Anyone: A friend I know wants to go to Rio from Reading, Pa. In reality that's either Newark, N.J. or Phila.,Pa. What's the best fare?

Check United .com , they have been running incredible fares, Got a price of $445 including all taxes leaving from the Northeast, also saw a price of $452 inhcluding all taxes for carnaval.If prices get any lower i`ll be going every other weekend (ha,ha). Also, sign up for e-fares weekly specials.

Forget it, United aren't giving out not one flight to SA. they know they can stick it in you during these weeks. I think united.com only have specials for europe because it's so damm cold.

Fooledagain,
Where Did you get $445 and When???

CN

With the exception of Christmas season and as far as airfares are concerned it is *low* season for travel from the US. Airfares are determined from the season of the country of departure not the country of arrival. So right after xmas you should be able to get airfares from the east coast at around $550 inc tax or from the west coast at 650 inc tax.

Peak season is a combination of both O&D. e.g Chinese New Year in HKG from LHR,NRT,SYD all have high season fares

CN- got the price maybe 2 weeks ago on united.com

Fooledagain,

You got really lucky on united.com
I saw the same deal but cheaper a few weeks ago, flying out of california was only $350+tax but you have to return by this week.
I think it's blackout for the next several weeks. I am trying to leave on the 1st and it's still over $1000 on priceline.com
But your going to Sao Paulo, If I go there on a $500 ticket it will cost me an extra $500 for the same amount of girls in SP (compared to Rio).
So I guess I can never win,

CN

Fooledagain,

I am looking at united.com just out with new e-fares.
All going to fucking Sao Paulo for $328+tax
No fucking Rio. just my luck!!!!
So whoever likes SP you better grab it today.
It's like the market, you have to wake up early to short it.

CN

Ceenotes:

Sao Paulo-Rio domestic flight will cost you less than US$100 on the air shuttle, so you don't have a problem. You could probably even talk a cabbie into taking you for US$100, it's only a 7 hour ride. $328 to ANYWHERE in Brazil is a fantastic price, grab it!

BS

Does anyone ever received miles with united, by going on hotwire or priceline?

Anyone have any tricks of the trade on this system?

I called united to have my miles plus number inputed on my flight. Hopefully it can be tracked, anyone ever went through the same experince?

CN

CN,

I think that you can accrue miles using hotwire, but not priceline.

At the end of the day, Badseed is right - $328 is an incredible fare! The tricky part will be the connection. From Congonhas (SP's domestic airport) there are frequent connections to Rio Santos Du Mont which are pretty cheap. However, you will be arriving in Guarulhos and I've never done the GRU-GIG. FYI, it will take about 45 minutes in taxi and about US$30 to get from GRU to CGH.

Best of luck...

Meccakrang
I am pretty sure, they have daily flights GRU-GIG/SDU, at least every hour. There is no need to get your ass off to CGH to go to SDU or GIG.

Meccakrank,

I bought on Hotwire, now is this a fact.
do you know anyone who recieve miles on Hotwire?

CN

To Brazil I always use
Cheviot Hills travel (310) 202 6264 LFERN2000@aol.com; http://cheviothillstravel.com ; 9819 national bld 1;
FAX 837 2214; 800 585 8023;

To Asia I always use
Steward·Travel; (310)·550·7266 ;3660 Wilshire 106;
http://stewardtravel.com
(800) 346 8889; fax 213 383 1975

I never tried the following

South Winds Travel and Tours at (310) 568-8426. This is a Brazilian-owned agency.
800 585 8023;
Adventure Bound Tours -- 800.308.2345 TSM Empfehlung to South America ; http://www.latindiscounters.com/
http://www.justfares.com/
http://brol.com/
http://www.hotwire.com/

hey all,
www.exitotravel.com
I got a Dec flight for the New Years holiday this past year for $700 with 3 days notice. They are great.

Rbenny, where did you leave from? 700 bucks is an amazing price for New Years, I remember Continental was asking for 3K (for Coach)

(Message edited by Thumper on April 29, 2003)

Just booked a July trip from CA to Rio RT on American for $675 through priceline.com. Got a great schedule too.

Just booked August trip from SC to Rio RT on United for $585 (all fees and taxes included) - Booked thru hotwire.com - Good schedule also. Hemp

$R 6.60 from Netiroy to Rio. Did not even have to go on-line either.

Much faster, not air-sick bags, and a great price. Only 25 minutes.

Chau.

OH

when is the best time to look for deals from an american based carrier to rio? is it just random and one should sign up for fare alerts n such?

My group has been checking air prices from their various cities (on various sites) for american carriers for more than 60 days now and we are seeing the same prices.

A friend of mine (in houston) seems to think that he will see a ticket price of $450-$500 out of IAH at some point in the future when the prices have been 900-1150 for the last 2 months for various date searches.

