Cancel a flight - TAP Portugal

TR;DR: call 707 205 700, option 2, option 5, option 6.

Sometimes your visit has to be extended a little longer. If you are like me, you know that you don't have to let the airline know that you are not going to turn up because you have bough the cheapest ticket and they are going to charge you more to change it than book a new one. (Also they aren't set up for it, so it will take you hours, or they are and it is just another revenue stream for them.)

I feel it is polite, (and sometimes they will refund you airport "taxes".

I like doing things online.

Amongst other things I write scripts. One that I wrote a long time ago was one to check a website for broken links. It isn't 100% effective with modern javascript driven sites, but it is still useful. Since I wrote that, others have written better pieces of code, and have given them away for free. So when I click on:
http://www.tapportugal.com/Info/en/Other/ContactUs (on page
http://www.flytap.com/Portugal/en/PlanBook/PrepareforTravel/TicketInfo )

and end up at:

http://www.tapportugal.com/Info/en/PageNotFound

it does feel both funny and unprofessional. Never fear, there is a search box:

http://www.flytap.com/Portugal/en/search?searchBox=cancel gave a blank page. (An hour later it worked and just gave me one link... I'll let you guess which one.)

I found another section of their website called, "Manage Your Booking". It wanted booking ref and last name... and then took me to, without warning nextgen.checkmytrip.com I don't know about you, but that smells of fishing. I could just imagine someone adding my name to a forged passport and lining up for my flights.

After a while I tracked down the correct page: TAP Contact page. If you want to call locally in the Algarve then call 707 205 700 and option 2 for reservations. I then pressed 5 and got put into a queue with music and occasional messages in Portuguese. Eventually it asked me to select some options in Portuguese and running my dice.c program turned up 6, so I pressed that. I had another short hold and was put through to a charming woman who spoke English from the start. She was able to deal with my enquiry once I gave her my booking reference. She was quick and efficient and spoke with a delightfully clear voice with a beautiful hint of an accent, (but it would not be an obstacle to anyone calling.)

(Or if you are into that sort of thing, Skype: tap.contact.center - but I've not tried that yet.)

 

Sunday Shopping - São Brás de Alportel

Being used to France, (where nothing useful seems to be open on Sunday) it was a nice surprise to find a quaint supermecardos localis (I didn't remember the name of the shop) open and well stocked. [Google maps say that it is at 29 Avenu da Liberdade - and finding it I felt the liberty! ] I wanted rolled-oats, (to make porridge for tomorrows breakfast) and items to make sandwiches for lunch. Everything was where an international visitor would expect except that the oats, (Aveia) were only in the organic section, (you know that area where all the boxes are predominantly white or green and twice the price.) The bag marked "Flocos de Aveia" were the most reasonable price that I could imagine, so I took two bags. I wanted to tell the woman at the checkout how grateful I was that she was working on a Sunday, but my language skills don't go that far. I limited myself to a very English " 'brigad' " swallowing the start of the word, (as the locals do) and swallowing the end of the word, (to hide my ignorance between obrigada and obrigado

I saw that the large, and functional Lidl food warehouse was open, and though it always have a soul-less feel to it, I went in and found some excellent yoghurt.

I had set out for Intermarché, (<37.152643, -7.876952>  on Google Maps) but had forgotten where it was. I was approaching São Brás de Alportel from the direction of Vilarinhos along the "new road", the N270. I knew that Intermarché was near one of the roundabouts, but I had forgotten that there are actually four of them. The one you want has one of those lovely old well contraptions on the middle of the roundabout, (I suspect that it was moved there as a decoration, but it looks so authentic to my eyes that I can almost see the ghost of the donkey walking round and round, powering the simple-but-effective rusty pump machinery.)