Khunjbl
From SD I expect to pay $650 rt to Rio on weekdays ans $730 with fri/sat/sun departure.

Orbitz does charge extra $5 for handling fee but they get your seating as asked and send you email reminders.

I'm really excited that the airlines are slashing their direct prices. I'd like to point out that even prior to this recent price drop, that essentially the same prices (current direct prices from the airlines are about what one could get thru a consolidator prior to this recent sale ) were available thru consolidators. Last year, I bought all of my tickets directly off the airlines websights (mostly AA) and ended up with great deals. Since the direct prices thru the airlines (at least for thru non-hub cities - ie not Miami, not LA, or not NY) have been very pricy, I've been forced to check out other options. And the only reasonable option that I have found is the various consolidators. There are problems with going thru consolidors (many tickets have restrictions - one can not accumulate FF miles with some tickets, maybe no standby, etc). & some consolidators are aren't upfront about the limitations on a particular ticket. It is easy to make a mistake and end up buying a ticket that has a restriction or 2 that you didn't realize when you bought it.

Now that the airlines have dropped their direct prices, it makes more sense to deal directly thru them (ie reasonable fares & you know what you are getting). But once prices inch back up this fall, then remember the consolidators are still out there and there are deals to be found (you need to really ask all the right questions though).

Miami to Salvador da Bahia non-stop

Staring on July 3rd, Varig Airlines will fly non stop from Miami to Salvador, Bahia. Southbound flight departs every Wednesday at 840pm. Northbound flight departs Salvador every Tuesday at 1055am. Now you can enjoy the northeast of Brazil without going to Rio or Sao Paulo.

I am seeing some movement on airfares for the Labor Day weekend and beyond. United went to $736 last weekend from ORD and most other locales, although Texas connections go thru ORD-MIA. Delta went to $670 out of ORD this morning. Other locales not as friendly. AA and Continental have not followed as of yet. I suspect they will shortly as the seat maps for September are pretty empty right now.

If I remember correctly, last year sales for fall started last year in June. Good news as AA tends to follow the crowd.

I'd have to agree with Gitano (who has studied the airfare patterns of AA for many moons). But only because after AA sat there for most of the summer with empty flights to south america & then finally was stupid enough to follow another airline into dropping their airfare. I hope other Gold AAvantage members are more loyal than myself but as we all know one gets want you pay for.

i got a tix on priceline, lax to rio, on AA for $500 plus tax, for trip last week. planes were more than half empty. i hear the varig flight to sp is also coming down. many empty seats that need to be filled. airlines must start enticing travelers. if one does not mind the restrictions of priceline, the discount is good. the best i could find before them was for $875 on most carriers.

Sonnyp - how many stops between LAX and RIO? - thx

one stop in miami.....same exact flight i had in january, but $300 less. the downside to priceline is no changing return in case one gets the carioca flu, and needs to recover in buzios, bahia, ect, with garota of choice. but if you have set dates that you know you wont change, then its worth a look. like i said, i put in a bid of $500us, with one stop only, and had a flight 15 minutes later. let me know if you need any more info.

AA did drop today, but to $970. Jerks. Good news is that I looked at the fare and the reduction was due to them reducing the cost of the MIA leg. The MIA portion stays in affect until 7/9, so I am hoping for a GIG reduction before then. We'll see. Hey on the Priceline, can you be assured of your airline and do you get mileage points ? At my level of travel, a Rio ticket carries enough points for a free Tijuana visit.

With priceline, you can't pick your airline, earn miles or upgrade. That's why I never use them for flights.

I always use them for hotels though.

check out www.biddingfortravel.com for the "inside scoop" on how to work the priceline system.

Yep - I got a very good fare on AA via priceline earlier in the year. But as the Dood noted, no miles . You can't make changes as well so if you miss your flight coming home (this is always a big problem for me ) you probably will have to buy another ticket.

I would guess that AA will drop their fall prices to Rio (including labor day). But if the final choice was $970 with miles or about $500 without miles, I'd personally take the $500 fare.

Priceline is not a convenience - No miles,no DBC,No nada.I'd never take a EZE-CDG or GIG-CDG/LHR cooped in Y.

Hey Hermanos:

Just came across an interesting site that auctions trip to rio and was amazed to see some of the low prices - for instance, $300 from a continental air serviced city in the US to Rio with six nights hotel all incusive - has anyone partaken of these auction type sites?

http://www.skyauction.com/

Crafter

I've used skyauction several times - I've won both airfare only & hotel only packages. I think that if you study all the fine print (ie additional surcharges) then you can sometimes get a very good deal via skyauction. One thing about skyauction & airplane ticket auctions is that some of the deals include frequent flyer miles and other don't; you need to send a specific email asking whether the auction includes ff miles - I wish that they would just explicitly state as part of the additional charges whether ff miles can be accumulated. Another thing that some travellers won't like is that sometimes skyauction doesn't tell you who the carrier is until after you win an auction - CO seems to be the primary carrier to Rio at this point. One needs to study and understand all the surcharges prior to placing your bid but some good deals to be had.