Could this happen? I need to manage expectations across those who are econmocially efficient lol.

you need to set up a fare watcher on travelocity for your destinations. will e-mail when fare changes . expedia and orbitz may have something similar. also look at consolidators-such as intratours in houston. others suggest priceline. i check sites almost daily. caught $535 flight iah to gig for thanksgiving on a continantal one day sale 7/23. they also had one earlier in july. i expect a sale after labor day for AA or cont.

I caught Hotwire price of $585 (everything included) Charleston SC to Dulles to Rio (United) end of Aug.
See you in Rio Sweetmesquite. - Hemp

I consistently get a $565- %576 quote from Priceline from ATL to GIG, with one connection. I haven't locked it in though.

Miles are not available on these types of tickets. If you plan to go to Brazil a few times per year, I would suggest signing up for a mileage program and paying the extra $40-$50 per ticket. The RT miles for Brazil trips is quite high.

Prices have been crappy from the US lately because only one US carrier flies non-stop to Rio: American, and the AA flights are consistantly packed. United and Continental both stop in Sao Paulo.

Hey guys,

I have never signed up for the frequent miles program. Can someone explain to me how many miles you need to get a free ticket to Rio from New York and how many miles you need to upgrade from coach to business class. If you do not use the miles for an extended period of time do they expire? I want to know is it worth the aggravation to join. Thanks

Cueball, you are missing out on some serious freebies. Joining a FF program is a no brainer. I use both United and American and I haven't received an actual travel mile from either of them in ages. Of course, with only 2 trips in the last 4 years.

All the major carriers are allied with numerous other outfits. Hotels, long distance providers, mortgage companies, credit cards, brokerage houses, and literally hundreds of other places where you will get miles for shopping. For example, my Safeway discount card also runs a promotion where I get United FF miles after spending so much. And I pay for my groceries with a regular credit card so that counts too. Look at everything that you pay for now with cash or checks and most of it can be done on a credit card with the dollar amounts being credited to your FF program.

I just got my quarterly statement yesturday from United. US to southern South American is 50k miles for economy and 80k for business. Upgrades on a paying fare are 30k to the next class of service.

Citibank Visa and MC are teamed up with American. Every quarter they offer special deals knocking off mileage requirements. Right now they have US to Buenos Aires for 32.5k.

Every airline has a program. Just check their websites. There are also some sites that cover the entire FF universe with tips on everything from where to sit to what to do in various airports.

And remember to get a credit card, Visa, MC, American Express, that is coupled with some airline's FF program. The miles add up fast.

I use American Express for work and collect the membership rewards that I can turn into miles. Also got the United Visa, 15,000 miles just for signing up, The miles rack up. Have automatic payment for cell and Cable and other bills I have to pay in full each month. Adds miles to my account very quickly. Wish I could pay my mortgage by credit card.

Join one that has other airline members that fly where you want (Star Alliance - United) works for me.

American is 40k miles to Brazil, 25k miles to upgrade to business from any fare. United's upgrades are deceiving because you have to buy a much more expensive ticket in order to upgrade. At least with american you know you can upgrade any ticket you buy. (Except priceline/hotwire etc).

All airlines miles expire if there is no activity for 3 years. Signing up for long distance programs, credit cards etc prevent this from happening. For much more detailed info check out www.flyertalk.com

Not exactly on most of those points boys:

Frist, join every airline's FF program before you fly - they're all free, you're a fool not to simply join and present your acct number for all flights.

Expirations:
All airlines are different. CO and NW, to my knowledge, never expire their miles. Delta has a moving three-yr window, so when you have any activity (ANY activity, flight, spend, redemption...) you expiration dates becomes 3 yrs from that date (or is it 3-yrs from the next 12/31?). I don't remember UA's policy. AA is similar to Delta.

Miles to SA
All have different requirements. CO/NW and AA offer various low season windows (e.g. Aug/15-Nov/15 on AA) so that the normal 60k AA requirement drops to 40k.

Other features
AA allows stopovers and layovers and circle trips with standard rewards, UA doesn't. Don't remember for the others. Yes, the alliances are important, more so now that most airlines don't fly into our favorite SA cities like Rio and BA. But, naturally, your choice of airline concentration will likely be determined by what airline hub you live in, if applicable.

Always willing to help - I've a FF travel vet - so feel free to CHmail me if you have any specific questions.

American is 40,000 to Rio right now, but it goes up to 60,000 during peak seasons, which strangely did not include carnival week this year. American partners with Citibank for the credit card thing. I think you get either 7,500 or 10,000 miles for just signing up. Also, after reaching gold or platinum status, you receive bonus miles for every mile you fly. For example; my rt mileage from Florida is doubled every time since I'm platinum. That gives me approx. 20,000 miles every time I go to Rio. I get to fly two and then get a freebie. It knocks about 33% off of the actual ticket price basically.

