[alcaro]

I was travelling with my 74 years old father from Bissau (Guinea-Bissau) to Milan (Italy) via Lisbon and Porto. The first flight from Bissau to Lisbon was delayed, and as a consequence we missed the connecting flight to Oporto and Milan. A series of inexcusable accidents happened as a consequence, here is the list:
- nobody from TAP met us at the gate after landing to give us assistance with the transfer
- at the gate for flight TAP 1952 (already closed when we got there) we were told to go to the passengers assistance desk.
at the desk
- I immediately highlighted that my father was sick and weak and already suffered from diabetes, therefore we needed assistance to go to the other terminal and find a comfortable place where my father could rest .
NONE OF THESE SIMPLE THINGS WAS DONE FOR US. I had to do everything on my own, while also attending to my sick father. We were simply told, by an extremely unpleasant lady, to wait for almost 5 hours.
After few minutes my father had further weakened and collapsed while queuing for the check-in of the new flight. We called the emergency service of the airport, who confirmed that my fathers suffered from dehydration from the intestinal infection, fatigue and stress from the difficult and long journey, all aggravated by existing diabetes. A SIMPLE HELP FROM TAP GROUND STAFF COULD HAVE AVOIDED THE WORSENING OF MY FATHER?S CONDITION, AND HIS COLLAPSE
After my father recovered a bit, I finished the check-in without assistance. I had to leave my father alone after his collapse.
Eventually we found a place to rest and my father recovered. We made it to Italy, but not thanks to the staff at TAP.
All this is unacceptable. Most of your ground staff proved to be incompetent, uncooperative, unhelpful and, most importantly, unwilling to assist an elderly person in evident need. My father could have suffered a far more serious collapse if it were not for the assistance of the airport’s emergency doctors. ALL THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED BY GIVING A BIT OF ASSISTANCE WHEN WE ASKED FOR IT.
This is the last of many problems with TAP. In the last year on the same route: I was charged twice on my credit card, my luggage was delayed 3 days, a flight was cancelled, a flight was diverted to Dakar and we arrived 24 hours late. Not to mention the high cost of this tickets (TAP has the monopoly of the route and they ask ridiculous prices)