route unless you were connecting from another business class flight…or you absolutely wanted to pay full price to travel without a neighbor.

I note that the partition curtain is closed but only at the level of the corridor…not at the level of the seats. Weird.

I still appreciate this tablet holder that allows me to watch my series comfortably.

It’s beautiful outside…

Hardly time to rest, we begin the descent.

Landing and arrival in Faro

The coasts of Algarve are emerging below us. We will make a loop over the Atlantic before coming to align on the airport.

This is all I will see of Faro, my final destination being Albufeira.

The disembarking is fast and I say goodbye to our little bird.

The waiting time for the luggage will be reasonable and I can quickly leave the airport to order an Uber.

The crew and the service

What to say? My glass of water was served to me with a smile.

Conclusion

The business class is not justified on such a short flight where it would have been difficult to serve another type of service…although on Turkish Airlines you have hot meals on an Istanbul Izmir flight of barely 40 minutes. And in economy class too!

In short, it is just used to transport connecting passengers, thinking that they will not be too demanding on the product because it is a “minor” flight in their itinerary.

However, I think that TAP could do a little better in terms of in-flight service. And improve its boardings.