FLHobbyer touched on an important point that I think bears further explanation. If you book a flight on AA using miles, they allow extended stopovers/layovers.

For example, I wanted to fly from California to Rio. But, since I booked using miles I was able to do a "layover" in Dallas to visit a friend for a few days. Then do a week long "stopover" in Buenos Aires. Finally I continued Rio for a few weeks, then back home to Californal. All this, for the same 40K miles just going to Rio would have cost me had I not known about the perk.

Sterling

Th stopover only works in gateway cities with american airlines.

Sorry, Mitchc, but I have to correct you there. A layover only includes a hub city such as (for SA) Miami, Dallas, JFK, etc.

American allows circle trips. Thus, a stopover is good in ANY city, even those served by TAM. It's layovers that are only allowed on int'l flights in int'l gateways. Thus, as I did last year, you could go from the US thru GIG or GRU and connect on TAM and finish in Recife (or any other Brasilian-served city by TAM for that matter), have as long as you want (within whatever guidelines allow - I did 10-11 days), then continue on thru either GRU or GIG on to another SA city (I stayed in BA for 10 days including skiing), then head home from that city (connection included, if required). Had I started in not-Miami, I am also allowed days in Miami as part of this (that's the layover part).

This current year I did MIA/GIG for a week-plus, GIG/GRU/EZE for a week, then EZE/MIA - 40k miles again.

Mitchc, what's the deal about getting bonus miles on American when you have a Citibank Platinum card? I've never heard of that promotion. Or is there a Platinum level within American itself? I see promotions where 1st class will get you 150% of the miles but never anything for coach. Last year the Visa provider that is affiliated with United ran a 3 month promotion where they would credit you double miles for every dollar spent.

I tried to get a ticket on miles for a buddy to fly from gig to new orleans through miami and add a stopover(?) in orlando, but it was no dice. They told me it only worked in gateway cities. Since gig, gru and eze are all gateway cities, it worked for you. Maybe I have stopover and layover mixed up.

TF;

Go to aa.com or citicards.com/aadvantage and it will explain the program. For signing up for a card, you will get a certain amount of bonus mileage. Every dollar you use for purchases with that card will count as one american airline mile.

It may not work in reverse, from SA into US - but it should. Maybe the agent was not up to date on all the rules... but you're right, in both my cases of int'l travel I did have one stay in a 'gateway'.

Next week I am doing it within the US for 25k miles - a few days in large Midwest city (via ORD hub), then I go to a small town in CO (via DFW hub) for a few days, then close the trip back to MIA via DFW. Note, neither the CO town nor the Midwest town are gateways. I do this in the US many times.

TightFit: It's the Citibank Platinum AAdvantage Mastercard

If you sign up new, you get 7500 miles after your first purchase. If you convert an existing Citibank card, you only get 3000 miles after your first purchase. The annual fee is $85.

http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/cardserv/worldcard/index.htm?ProspectID=B1C2C63BE37B4CA98D41D7B88259645A

Tight Fit: There is a platinum frequent flyer level at American that gives a 100 percent bonus on miles flown. If you are going to be flying 10,000 miles in any 90-day period, they may give you platinum if you call their frequent flyer number and ask for the platinum challenge (otherwise it is 50,000 miles flown per year). I'm unaware of bonus miles if you have their credit card although I could be wrong about this. ; my understanding is you just get one mile per dollar spent irrespective of whether it is spent on American Airlines.

Laguy,

On American (Citbank credit card) you get one mile for every dollar spent. This credit card has a high interest rate, so you are better off paying it off each month. You are also charged 50 dollar annual fee. There is a cutoff on how much you miles you can earn Standard is around 10,000 / 20,000 (not sure), it goes up when you go to gold and then higher with platnium (yearly fee also goes up to $75).

As for traveling to Brazil on American with miles, it cost 40,000 miles. Black out dates are from around November to January / Febuary. This ticket is from SNA (Orange County, Dallas, Florida to GIG). The actualy cost was over 1,000.00.

I am going to RIO in early September. Using 40,000 miles. Flight is covered by my miles, but I had to pay the tax and security fees. Cost was $51.00.

I hope this helps.

To follow up to the post by Mr. Sancho2, just to clarify:

..."There is a cutoff on how much you miles you can earn"

If you are a standard AA program member, there is a limit on annual accrual of mileage, maybe 100k miles per year? If you have achieved a premium status in the AA program - regardless of your Citicard level of std/gold/plat - AA removes this limit. So, for example, if you are PlatExec on AA you can earn hundreds of thousands of ff miles annually.

