I have gotten to BA on several different airlines: United, Varig, Copa, SwissAir, LanChile, & Air Canada. I have also gotten there using several different routings. The starting point for my trips is LAX (Los Angeles International). Some of my trips have been made only to BA, others have included both BA and Brazil, and others included BA, Brazil, and Lima.

One of the other things that is a major factor in my decisions is that I am a member of United Airlines Mileage Plus program. I am not trying to sell United to you, but since I try to maximize the number of miles I get, I fly strictly on them.

The thing that I hate most on these trips is clearing immigration, and customs where you first enter a country. I have found that being the last off the plane is the absolute worst for getting through airports so I always try to sit in the most forward seat that I can. For comfort I like the back of airplane. This also gets me to immigration first because I get off the plane first.

When you return to Miami, there are about 8 or 9 flights from South America that hit the Miami airport about the same time. If you have to connect to another flight like LAX in my case, you can have a real problem sometime because of the long lines. I have learned another thing in that I always find a way to carry on my bags. This makes it much quicker to get through immigration and customs, and reduces the chance of getting things stolen. On my first trip to South America, I had some Zip drives stolen out of a bag that had all my digital pictures stolen. Since carrying on my bags, nothing has been stolen, and I clear customs and immigrations in half the time I use to.

I really prefer to not to have to clear customs in Miami just because there are usually too many people, and then you have to recheck you bag to get it to LAX if you do have a carryon. If you fly back directly to LAX can clear immigration and customs there, and not have to recheck your bag.


Advantages To Me of United Mileage Plus

You can fly anywhere within South America for only 25,000 miles using Mileage Plus credits. I have used these credits to do these routings:

Lima / Sao Paulo / Lima,
Sao Paulo / BA / Sao Paulo, and
Rio / BA / Rio

Air Line Routings

I have using the following routings to get to BA on previous occasions. If I did not go to BA directly, it was because I had friends in places that I stopped, and that is why you might not recognize these as routings to BA. The routes I have used to get to BA have included:

LAX / Lima / Sao Paulo / BA / Sao Paulo / Lima / LAX

This routing allows one to visit the many sites in Peru that includes Machu Pichu, Nazca, Paracas, and of course Lima. You can also do the Amazon in Peru if you like. The advantage to including Peru on your trip is that this country probably has many for tourist type things to do in one country then any other in Latin America. I did not do any mongering in Lima or Sao Paulo on this trip, but this was the first trip that I did discover the joys of BA.

The LAX / Lima portion of the trip was flown on LanChile. If you are an American Advantage member you will collect miles here from LanChile. This is an excellent airline, and it is only an 8-hour flight from LAX. Sometimes the routing on using Miami can be up to 16 hours from the time you leave LAX. This is also a nice place to stop to use as a break.

Using this routing one only needs to purchase a ticket to Lima, and then you can use your frequent flyer miles (25,000) to go to either BA, or Sao Paulo. You should keep in mind that on this routing if you go to BA from Lima using mileage, you couldn’t have a stop over in BA on the way back.

Sao Paulo / BA / Sao Paulo

I have flown this routing on Air Canada, Varig, and Swissair. You cannot use Air Canada, or Swissair on these routings now. I have used Varig with both paid, and frequent flying miles to get from Sao Paulo GRU airport to BA. You can also fly the Brazilian TAM on this route, and then you can accumulate American Advantage programs miles. I would imagine that you could probably also get a ticket between GRU and EZE using American Advantage miles to fly on TAM.

Rio / BA / Rio

I have only done this routing on Varig from GIG, but the airlines, frequent flyer options, and almost everything else is the same. In fact, it is hard to get a nonstop flight from GIG to Rio because most of the flights stop in Sao Paulo at GIG.

LAX – BA – LAX routings

I have done this on three different airlines: United, Copa, and Varig. They all use a different routing.

United does the LAX / Miami / LAX routing. You can also do Chicago, or Washington Dulles when you use them. An interesting routing is you use United also is to go to BA, and then get a stopover in Rio or Sao Paulo on the way back from BA.

Copa uses a routing from LAX through Panama City. The nice thing about this routing is for another $50 on your ticket you can get a stopover in Panama. There are many interesting things to do here besides chasing women. There are also many cities in the US that let you fly to BA in a similar manner that you do from LAX. When you fly on Copa you can also collect Continental Airlines One World frequent flyers miles. The main advantage of using Copa is that you can get back to the US the same day that you leave BA. There is only one flight per day in and out of BA per day on Copa. The Copa flight leaves BA at 12:00 noon, and you are back at LAX a littler after 11:00 PM. Another nice thing about this routing is that you clear US immigration and customs at LAX, and do not have to go through Miami.

Varig uses a routing through Sao Paulo if you fly from LAX. The flight from LAX to Sao Paulo is 6,200+ miles, and takes a little less then 13 hours going from LAX to GRU, and a little over 13 hours on the return flight from GRU back to LAX. When flying from LAX to BA EZE using Varig, you have to change planes in Sao Paulo. This layover is only 45 minutes or an hour, and you do not have to clear immigration and customs if you are going directly to BA. Varig also allow you to stopover in either Rio, or Sao Paulo on this routing. With Varig you also get United Mileage Plus frequent flyer mileage credits, or you can use frequent flyer miles to go to BA.

There is another routing from LAX using LanChile, but the flight stops in Lima, and Santiago, Chile, and I think is the longest travel time from LA. This might be a good way if you wanted to visit Lima, and Santiago while visiting BA, but it has always been just too long for me to use this airline to go to BA from LAX.

Good information. There is another routing but I haven't been able to get any information from one of the sites. Maybe that says something. Mexicana flies to SA from LAX via Mexico City. They are part of the United FF mile system.

Assuming United doesn't file for bankrupcy next week they require 50k miles compared to American's 60k. Also, United doesn't have the 3 week wait period that American has unless you want to use more miles or pay a surcharge.

On the subject of false advertising, United sends me a weekly email of special fares. Lately they have had some great fares out of LAX and SFO to both Rio and BA. You have 3 days or so for departure and the same on the return giving a spread of ten days or so max. The travel dates are usually several weeks after the email. However...... everytime I run a check, including literally within minutes of receiving the email, I always get a response that the flight(s) are full or there are maybe 3 seats left right smack dab in the center of the plane. 5 hours to Miami and another 8 plus to Rio is a long time on a full plane with people on both sides of you.

I just got back today on a $300 trip to BA. With taxes the total was less then $400.

An airline bankruptcy in the past has not resulted in the loss of people frequent flyers mileage. If people lose the mileage because of a bankruptcy, they will be so pissed that they will never fly United again.

Thanks for the information about Mexicana. You are right in that they are part of the Star Alliance systems, and you can Mileage Plus credits when you fly with them.

If you chance you are coming in from Durope, the German Airline Luftansa is also a member of the Star Alliance System.