Flight#: TP238

From: San Francisco (SFO)

To: Lisbon (LIS)

Flight time: 10h 55min

Aircraft: Airbus A330-900neo

This was not the first time I flew TAP Air Portugal across the Atlantic (including a very special “Retrojet experience”!), but, not only it had already been a while, but previous crossings and the corresponding flight report, had been in earlier A330 versions with older cabins.

Neither was this my first flight on a TAP A330-900neo. In fact, TAP Air Portugal was the launch customer of the A330-900 and I had the privilege to be onboard a pre-delivery flight between Toulouse (TLS) and Lisbon (LIS), but that aircraft was still officially in testing, including a large section of the cabin occupied by a flying lab.

So, finally, I had the chance to test TAP Air Portugal’s A330-900neao business class cabin for real and what follows is the flight review!

Disclosure: I paid the economy class fare, the upgrade to business class was courtesy of TAP Air Portugal. Opinions are all my own.

Pre-flight experience

There’s not much to say here, other than the fact that the pre-flight check-in went smoothly (I did in on my computer rather than on-app).

Since I had booked an economy class ticket, the big question was whether there would be any upgrades available for me. Fortunately there was a spot for me at the front of the cabin, so let’s move on to check how it looks like…!

The Cabin

TAP Air Portugal’s A330-900neo business class cabin is fitted with … seats, in a 1-2-1 configuration. All seats are forward-facing and have aisle access.

I kind of liked the light colours, a combination of pale grey hues and light green, which gives the cabin a rather airy atmosphere.

The seats are made by RECARO. The German manufacturer is better known for its economy class products, but it is worth noting that this is actually a superb business class seat. Perhaps to reflect this type of flagship status (this seat equipped, after all, the very first A330neo), the seats are very visibly branded, with the RECARO name.

It has a rigid shell-type cocoon and it fully reclines to full-flat position. I found the command controls rather easy and intuitive to use. The seat also has a solid and spacious personal area on the side, complete with a little cupboard-type compartment.

The only “if” is that, if you are on one of the middle seats, there is no element of separation with the passenger next to you.

Here’s the TAP Air Portugal business class amenity kit:

A pair of solid, good quality headphones
A (sustainably-made) bag with toiletries (eye mask, earplugs, dental kit and soothing cream)
A pair of socks, that are actually nice enough to wear outside the plane too!

Each passenger gets also a bottle of water, a pillow and a blanket.

Here is the view from the seat.

Each business class seat is fitted with a. screen, whose position can be adjusted a little bit.

The tray for the meals is underneath the left side armrest in this case and unfolds from the side.

Note also the position of the hanger for the suit.

Each seat is equipped with USB socket and an in-seat power outlet, in addition to the socket for the headphones.

There is also a small triangular compartment on the right side, right underneath the armerest. I guess its purpose is to keep the mobile phone, but I did not find much use for it, not just because of the rather small dimensions, its position makes it also quite likely I would forget to check it again after arrival.

There is also a thin soft pocket in front, at the bottom of the seat, but it hardly fits anything other than a magazine or well folded newspaper.

Here is how the cabin looks like at night, when the lights are dimmed and most people are focused on their IFE screens. It’s a very long flight ahead!

Food and drink

This is, without any doubt, one of the strongest points of TAP Air Portugal, which I would rank consistently as one of my favourite airlines for food (up there with Turkish Airlines, another carrier that excels on this front).

Let’s see what we got during the long flight between California and Portugal…

First of all, we were served this appetizer: some nuts and a drink (in this case, a glass of port wine).

Here you can get an idea of what is being served. TAP Air Portugal stands out because of its well assorted selection of fine Portuguese wines. It is also quite unique among all airlines in that it offers a selection of the very special Port and Madeira wines onboard).

As you can see, I opted for the salmon for the first and main meal, which was served a couple of hours after departing SFO (the next meal was breakfast about an hour before landing in Lisbon). It turned out to be , an excellent choice (not shown on the pictures, but my seat neighbour ordered the ricotta and mascarpone ravioli and, I must say, looked amazing as well!)

Special mention for the dessert, which was also great: a selection of Portuguese cheeses, with nuts, plus some fruit and ice-cream. All was served together, if you wished, with some Madeira wine.

After this very substantious meal, the lights were dimmed and most of the business class passengers made use of the full-flat bed to get some hours of sleep during the night hours.

The next meal would be breakfast, which didn’t disappoint either!

Voilà! This time it was an assortment of Portuguese cheese and cold cuts, together with a choice of breads and croissants. Some tropical fruit, watermelon and berries and yogurt, plus butter and coffee.

All I can add at this point is that TAP lived up to and even surpassed the expectations on the culinary front!

Inflight entertainment and amenities

TAP Air Portugal has fitted its A330-900neo business class cabin with an inflight entertainment system (IFE) supplied by …

It has a pretty comprehensive content selection, with a good number of movies, series and other content. In line with what it does with its menu and food and drink offering, TAP Air Portugal also uses its IFE platform extensively to promote Portuguese gastronomy and tourism (not for nothing, TAP has a popular Portugal Stopover product!)

Most of the content in the Film and TV sections is pretty standard of what you find in other airlines around the world, but this particular section caught my attention: a series of videos that teach you Portuguese language basics in a series of short and entertaining lessons. I spend quite some time before sleep watching these…I hope to have improved my language skills at least a tiny bit during this flight experience!

Already mentioned in the amenities section, but here is a close look at the noise-cancelling headphones you get on TAP business class.

TAP Air Portugal A330-900neo is also equipped with inflight wifi. This, however, is not free (no, not even for business class!), except for some limited messaging capabilities.

Here you can get an idea of what is on offer and how the different inflight wifi data plans are structured and billed on TAP Air Portugal.

I did connect to the free messaging option to test it, but I must say that the experience was a bit underwhelming, and had a bit of trouble downloading or sending messages. In any case, as you can see from the screen time stamp, there weren’t many people around to message with at the time, so I didn’t really spend much time on this. Better to get back to the Portuguese lessons!

TAP Air Portugal Business Class Lounge in Lisbon

Since, upon arrival in Lisbon, I had an onward connection onto a short haul flight, I was able to use TAP’s Premium Lounge. My understanding is that this is one of two TAP lounges at Lisbon airport. This one is for Schengen flights, while there is another one for passengers departing on long-haul flights.

Two things that I like from TAP’s Premium Lounge: it is light and airy with views of the runways and, in line with the inflight experience, offers a great selection of food and drink, with quite a few specialities and products that are uniquely Portuguese.

In addition to being well assorted with Portuguese wines, the TAP Premium Lounge has also a bar, where you can order all sorts of cocktails and drinks.

And, if you like sweets, and very particularly the delicious “pasteis de nata”, be careful, because you are at risk of seriously overeating before your flight! You have been warned!

Our Take

It was great to see that, several years and a change of management later, TAP Air Portugal continues to provide a superb business class experience.

The best of all? Without doubt: the food and drink component of the experience!

Flight Review: TAP Air Portugal Business Class Airbus A330-900neo