Who's Got Cheap Air to BZ?

[Guest Gringo]

Right after Carnavale, Brasil enters low season. I've noticed several posters planning trips in March & April. I am too. I was wondering if I should try to arrange air fare now or closer to my departure date. It would seem that now, being high season, might not be a good idea. But I'm a little antsy about waiting to book. Where are my fellow rio travelers booking flights and what are you paying from the east coast?---if you wouldn't mind sharing your experiences.

[robbguy]

Hi,

I purchased my round-trip ticket from Boston to Rio on Orbitz.com on Nov. 23rd to fly on Feb. 23rd on American Airlines and got a rate of $573.50. The itinerary is Boston to Miami to Rio and the return is Rio to Sao Paulo to New York to Boston. Each trip is approximately 14 hours total, which is not bad from Boston. I recently checked and they are now charging $849.00 for the same flight, so it is wise to book well in advance. I wanted to fly on Delta since I have Delta Sky Miles but Delta has discontinued all South American flights. My recommendation is that you book NOW. Also, check out CheapTickets.com and Sidestep.com as well as Orbitz. Sometimes you can hit it right and get a great deal from one that is not offered on the others. Good Luck. Robbguy

[Guest pshaw]

Shortly after filing for bankruptcy, United was offering very good rates to Rio (I think from DC to Rio was around $560). American Airlines also offers good rates at varying times. Right now many people are thinking about visiting warmer climates, so rates might be a bit high right now. For me the ideal time to visit Rio is in July/August/September when the temperature is at a more comfortable level. I seem to recall that American started offering very good rates around mid-July. I also recall that the rates dropped a bit around March or April. Unless you are locked into traveling in the immediate future, my advice would be to just keep monitoring the rates and when they drop, book your ticket.

[+ Axiom2001]

<I am a little antsy!

 

I, too, am very excited about April although I will spend eleven days in Rio before, during, and after Carnaval. One poster advised me to wait until a month before departure to make plane reservations for my April venture. That way the fare should be relatively reasonable, but discounters have tickets to Rio in the high five hundred dollar range right now. Check out the NYTIMES Travel Section on Sunday.

 

I liked Robbguy's advice; I'd also try Travelocity.com and reluctantly http://www.Hotwire.com. Try Travelzoo.com, too, although I have not gone there myself yet.

 

Have fun. More than likely there will be a bunch of us guys in Rio at the same time. Let the fun begin!

[Mavica]

I'm not traveling to Brazil during the same time period you've indicated . . . but, as a point of reference, here's what I'm paying for travel February 6th to 16th. First, I don't believe you can buy a ticket for less than an airline website sells their e-tickets for. I've worked on this issue long and hard, and, always, buy a ticket for less from an airline after surfing all of the known travel/booking sites. However, I do know that travel agents who act as regional/geographical "wholesalers" can, and do, offer some tickets for less than the airlines do, but finding who's selling them takes some work. So, now it's obvious . . . I bought my ticket directly from . . . United Airlines (I'm in Chicago, and it's United's "home", and "good" deals are often better here on that carrier).

 

I bought my ticket around Christmas-time, and paid $515 + tax, and the total comes to $613 (including the high Brazilian "exit" tax of +/-$36). The routing is Chicago-Miami-Rio. The United-direct fare was the lowest of any carriers, and Travelocity.com offered the same one, or one about $5 more expensive (on United). A large SA wholesaler in Chicago was offering tickets more expensive than United was, and wouldn't match, or beat, the fare I bought direct.

 

I think the "best" fares are going to vary by gateway/departure point. What may be "good" for one of us is not likely to be something experienced by all, because we're scattered all over the place. Had I waited two weeks to purchase my ticket . . . I would have received double the mileage award . . . as part of a new, and ongoing, United promotional campaign. Oh, well!

 

Without a crystal ball, none of us is able to predict what's going to happen with airfares, post-Carnaval. However, I think that the airlines are already publishing their "sale" fares to the region for the "shoulder" or "soft" travel periods.

 

I've been reading a lot of material lately that quotes U.S. airline executives saying that, should the U.S. launch military action against Iraq, they will, almost immediately, substantially reduce service to many parts of the world . . . because they believe that few people (not just those originating their travel in the U.S.) will want to travel until the "action" is over). SA isn't often thought of as a "dangerous" (i.e. armed military conflict) region of the world to travel in/to (ok, minus Colombia!), but, seeing that the seemingly inevetible military conflict is more than likely to occur post-Carnaval . . . travel to/from Brazil just might be affected. Whenever I travel outside of the U.S., I do some pre-trip contingency planning . . . just in case. I was "stranded" in Mexico at the time of 9/11, and I was inside a bombed hotel in Belfast, caught-up away from home in "misunderstandings" between governments, in both China and the old USSR; so, I ask myself, "What if"? Those of you (us) traveling to Brazil in the next several months might want to give our brains just such an exercise.

