November 2018 Lisbon to Toronto TAP Portugal

November 2018 Geneva to Toronto TAP Portugal

Once in the terminal at Lisbon I made my way to the central area to visit TAP Portugal’s lounge before my flight back to Toronto.

TAP Portugal Lounge

Details on the layout and configuration of the lounge was shared in an earlier post. I spent my time in the lounge by the windows watching the aircraft while I did a bit of work.

It wasn’t all work, I did grab a drink and a snack before leaving the lounge.

From the lounge, it was a stop at passport control before continuing into the non-Schengen gates where my flight departed. The non-Schengen area has a few stores, including one that was dedicated to sardines!

I arrived early and had time to walk around the area and snap a few pictures.

Soon enough there was a supplemental passport check before entering the gate area for my flight. Boarding started 5 minutes after its scheduled time, however boarding progressed orderly and I was onboard quickly enough.

Flight

TP259, Airbus 330-200
Lisbon to Toronto (LIS-YYZ)
Scheduled departure: 5:30pm
Scheduled arrival: 8:30pm
Seat: 3A

Upon boarding and turning left, I was on a former Singapore Airlines plane. I found the seats and layout to be better than the prior A330 TAP used. Even though the storage spots were small, there was the ability to store items at my seat.

A330 TAP Business Class seat
Storage below video screen
Water bottle and brochure storage
Crew rest area for rows 4-5
Centre overhead bins
Additional storage between seats
Wired remote
Lift up for seat controls
Seat controls
Power, headphone outlets between seats
Amenity kit and headphones

As I settled in I was offered a drink I gladly accepted.

Up until the end of boarding there was no person beside me. I was looking forward to the pleasure of not having to hop over a passenger whenever I would have get out of my seat. This was not the case as one of the last passengers on the plane was my seatmate. The passenger was an employee, or a relative as they spent the first hour of the flight elsewhere on the plane presumably visiting with fellow coworkers.

Pre-selected Meal option

For flights leaving from Lisbon, TAP Portugal offers the ability to pre-select your meal. I went online to see my options. I couldn’t decide so I went with whatever was available from catering.

Pre-selected hot meal

Pre-selected hot meal options

The menu onboard is below (gallery):

Pushback was on time, and after a 5 minute taxi we were taking off from the same runway I arrived on earlier in the day. During that short time the twilight quickly faded and night fell on Lisbon as we flew overhead.

Once we cleared the clouds there was some sun, however the sun did set shortly after getting this picture.

The meal started with a drink (I had Coca-Cola to start) and canapés.

This was then followed by the salmon and soup.

Then it was time for the main course. I had the pasta.

Just like every other flight, bread was offered at a higher frequency than other flights I have taken in recent memory.

After the main course I had the Cookies and Cream Ice Cream.

I spent the rest of the flight watching movies, changing to the inflight map to check on the flight’s progress. With Portugal being at the western edge of Europe this was one of my shortest transatlantic flights. Approximately 90 minutes before landing a snack was served. As my body thought it was the middle of the night, this light snack was appreciated.