TAP Portugal is Western Europe’s Star Alliance carrier that serves many of it’s Western European destinations including an interesting route network through North Africa and Eastern North America. While it only offers a single lounge in the TAP network at its home base of Lisbon, Portugal, we would get an opportunity to test it out while departing Lisbon, Portugal.

---

This post is one chapter on our trip to Portugal, the United Kingdom (England and Norther Ireland) and Ireland. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines Advantage and enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

---

---

Review: TAP Portugal Premium Business Lounge, Lisbon Humberto Delgato International Airport Terminal One, Portugal

We had a 4 AM wake up for our departure from the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel and Spa. Since the metro was not yet open on a Sunday morning at this hour, we had to rely on alternate transportation to the airport.

Surprisingly, there was both Uber Black, Uber XL and Uber X all available at 4:45 AM on a Sunday morning when we rolled through the lobby leaving the Sheraton. We got an Uber Black with hotel wifi that worked all the way out to the street. A nice BMW 5 Series touring came to collect us within 5 minutes for the trip to the airport which only took about 15 minutes.

Checking Into TAP Portugal Business Class:

It was a bit of a confusing mess checking in to our TAP Portugal Lisbon – London Heathrow flight. I tried to get a little advance knowledge by locating a map but the airport website was not very helpful in terms of maps and didn’t have much useful information. The Lisboa airport is a pretty dated experience. The experience involves a whole host of twists and turns across split levels and traffic crossing each other. They have expanded it but only on the departure side leaving an older congested front portion. This was not to mention that the airport was pretty busy on a Sunday morning, with lots of leisure travellers camped out or just wandering around.

We located the TAP Portugal premium check in area and dropped our bags. On request, I got instructions to the lounge. We headed for the fast track zone, which was included with our business class ticket. While it was signed, it was not super well managed as the queue was immediately adjacent to the children and family check in line which was a bit chaotic.

Locating the TAP Portugal Premium Lounge:

After passing through security, we located the main holding area. The TAP Premium Lounge was located next to the contract ZNZ lounge in the first Shengen area of the airport. It’s worthwhile noting that there is only one TAP Premium Lounge, and that there is not an additional lounge for international travellers in some other area of the airport.

The Humberto Delgato International Airport won’t ever win the award for the most inspirational terminal, but at least it was functional.

We took the escalators upstairs from the duty free and retail zone. While we arrived at 6 AM, it was pretty quiet but it got full quite quickly. I would imagine that the place would be full quite a bit of the day as it was medium sized and not all to spacious.

Accessing the TAP Premium Lounge:

The TAP Premium Lounge is accessible through a variety of means:

It is available on a complimentary basis to those flying in Executive Business Class on TAP Portugal.

It is available on a complimentary basis to members of the programs TAP Miles & Go Silver, TAP Miles & Go Gold or Star Alliance Gold.

It is also available on a complimentary basis to select credit cards including the TAP Corporate Top or TAP Platinum Visa.

We were granted access today courtesy of the class of ticket on our TAP Portugal Business Class Lisbon – London Heathrow ticket.

Inside the TAP Premium Lounge:

Our first impressions of the lounge were that it was average for an international departures lounge. I’m not sure what they have going on with the “Kermit the Frog” green décor and it didn’t particularly resonate with me compared to other like spaces. Perhaps it looks better in the daylight?

In terms of space, the lounge offered a much smaller foot print compared to the nearby Iberia International Business Class Lounge Madrid Barajas in Terminal 4S; it’s primary One World Alliance competitor. TAP Portugal offers a much smaller footprint and space by way of comparison and it is clear that TAP Portugal is a much smaller carrier, despite serving some of the same routes as Iberia. If you’ve visited both places, it’s hard to be impressed by the smaller TAP Portugal Premium Lounge when the other nearby space is so much more spectacular.

Inside the TAP Portugal Premium Lounge, there were a wide variety of magazines available. Unfortunately, they were all Portugese and I couldn’t read any of them.

We plunked ourselves down by the glass and hooked up to the wifi. The wifi was fast and strong and got top marks for speed and connectivity.

Food and Beverage:

A Serviced Bar:

The lounge featured a serviced bar. Although it was manned at this hour and open for business, it wasn’t too busy. There were not many drinkers needing a drink at 5:00 AM. The lounge didn’t appear to have many exotic mixed drinks and simply offered a bartender for service of the drinks.

Light Food Bites:

The lounge was offering food in the morning. The food wasn’t all to appealing as it was quite cafeteria styled in terms of its presentation. The food was primarily cold offerings for the morning service with cold cuts for breakfast. Having said that, it was tasty and there was nothing wrong with it.

We stocked up on a breakfast snack prior to departing on our TAP Portugal Business Class Lisbon – London Heathrow flight.

The Bottom Line: TAP Premium Lounge

It’s always interesting to see the flagship lounge of any carrier and the TAP Portugal Lounge was no exception. The main feature going for this lounge is the nice looking avant gardist furniture. Having said that, it’s not really a place I would strive to get here early to hang out in. When you compare this place to it’s nearby competitor, the International Iberia Terminal 4S Business Lounge in Madrid, the Iberia Lounge has this place beat miles down. While it’s practical and sufficient for anyone’s needs, this place sadly won’t be remembered as a top experience in anyone’s traveler’s history.

---

If you have visited the TAP Premium Lounge in Lisbon, did you find this to be an aspirational place to visit or a worthy of an international business lounge ?

---