Indemnización por vuelo cancelado de TAP Air Portugal

TAP cancellations: what is specific

TAP’s notice is the e-mail or app message announcing the cancellation and offering a refund or a rebooking; its timestamp decides the 14-day rule. Schedule changes announced weeks ahead carry no compensation, but you still choose between a refund and re-routing.

For long-haul cancellations TAP usually rebooks via Lisbon on its next flight — often the next day. If the re-routing arrives more than 4 hours after your original schedule, the full €600 is due; under 4 hours, TAP may halve it to €300. Hotel and meals while you wait are owed in addition (Article 9), whatever the cause.

The three questions that decide a TAP Air Portugal cancellation claim

1. When did TAP Air Portugal tell you? Informed 14 days or more before departure: no compensation, but a refund or re-routing and care. Less than 14 days: compensation is due unless a replacement flight met the windows below or the cause was extraordinary. TAP Air Portugal must prove when and how it informed you — keep its cancellation e-mail or app notification with the timestamp.
2. What replacement did TAP Air Portugal offer? Between 7 and 14 days’ notice, no compensation if the re-routing departed no more than 2 hours early and arrived less than 4 hours late; under 7 days’ notice the margins shrink to 1 hour early and 2 hours late.
3. Why was it cancelled? Weather, air-traffic-control restrictions, security and external strikes are extraordinary; TAP Air Portugal’s technical problems, crew shortages, rotation planning and its own staff’s strikes are not.

What you always get, whatever the reason

Compensation may depend on the cause, but three rights never do. TAP Air Portugal must offer you the choice between a full refund of the unused ticket (within 7 days, in cash or bank transfer — a voucher only with your agreement) and re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or on a later date of your choice. While you wait for the re-routing TAP Air Portugal must provide meals, refreshments, two calls or e-mails and, when an overnight stay becomes necessary, a hotel and transport to it. If it leaves you to arrange this yourself, keep receipts and claim the reasonable amounts.

How much TAP Air Portugal owes when compensation is due

€250, €400 or €600 per passenger under EU261, set by the distance of the flight (or of the whole journey on one booking). TAP Air Portugal may halve the long-haul amount to €300 when the replacement flight it offered arrived within the reduction windows (2 hours late for short flights, 3 hours for medium, 4 hours for long).

How to claim a cancellation from TAP Air Portugal

1. Keep the cancellation notice, the original booking and the details of any replacement flight offered (departure and arrival times).
2. Ask TAP Air Portugal in writing for the reason for the cancellation.
3. Submit the claim through TAP Air Portugal’s official channel (https://www.flytap.com/en-pt/customer-support), stating the notice date, the replacement offered (or not) and the amount per passenger.
4. If TAP Air Portugal refuses or stalls for 8 weeks, escalate to ANAC (Portugal NEB), then to the courts within the limitation period of the departure country.