Looking to save $$ on a premium summer flight to Italy, I can save $300 flying CMH-EWR-LIS-VCE and FCO-LIS-EWR-CMH. I don't care about leg room, I am 5'4, but couldn't abide broken seats or uncomfortable. Can bring my own food, if necessary. What is important is decent seats, on time ground service, friendly crew, etc. Anyone have positive or negative experiences to share? I would prefer to spend the extra $$ sightseeing in italy than on air transportation. Any other suggestions? Found this on Kayak.

I did 2-3 times many years ago and it was a nightmare. Have not flown them since. Know this is not much help, but you can try flyers forum
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/index.php

Avoid TAP at all costs – family members and I have traveled with TAP and without exception – always horrible and we ended up spending a lot more than we thought we were saving. It's a complete nightmare, poor costumer service and horrendous delays. The company never takes responsibility for anything. AVOID.

I only flew them once, and I can say that I had no problems.

Hope you have a great trip, regardless on who you pick to travel with.

Well interesting to see some things never change. I flew with them years ago and that once was enough for me. Bathrooms were not functioning, food was non existant on 12 hour flight what fun!

Luckily, OP has probably long gone and come since she asked in 2010.

So many years ago that it isn't relevant, I was told that TAP stood for "Take Another Plane".

We flew TAP twice in March. Once from LHR to LIS and once from OPO to EWK.

The steerage seats are slender and little legroom. The cabin attendants were outstanding. The food was better than average airline food.

In OPO it was cattle car boarding which actually was MUCH faster than the area boarding used in the USA. I have absolutely no complaints about the airline or their service.