Buying domestic air tickets

[catnip]

I would like to buy some domestic air travel tickets for my trip to Brazil in late February. I have found the flights I wanted on BRA's website and sent an email (in Portuguese) to an agency at GIG airport listed on their site.

 

But I thought it might be wise to ask some "old Brazil hands" if there are any pitfalls to avoid. My main questions are regarding how to pay for the tickets from the US and how to pick them up (I arrive in Rio on a Sunday and will leave, I hope, for São Luiz the next morning). I've emailed and called Carlo but haven't heard from him and imagine he must have his hands full with Carnaval arrangements.

 

So, if anyone has some experience with this, I'll be very grateful for your advice.

 

Thanks

[buckguy]

I've dealt with Carlo twice for domestic flights. One was a Rico flight that Varig did as a codeshare. I was able to pay for that with my Visa card. I needed another flight which was exclusively through Rico that could only be purchased domestically. I had to send Carlo bank draft (expensive and my local bank did not provide any notice of its arrival to Carlo's account). I would guess that a potential pitfall of a regional carrier is something like this. If you can make a reservation and pay when you arrive at the travel agency or the airline's office you could avoid this hassle.

[BillyZ]

Brazil Pass

 

The smaller carriers can rarely beat

Varig's Brazil Pass, deeply discounted

so that each segment only costs $100

(with a minimum of four segments),

and that can include a long-haul Rio

to Recife flight for example.

 

The Brazil Pass can only be purchased

in advance (not after you get to Brazil)

in conjunction with a roundtrip ticket

from Varig, United, or certain other

airlines.

 

I've used them often and been very pleased.

Since you said you'd be buying several

tickets, this might be the best deal.

 

For details go to

http://www.varigbrasil.com/english/

and, down the center panel, click on

BRAZIL AIRPASS.

 

p.s.

If you use a Brazil Pass, go for nonstop

flights because each change of planes

counts as another segment.

[trilingual]

RE: Brazil Pass

 

The Brazil Air Pass can be very useful, but compare prices carefully. (TAM, by the way, also has an air pass, or it used to. VASP is pretty much history now, along with TransBrasil, the other former member of the Big 4 Brazilian carriers.)

 

Depending on your routing and number of stops, regular discounted point-to-point tickets may be cheaper and/or less restricted than the Air Pass. The Air Pass is definitely worth looking into if you are traveling very long segments from Rio/SP to the Northeast or Amazon, or if you want to make a trip that isn't a direct line between two points (e.g., first flying South and then heading for the North) or involves backtracking. A standard one-way ticket within Brazil often allows stopovers en-route, so check with the airline you're using to find out if the fare you're using permits that. From Rio, a ticket to Belem can permit stops in virtually every state capital in between, at no extra cost. Where there's a will, there's a way!

 

The Mercosul Pass can also be advantageous if you're visiting Argentina, Chile, Uruguay or Paraguay in addition to Brazil. Varig apparently won't issue one unless you fly into Brazil on one of their flights, but in the past Aerolineas Argentinas wasn't so picky and would issue a ticket to someone flying into Argentina on American Airlines, for example. I don't know if any of the American carriers can issue such a ticket, but it doesn't hurt to ask. This is a worthwhile ticket to look into if you're planning a multi-country open-jaw intercontinental ticket and then need to travel one way from your point of arrival in South America to your point of departure (for example, arriving in Santiago or Buenos Aires, and needing to get to Rio or São Paulo where your departing flight leaves from).

 

Some Rio/SP - Buenos Aires excursion fares allow one stopover in each direction (and sometimes the airline can be talked into just letting you make both stopovers going in one direction). Again, now that you know about all these possibilities, ask about the ones that may help you out. The excursion ticket to B.A., by the way, may sometimes be cheaper than a round-trip within Brazil, so if you're going to Porto Alegre, for example, it may be as cheap, or cheaper, to buy an excursion to B.A. with a stop in POA. But always compare prices first!