 

Good luck with the best-fare ticket hunt!

[Guest Gringo]

I would think that a middle east conflict would immediately impact oil prices and increase air fares. political unrest sometimes has a chilling temporary affect on prices. i remember after 911 the airlines were all but giving the tickets away to get people to fly. all in all, i'm leaning to book sooner rather than later hoping for a bargain.

[Guest Jake]

Also check with Yes Travel in Miami (don't have their web address with me). They are a Brazil specialist and do have access to some packages that from time-to-time get me better deals than the other published ones.

[grweyers]

Correction, Delta does fly to the following South American Cities.

1/ Sao Paulo.

2/ Lima.

3/ Bogota.

4/ Santiago.:-)

You can get cheap fares from Sao Paulo to Rio via Varig.....(Buy the ticket in Sao Paulo, with the current exchange rate its cheap.)

[+ Axiom2001]

Jake, I forgot all about http://www.yestravel.net; one of their consultants arranged my lodgings outside of Rio during my visit in October of '02. This morning-- Patricia from brol at http://www.brol.com (Brasilian specialists, too in Miami) sent me info. regarding ball tickets during Carnaval. Included at their site were fares ranging from $475 to Rio orSao Paulo (Miami) up to $625 from Seattle. There were prices in-between depending on part of departure.

 

Happy traveling yaw!

[+ Axiom2001]

My travel agent had an email waiting for me when I returned from visiting exquisite Big Sur, California this evening. It, the e-, read that I should contact her after January 27, 2003, for that is when she expects the fares to be reasonable to low to Rio for April journeys. FYI AX

[trilingual]

Another source of cheap fares to Brazil are "ethnic" Brazilian travel agencies. If you search through the threads on this board, there are discussions about them. However, you can find them in almost any city with a significant Brazilian expatriate community, like NY, Boston, LA, SF, etc. Just go to any local Brazilian restaurant and see if they have a local Brazilian community newspaper. It will be full of ads for agencies. If they don't have a paper, just ask the restaurant owner or manager for a recommendation. These agencies offer unpublished fares, which means you can get real deals even in "high" season, often at short notice. Of course, there can be restrictions, but they're worth the savings. For example, the cheapest web fare I could find for my next trip to Brazil, when I plan to stay for three months, was about $1300 from San Francisco. At Paulo's Travel (in the San Francisco phonebook and with a web page of their own, I believe) I got the same ticket for $650 on American. The downside is that American won't let me upgrade to business on that fare (using miles from my account). However, they will let me earn miles on that trip, and I can use my electronic upgrades to apply for upgrades on the two domestic U.S. legs of the trip, between S.F. and Miami. Paulo's has been in business for a long time and are reliable. English is spoken. However, there are many other agencies, and it shouldn't be hard to find one near you.

[Guest Deweywop]

If you really live on the edge, subscribe to the airlines' "e-fares" e-mail notices. United, for example, will send out a last-minute special fare with a lot of restrictions, and you must be ready to leave in about a week or less. They don't give you much notice. However, they're currently offering fares from California to Rio, SP, and Bs.As. for about $450 round trip. I've seen these fares go as low as $350 in the past three months.

 

Otherwise, I've frequently bought tickets from discounters. They all sound a little sketchy, but they're legitimate and the prices are much better than any regularly-advertised airline ticket. Look for ads in the Sunday travel section of almost any major newspaper or urban alternative weeklies.

[+ Axiom2001]

United's fares are to grab, but the timing of travel is off. If I read correctly, and I read their advertised fares twice this week, all travel must end by 04/01/03. If this is not what I read, I would have booked for 04/08-05/03/03. Thanks anyway. The more info. we all receive, the better to make intelligent and viable choices.

[gulliver]

just booked thru orbitz NYC JFK to RIO non stop both ways 653.00 on varig - leaving nyc feb 19 and returning 25th.. since i like to go often even if I can only get away for a long weekend, it was great to get the non stop. just called rene at Atlantico Copacabana and reserved the top floor suite - for you guys who like to go regularily, it seems that this hotel goes out of its way to accomodate customers they remember as their "regulars".