YT:

thanks for the response and agree about being wary regarding surcharges as they apparently run an additional $150 over the ticket price you bid. am going to investigate further.
c

Keep us updated on what you find out. I've went and have been seeing $600 fare out of LAX on Varig internet special. I'd personally need to be able to save over $100 for me to be worried about the airline and fine print. I was very happy with Varig.

As dArtagnan points out depending on where in the USA one lives sometimes you can always get cheap flies directly from the airlines (LA, Miami, and NYC almost always can get cheap fares - fares less than $600 seem routine out of these cities). Some of the rest of us have to barter, cheat, and steal or deal with consolidators/discounters to get there for a reasonable price (ie less than a grand). Crafter - you might want to read this entire thread as there is some good info regarding consolidators (http://www.brol.com & http://www.intratours.com are a couple); talking to a few consolidators might give you a better idea of the price that you need to beat via skyaction. Be sure & get a price with FF miles.

yt & dart:

thanks for the additional data. based on a cursory look, seems as if the skyauction deals are not bad. a person won 6 nights at the savoy othon with airfare from the us for $277 plus the fine print details of $195 for taxes and other, plus roughly a further $100 on average additional air expense pending on where you are flying out of in the us. so grand total is about $600 roughly which includes the hotel and air - that don't seem to be bad!

Of course the rub is that the hotels on the list don't seem to be garota friendly.

c

I'm not sure which hotels were part of your auction crafter. skyauction seems to use 2 hotels in Rio - the savoy othon & the othon palace. The othon palace is the nicer hotel but it is definitely not chica friendly (I bid on a couple othon palace auctions if the price had been right I'd have stayed there and taken any chicas around the corner to the Vanity Motel on Copacabana). No problems with chicas in the savoy othon - it is comparable to the debret and rio rioss in terms of price but has been newly renovated. I actually won a hotel only package at the savoy othon but the oil and gas convention is in town the week that I want to go so I may end up not using my package.

Skyauction is a great site! I went to Playadel carmen on the Yucatan and it cost a total of $1502.00 for 2 people airfair and 6 nights all inclusive (drinks and food) from California. Just look at all of the small print for additional charges and figure it out. Great site!

yt:

you are correct in that the savoy othon and othon palace were part of the offered package along with about 5 other higher end type hotels. am glad you mentioned that the savoy othon as being garota friendly and its recent renovation - have you stayed there?

I did stay there & I liked it primarily because of the fact that it has recently been renovated. I've stayed in 3 hotels in Rio - Rio Roiss, Debret and the Savoy Othon. They all are similar in price. Both the Debret and Rio Roiss are a bit rundown but have great, friendly staffs. I also like the view of the ocean at the Debret. When I stayed at the Savoy Othon, I stayed in a deluxe room (slightly nicer than the standard rooms; standards room are typically what skyauction has). The Savoy Othon has complementary breakfast, is garota friendly, a couple of blocks from the beach on Copacabana; I think that they'll pick you up at the airport (see http://www.hoteis-othon.com.br/ , go to the Savoy Othon page, and check out the info on Shuttle service).

Double Base miles http://www.delta.com/doublemiles
Should help Delta medallion folks.

Damn...if only United or American were doing double miles (and weren't charging a million dollars for the damn flights.../sigh)

Rexxx, if you have a United Visa Card from Citibank they are offering double miles for every $ spent until Oct. 31. It's amazing how many miles you can rake up buying everything from groceries to gas.

Double Miles under creditcards are different - i.e 1$=2miles, as opposed to 1mile-flown=2miles-deposited.

I'm not sure I see the difference there citydude...you still get double miles for dollars spent vs. double miles for miles flown...Thanks for the tip on the Citibank United Visa...I have a Citibank Mastercard, gonna' see if I can maybe switch accounts or open a new one...my trip to Brazil should be good for a hefty chunk of miles no doubt, lol...

Double Base miles: SAY ATL-GIG is 4500 miles; Double base will give ya 9000 miles - and every mile counts for elite qualification.

CC Double miles: Say ATL-GIG costs USD 500; You get 1000 miles. None of which count for elite status.

Hope this clarifies.

