Mercosur Air Pass

[mjd]

Just wanted to recommend the TAM Mercosur Air Pass as a very affordable way to travel within Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and Argentina. There are several participating airlines including Brazil's Varig, TAM, Mercosur and Chile's Lan Chile.

 

You can fly on any international airline but the Airpass has to ticketed in the country where the international originates. What is great is the price structure--it's based upon how many miles one flies not how many segments. I just booked Sao Paulo -- Foz do Iguacu -- Curitiba -- Buenos Aires - Rio and the total price was $345. The only catch is that you have to visit at least 2 countries and cannot have more than two stopovers in a single country (but this doesn't include the international arrival city, the international departure city, or Iguacu. I think there is a limit of 9 segments. To purchase just call TAM's American 888 number--they can book all of your flights, regardless of the airline and they can easily compute the price for you just by giving them the itinerary routing. Which flight at what time doesn't impact the price.

 

BTW, I also checked with Varig about this but their agents were mis-informed insisting that I had to fly international also on Varig and other wrong info, and I found them to be not very helpful.