$510 from NYC / $570 from LAX through 6/15 on Varig not counting taxes for M-Th travel. Slightly higher on weekends. From LAX you can go nonstop to Sao Paulo. If you are going on to Rio, the flight contiues to GIG. These are decect fairs, and are almost $200 lower then anything on travelocity.

There are also flights from Miami for $530.

Go to http://www.varigbrasil.com/english/ and look at "Internet Specials" for these fares.

Those are much better fares than the rest of the airlines are offering. Maybe the rest will follow suite soon otherwise I'm going to Brazil on Varig. I can't remember (it was either Varig or TAM) but a friend mentioned that they have hot stewardesses. Thanks.

Just got my confirmation back from Varig to Sao Paulo leaving 4/5, and return 4/13. With taxes total was $718. This is also the fastest way to Brazil from LAX by several hours over American and United.

Price is comparable to orbitz and hotdeal on AA.
When I bought my ticket the other day, prices were varying every 15 min, appearing and disappearing. You have to check prices every day and be ready to buy immediately when seeing good opportunities.
BTW I have never seen any good deal on travelocity.
I go on AA to accumulate mileage but LAX-Brazil direct is the best if you don't care about mileage.

Accumulate United miles on Varig. In South America, you can take a round trip anywhere Varig flies for 25,000 United miles.

On prior trips I have gone to Lima, and then flown to Sao Paulo & back to Lima for 25,000 miles. Also, used 25,000 United miles once to go to Buenos Aires from Rio round trip on Varig.

TransBrazil used have a South Am pass, I wonder..

Varig has a pass for flying around Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uraguay, but it does not look like a very good deal to me.

How much from Rio to Belo Horizonte? RT...

GOL Airlines is the new low cost carrier inside Brazil. Check their web site at http://www.voegol.com.br/index_ie.asp

I recently had reservations from GIG to GRU on them. Their prices were about 1/2 of TAM or Varig.

By the way, you can get a login on TAM, and make reservations on their site, and get credit on American. On Varig you can get credit with United. GOL seems to be an all Portuguese site, but you can check schedules, and prices (you have to know how to conver Reals to Dollars).

If needed, and I provide referals to an honest travel agent in Sao Paulo that can make reservations of GOL.

Canonperdido- Thanks good tip...looks like BH is a must side trip in late March.

Layne: why the interest in Belo?
email me at bendejo@mailcity.com

Last year I was able to get cheap tickets to Rio by just watching (actually I have 2 of my friends - R66 & Gitano watch for me) the sales that Continental and American had. This year I'm beginning to wonder if maybe consolidators or some other way might yield cheaper tickets. Neither Continental or American has particularly cheap fares right now. Any experience or thoughts regarding good cheap ways to get to Rio this year?

I think Expedia, Orbitz etc. have mechanisms to
track certain markets for you. I've noticed
that fares US-EU are high for last week march / 1st Apr because of Passover/GoodFriday etc.

Memorial day weekend should see a drop at least in the South Am. markets

I'm waiting for Memorial Day prices to Rio to happen. Prices still sucks. Last year there were fare for $600; this year they are still lingering around $1000 from my home town.

YT,
You should be able to get a fare from the West Coast for $698 incl. tax from www.brol.com. I'm tentatively leaving from the east coast on the 28th of May.

Thanks Stayaway. I live in Austin, Tx but those prices from Dallas look great. I'm going send them some email & see what they have available.

I checked with brol.com and they did have a good price ($699 from Austin). I endup up booking with an agency that Wilco told me about (The agency is Intra-National tours and can be reached at 800.334.8069). I couldn't get miles via brol.com but that still is a very good price. Thanks Stayaway. Looks like I'll just miss ya; I'll be there the week before you.

Varig has just posted their summer peak time internet specials.

Thanks Cuba. Finally some good airfares. Prices from NYC is $520 roundtrip & $312 if you decide that you just want to stay in Rio for life.

How do you get a ticket from NYC to Rio for $520? Orbitz shows $800. That's the lowest I have found.
Thanks.

Varig's website is showing $520 + tax on an internet only special. Go to Varig.com to check it out.

The price for you California boys on Varig.com from LA is $570 midweek or $620 on weekends.

I finally paid from my ticket. I keep discovering sightly cheaper fares between the time I put a ticket on hold & paying for the ticket. My final option was priceline.com (at Sonnyp's suggestions; thanks). AA accepted my bid for $450 + tax (tax is about $100 for a Rio ticket). no FF miles with priceline.com; all in all a good deal.

It looks like using a consolator or discounter is the way to go to get to Rio right now (even though you probably will lose those frequent flyer miles). Orbitz quotes a rate of $950 via AA; that is with AA's spring "sale" - not much of a sale if you ask me.

DL just announced a GIG/GRU sale on their website

I just priced Austin,TX to Gig via Delta & their sale price only costs 1050 dollars. It seems like there are reasonable prices if you live on either coast but those of us that need it most (here in the boring middle of the country) pay thru the nose for a ticket to Rio.

I am going from LA for $712 on Varig nonstop. YOu need to check your prices again.

YT: if flying from TX check out Continental's prices, they have direct from Houston and should be around half that price.

Youngtom,

the coasties call us the "flyover states".

See, I'm reading the Rio boards after your excellent advice today.

EmaiKid

Good man EmailKid. Lots of good Rio stuff here. If you have any questions, let me know. It was great meeting you.

A couple questions....

How long is the flight from LA to Rio?

If I had to do a short trip, what is the shortest time I should stay in Rio and still make the trip worthwhile?

Sterling

YT: AA & CO are more convenient to you folks in TX. DL turns out better out f ATL/NYC/CVG etc.

