[starfish]

Earlier this year I wanted to fly from Toulouse to Lisbon and further onwards, so two months earlier I had purchased a ticket online from TAP Portuguese airline and printed out my "confirmed" online ticket.

At the airport, they told me my ticket had been cancelled, and I had to buy a new one almost 150 EUR more expensive if I wanted to fly. My complaints did not help, and I had no choice because I had to go, so I paid. The lady at the check-in said the same has happened to many TAP passengers before.

Later, after further complaint, they told me they had a flaw in their booking system and had lost part of my credit card data. They had sent me an email (that has never reached me though), telling I had to send my data within 3 days or my ticket would be cancelled. They had never tried to contact me in other ways.

I think this is highly illegal. Not only that I had a confirmed reservation in my hands, TAP had no reason to assume I wanted my ticket to be cancelled. Of course I wanted to pay for my online ticket, but 3 days to reply is too little anyways. I suspect TAP just found a way to make some extra money.

I will never fly with TAP again, of course, and can only recommend everyone to stay away from their online booking system.

Has anyone experienced something similar, with TAP or any other airline? Because the check-in lady said there had been many such cases, I'm hopeful to find people who had the same problem.