Choice Air / TAP Air Warning

[Binbrooklady]

My DH and I booked our flights from Toronto to Lisbon on Oct. 31 and from Lisbon to Barcelona on Nov. 5 on Choice Air with TAP air. We were able to upgrade our seats on the first flight to Business Class with TAP. The second flight was only 1 hour and 20 minutes so we did not bother. The day before the 2nd flight I received an email saying we were automatically checked in so when we got to the Lisbon airport at 4:30 AM, all we had to do was get luggage tags for our 2 pieces of luggage. We were shocked to discover that each piece of luggage was going to cost us 102 E so $300 Cdn! I felt certain this was an error so went to TAP Customer Service. I was rudely informed that our seats were “discount”, the very lowest category and we should have been advised this by Choice Air when booking. We were not aware that this even existed. Both our confirmation from Choice Air and our confirmation from TAP indicate ‘Economy”.  On the TAP website, it says baggage is free except for “discount” but our confirmations only showed “economy”.

 So, lesson learned and warning to others.

 

[rhblake]

I am sure you were surprised but before you purchased the TAP tickets did you go to the TAP website? If you had you would have noticed that TAP Economy is comprised of 4 different sub-categories, the lowest being "Discount" which provides nothing but a seat. I am not sure how you would know that when purchasing through Choice Air, but you probably could have again gone to the TAP website and found out.

Edited November 7, 2019 by rhblake

[waterbug123]

Another downside of purchasing air through the cruise line....you really can't be sure what kind of ticket you are getting.  Sorry you had such an unpleasant surprise.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

the meaning of Economy on all the airlines changed  , when  airlines started to charge for bags on overseas flights 

you cannot Assume anything anymore , always ask questions 

TAP was charging for bags in 2017 when we used them from Toronto to Barcelona 

 

[Solution]

Every time you break a journey, it is no longer part of the rules from the first leg. So it is valid that your continue journey is subject to baggage fee. If you don't have the stopover, then the bags will be checked all the way to Barcelona, and no extra charge is expected because of the first leg is Business Class.

 

Yes, every airline has different meaning on the economy tiers. Some call the lowest Basic, some call it Standard. It is not who issues the tickets, it is who flies you there. 

[wahlct]

We recently booked a flight through Choice Air on Delta.  Delta has basic economy which sounds like this discount class.  We called CA and asked which class we were getting.  They stated that it was standard economy, as they never book basic economy.  After the purchase, I verified through Delta and we are in regular economy.  Sounds like they are doing something different with TAP.

 

[neilrr]

I will throw in my 2 1/2 cents...😊  We are going to Iceland in July and we have used Celebrity Air before. There are two benefits of booking through Celebrity.  One is that you can wait to pay until final payment and can change flights before final payment; the other is Celebrity Insurance covers you from when you leave home until you return on their air.

 

Now with that said --the staff at Celebrity were very helpful, but my problem is with the Celebrity Air (CA) system itself. It is not a "Live" system and the prices they are showing on-line were not what the airline is showing.  It was $500 - $1000 more when they gave me a "Live" quote.  Ultimately, after much work with CA we finally nailed down a RT fare to Dublin from Palm Beach for $908 PP which was good (in Main cabin, but you can use miles to upgrade this fare - once final payment is made). The flight are fine, but the CA system showed a flight we really preferred at approx. $800 PP RT, but Delta was showing it at $1,300 PP on the "live system.

 

I was also told Celebrity Air does not use the lower tiers of Economy only Main Cabin and above. As someone previously mentioned, when you start dealing with foreign airlines in the mix -- it gets even crazier as their idea of Economy could be far different.

 

Also, a word about the Lisbon airport, as we have been through there many times -- First - Everyone goes through customs there even if you are making a connection;  second - the lines are set up like Disney and can be 18 lines around;  third - they do not have a PA system and yell at people with a little PA horn to get people through customs and onto their flight. Give yourself enough time to avoid stress... 

 

Happy Travels...🍸 

Edited November 7, 2019 by neilrr

[mchell810]

12 hours ago, wahlct said:

We recently booked a flight through Choice Air on Delta.  Delta has basic economy which sounds like this discount class.  We called CA and asked which class we were getting.  They stated that it was standard economy, as they never book basic economy.  After the purchase, I verified through Delta and we are in regular economy.  Sounds like they are doing something different with TAP.

 

 

Good to know.  I was in a similar situation last year, but decided not to book with Choice Air since the terminology between them and Delta was different.  The $50 per seat I was going to save just wasn't worth the fear that I wouldn't be able to select my seats.  I will be looking for flights soon, hoping for savings on long international flights; so this makes me feel better about using Choice Air.