..."As for traveling to Brazil on American with miles, it cost 40,000 miles."

On AA this is only true during their 'off season' periods - Aug/15-Nove/15 and a similar timewindow in the spring like Mar/15-May/15, but I don't remember the exact dates for the Spring. All the rest of the year AA charges 60k miles. I think (don't know) UA might be 50k all year round, with no 'offseason' periods. NW/CO has two 'seasons'. Don't know about Delta.

Interestingly, you are able to bridge the seasons, so a trip that begins in Apr and ends in Aug can be had for 40k, if you don't perform any of the travel in the 'summer'.

Off peask for american is Mar.1-May 31 and Aug.16-Nov.30

The limit for the citibank aadvantage card is 100k miles a year of you are not gold, platnium or Executive platinum. If you have one of their status levels its unlimited earning.

Check out www.flyertalk.com to learn more then you could imagine. It's the clubhombre of frequent flyers.

As of August 13, 2003
Details about the Citibank AAdvantage cards:

Gold is $50 annual fee. 13.99% APR. 5000 Bonus miles after first purchase with new activation. The maximum number of AAdvantage miles you can earn with the Citi Gold AAdvantage World MasterCard is 60,000 miles per calendar year (purchase recorded on your Jan.–Dec. billing statements).

Platinum is $85 annual fee. 13.99% APR. 7500 Bonus miles after first purchase with new activation. The maximum number of AAdvantage miles you can earn with the Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard is 100,000 miles per calendar year (purchase recorded on your Jan.–Dec. billing statements).

AAdvantage Executive Platinum AAdvantage Platinum and AAdvantage Gold members are excluded from the mileage limits.

Miles may never expire, provided that at least once every three years you fly American Airlines, American Eagle, or an airline participant in the AAdvantage program or have qualifying AAdvantage participant account activity



(Message edited by aldaron on August 13, 2003)

Pardon for the stupid questions. How many miles is it from New York to Rio. Also do most of you guys get the upgrade or you use your miles for the free ticket?

United Visa:

Mileage Plus Visa with Visa Signature Benefits

One mile for every $1 charged on purchases
15,000 bonus miles after your first purchase
$25 United Discount Travel Certificate after your first purchase
One-way, 1,000 mile, One-class Upgrade Certificate after your first purchase
Up to 11 miles per $1 spent at participating Mileage Plus Dining® restaurants
Visa Signature benefits
$60 annual fee

Mileage Plus Gold Class Visa with Visa Signature Benefits

Two miles for every $1 charged on United purchases
One mile for every $1 charged on all other purchases
15,000 bonus miles after your first purchase
2,500 Anniversary Bonus miles each year
One mile for every $2 in balance transfers or convenience checks (up to 10,000 miles per year)
$25 United Discount Travel Certificate after your first purchase
One-way, 1,000 mile, One-class Upgrade Certificate after your first purchase
Up to 11 miles per $1 spent at participating Mileage Plus Dining restaurants
Visa Signature benefits
$85 annual fee

Cueball,it's close to 5000 air miles from Dulles to Rio, which includes the short detour to Sao Paulo, so New York is maybe 140 air miles more.

Let's see......right now, and this is after I've deducted two 80,000 mile rewards for USAir miles to fly on United down to Rio, I have 580,720 miles on US Air, 214,450 on American, 30,500 on United, 26,400 on Delta and maybe 2,000 left on Northwest. Lots of free flights to places coming up!

It does look like I'll only get about 80,000 air miles this year, which equates out to about 130,000 frequent flyer miles once bonuses and roundups are included. I use the American platinum card myself, which kicks in another 3,000 miles or so per month on the American account. Not bad at all, 36,000 miles for the $85 annual fee. All in all, this looks like the first year that I'll redeem more miles than I accrue, but not by much.

I usually monger on the company dime since I do a lot of business in San Diego, San Antonio, Tucson and a few other places a short drive away from Mexico. I still get in a vacation or two a year plus the occasional weekend to somewhere nice.

Just an interesting side note. If you ever wonder how far it is between two airports just go to http://gc.kls2.com/ and type in three letter airport codes separated by a - and then click on display map. I think that web site is way cool. If you have layovers or fuel stops include them too. So IAD-GRU-GIG is 4946 mi and JFK-GRU-GIG is 4954 mi. Only 8 miles difference because the world is round. I love that web site. It is really awesome if you are comparing different airlines with different layovers.

One more web site to have:

http://www.kls2.com/airlines/

This one lists most every airline in the world by their principal geographical region.

I am planning to go to Rio towards the middle of December for a month's stay. The cheapest quote I am getting is around US$1,300.00 for a roundtrip ticket. Anybody knows a cheaper way to book this flight? I am flying out of SFO (San Francisco, California).