Ahh...I see...I always look at the potential upside with mileage credit cards in terms of generating miles thru non flight means...actual flight miles and bonuses thru their attached programs are always going to be better for the most part. It's just nice knowing that the chick I'm boning in 4 X 4 on my credit card is also helping me to get closer to my next trip, and the next garota in the next terma by helping me generate miles (among other things) lol...

I love paying for termas with my miles card.

I refer to them as freequent fucking miles.

Dood

For those using AA traveling to South America, get extra 5k miles with following:

Bonus Code:
LATY4

Dates:
Travel between September 15, 2002 and December 15, 2002

If you are lucky to travel twice then you get 15k free miles. Just register on AA web site.

I get a newsletter from brol.com. This airfare sale looks promising - I'm going to find out whether it includes miles etc & will post an update. This would be great for those of us that don't live in NYC, Miami, or LA (reasonable fares already out there).
----

Travel to Rio de Janeiro for the Lowest prices EVER! ONLY $425.00 round trip (tax not included)
From: Atlanta, New York, DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, San Diego, Boston, Houston, St Louis.

ONLY $425 plus taxes per person.

Request your ticket now http://www.brol.com/trv_tktform.asp?tktID=19

Or book online @ www.brol.com

whoops - I should have posted these restrictions as well.

Purchase your ticket by September 03 and complete travel by March 2003. Travel not valid Dec 15-23, or Jan 02-15. Other restrictions may apply. fares may change without notice and subject to availability.

I don't know if I got a good fare or not but Charleston SC Airport is very expensive to fly in and out. Normal fair to Rio on Delta was $1100. I paid $640 + taxes which came to total $750 on wwwt.traveland.com. Got my tickets on Delta very fast. Anyone else have any experience or do you know a cheaper place. Thanks - Hemp

hemp:

i too live in the carolinas and seesm that the most attractive air fares to sur americano are via atlanta and miami - miami is not too bad a drive for me so am taking this route.

Wow - I just put in a bid on Priceline.com for LAX > RIO for $300. They didn't take it, but made a couter offer for $388 (I didn't take it). Add up the taxes and it's just over $500. Not bad... Y'all might give priceline a try if you're thinking about Rio. Real is trading at 3.8/$1, too.

wow... when are you thinkin' of going?

Dawgg, I'm still on the fence. It's not the money as much as whether I can actually fuck for 7+ days in a row... I'm thinking about it, though. You?

I'd love to go. I probably can't go until December or so...

The fare sale that YT was so kind enough to turn all of us on to has been extended to Oct. 15. Same rules apply -- this is a great airfare compared with what I'm finding listed for my trip in late Jan.-early Feb. Fares might come down, but that is actually high season so they appear more than reasonable. Don't forget to add about $100 for taxes, etc.

Ducky

$458 from LAX to Rio (GIG) on United right now. Must leave between 11/18 and 11/21 and return between 11/25 and 11/28.

For Rio lovers, this is too good to pass up. Sorry I cannot go to Rio because I got the $300 special to Buenos Aires.

I just do not understand this. BA is a lot further then Rio, but is cheaper. No wonder United is going broke.

American is about $631 R/T same routing, with fare available til 11/30 and open ended departure/ return itineraries thru March I believe...a very good fare for peak season, IMHO...

Delta is also offering a fare sale from the US to Sao Paolo in the 400-500 dollar range...

$308 Dallas to Sao Paolo on United !! ($416 with tax). Right now, only available Nov25-Dec5. Check it -

www.united.com > click "Special Deals" > click "Dom. & Int'l e-fares" > pick Dallas > scroll down to Latin e-fares.

That's a fuckin' incredible deal. I'm just debating how pissed my family would be if I bail on them at 5PM on Thanksgiving...

$108 tax? That's like 30% tax. You got that right?

I checked any you are correct $308 is quoted price... price with tax is $416.50.

SOOOOOoooo guys get your horney gringo ass down to Sao Paolo!

Dang you can get from San Francisco to Singapore for $440 ($510.42 with "tax")

Chicago, NY and the east caost in general is dirt cheap right now to S. America - especially on AA and United. Taxes seem to be generally $80 (or less) for Argentina and $105 for Brazil.

Dude,

I know it's cheap from PHX to ORD. How much is it from someplace in Brazil to Cuba? Maybe you can do an end-around?

Dem Gnomes

Does anyone have any suggestions on last minute airline deals?
I know it's the high season for SA but I think I will check priceline, hotwire, travelbuzz to see if I can get a last minute deal
I think 3-7 days before departure has the best deals.
I know the airline websites aren't giving out shit.
Open to any suggestions
Thanks

CN