There are no nonstop flights to Rio from LAX. If you fly United or American, the trip is about 16 hours. If you fly Varig, the trip is about 14 hours, and you can stay on the same plane.

I would say a week is the shorest trip that makes sense.

If you left on a Friday afternoon from LAX at 2 PM, you would arrive in Rio about 10 AM Sat Rio time.

You could return on a Sunday from Rio about 7 or 8 PM, and be at LAX Monday morning about 6:30 AM. That gives you a couple of extra days.

A week is probably good advice for a full trip although I've meet some nuts that have gone down for 4-5 day long weekends. I'm thinking about going for 4 days over 4th of July holiday.

AA and CO have a lock on this area, I was just checking on DL in the crazy hope that they really had some good prices. I've flown AA and CO on each of my previous trips (with very reasonable fares I must add). It looks like AA and CO have agreed not to compete based on fares out of this market for a while (what do you expect for an oligopoly?). If one can get to the coasts right now there are some good fares to be had.

sterling,

i just flew from LA to RIO. its 4 1/2 hrs to miami, then a redeye to rio which takes about 8 1/2 hrs. you arrive in rio about 11am the next morning.13 hrs total flight time. since the miami to rio leg is overnight, all you do is take some form of sleeping/sedative and its seems like a half an hour. a week is a proper amount of time to go, but now that i have been, i would literally go all the way back for 3 nights!!!! no matter how long you stay, you will probably NOT want to leave when time is up. i live in LA too, so e-mail me if you want some more info.

sonny

Varig used to have direct flight from LA to Rio but they may stop the service
VASP the other Brazilian serviced from LA to Rio via short stop in Sao Paolo but I heard VASP has problems recently
I dream of living in Miami, short trip to Rio about 6-7 hours redeye flight means I can leave work On Friday afternoon, hop in a flight to arrive to Rio on Saturday morning, rock and roll till sunday night and back to Miami for Monday morning to ready for work..even 3 days weekend will be a blast

LAX to Rio is on the same plane, but it stops in Sao Paulo first.

Methinks that South Florida is the place to be if you want to fly to South America. Make that Latin America. Actually with the Cubanas, it's the place to be, period. Of course those of us who have celebrated our 40th birthday may have to look for them in Costa Rica, but after some good advice this weekend, I'm looking into a trip to see the Sugar Loaf.

EmailKid

YT says ... ".....although I've meet some nuts that have gone down for 4-5 day long weekends. I'm thinking about going for 4 days over 4th of July holiday. "

If one is going on bizness You do what the boss say you do OTH, sometimes combining two three destinations in one trip is considered good bizness

As gitano posted on the main SA board. AA sale to brazil.

Purchase by 4/10 travel by 6/20

Dood

It looks like the party's over for Continental. The agents that used to have cheap tickets (eg, California to GIG app. $700/rt) tell me they have broken their contracts with Continental. Damn, just when my frequent flying miles were adding up!

It still costs only 35K for a Continental round trip to Rio. Fortunately, during our summer (their winter) it is relatively easy to book a free flight -- oftentimes, with very little advance planning. I booked one last year with one week advance planning. This summer I've booked two free flights (70K total) to Rio. If the price of a flight drops below $550 (right now, this doesn't seem likely to happen), I'll probably rebank the miles and pay for the ticket and get 25K miles per roundtrip.

Check http://www.varigbrasil.com/english/ for a great combo package for Los Angeles / Buenos Aires / Rio /Los Angeles. If you do it in off season, you can do both BA and Rio for $650. Form Miami you can do it for $550. For high season it is $850 from LAX.

You have to check their Internet specials. You go to BA, and can stop over in Rio on the way back.

I thought there was a topic for this already.. but I guess not.

American Airlines is running a "south america" sale right now:

Miami - Rio $418, JFK - Rio $588, many other cities available.

Go to aa.com - then click netsavers and special offers, then "South American Savings"

Thanks dood. good to see reasonably priced airfares returning to rio. let the good time roll!!! This sale is currently only good for travel thru end of Auguest but I would imagine that AA will extend it thru the end of the slow season (end of October). I guess AA has decided that $1000 ticket prices during the off season only lead to empty flights; I wonder how many flights it took them to figure that one out.

The sale is a lot broader than AA. All the majors have sales that run thru 8/31. The prices listed on the aa.com front page do not include taxes (over $100 for Rio) and also have about a $35 hit per weekend day traveled. The ORD prices goes from their list of $580 to $740. Assholes.

Their new web site is feature rich. I've seen less bugs in a summer baseball field set of lights. Although I do notice that it processes my payment one day faster. Assholes.

I have been using Orbitz more frequently to get a broader look at things. Out of ORD, Delta has the best prices right now, but United seems to be driving the price competition. I looked at their web site. It is actually less functional than Americans.

All of this pisses me off a little because I want to go right after the current sale. YT is right in that they are highly likely to extend it. The current sale ends June 19th, so there is probably going to be some action shortly after that. The airlines have had a tendency to mark down right after the 4th of July, but the rules they have been changing what with the soft economy and the September 11th hangover for their business,

Keep after them men. The garrotas are depending on us.

For those living in NY, Miami and LA area, there is always Varig which has good price all year long.
I am waiting for AA sales for my nov trip to get miles.

I'm an AA whore myself.. and AA has the only non-stop to Rio from the NY area.

Don't know if I did something wrong, but I never could get an available return flight to LAX from Rio or BA from UA's Special Deals and AA's Netsaver. With their special sales, the departuring flight from LAX is always available, but not the return flight. I have tried it with numerous different return dates, but have gotten no lucks.

Orbitz is awesome as its listed price including all fees and taxes.

I paid $ 740. r/t from S.F. California on UA and get FF miles. This is first ticket to brazil and wondering what the norm is? ..oh fr 10/22 -11-11.