Airline Update

[Big Daddy]

Continental just raised its frequent flyer mile requirement to 50,000 miles for a trip to Brazil. It had been only 35,000, which was a really good deal. A coach ticket on Continental from Phoenix can be bought for about $700. Also noticed that Varig has Internet specials to Rio from Miami for $470, and from LA for $570. I probably will not have enough Continenal miles so will go back the old fashioned way by paying. It was be very helpful to continue posting airline specials as you see them.

 

I was watching the Democratic convention last night and was plesantly surprised to hear Mrs. Kerry address the Brazilian community in Portuguese. There must be more "Brasileiros" in Florida than I thought.

[mjd]

Sorry to hear about Continental requiring more miles. They were a great bargain, although it was necessary to connect through Sao Paulo if going to Rio.

 

American requires something like 60K to go to Rio but I've discovered that using One World miles I could take 40K of my British Air miles for an American Airlines trip to Rio.

[Guest Tomcal_]

I just got a ticket on American for Labor Day weekend for 40,000 Miles

[trilingual]

>I was watching the Democratic convention last night and was

>plesantly surprised to hear Mrs. Kerry address the Brazilian

>community in Portuguese. There must be more "Brasileiros" in

>Florida than I thought.

 

Actually, the convention was being held in Boston. Massachusetts has one of the largest communities of Portuguese-speaking immigrants in the U.S., made up of large numbers of people from Portugal, Brazil and Cape Verde. There are large Brazilian expat communities elsewhere in New England (like Danbury, CT), in New York, New Jersey, South Florida, and California (along with Portuguese communities). Brazilians pop up everywhere; there's even a community in Kansas City!

[trilingual]

RE: Airline Update - British Airways Sucks

 

The BF and I flew from Brazil to Europe on British Airways. Never before and never again.

 

While the on-board service in coach was fine, BA's ground service and overall customer service attitude is an utter turn-off. Biggest gripe is that (without adequate notice from American Airlines, my main carrier) BA is no longer allowing OneWorld alliance travelers to earn full mileage on discounted economy fares. Instead, they only give 25% of the mileage! Had I known that I would have flown Varig or another airline where we could have earned the full mileage (nearly 15,000 miles each). BTW, we weren't traveling on dirt cheap fares (about $1200 RT) although they certainly don't compare to full-fare coach, which is now the only fare on which you can earn full mileage on BA!

 

To compound the disenchantment, my BF is 6'3" (1,90m) with very long legs and we tried reserving exit-row or bulkhead seats so he'd have some room. Even though we made the reservations MONTHS ago, BA only books those seats at the airport, and only SEGMENT-BY-SEGMENT, which means you have to plead at each airport you pass through if you're connecting, as were were. We managed to get an exit row from Rio to London, but not from London to Amsterdam (not a big deal since it's such a short flight). From Berlin to London we got exit row seats, but they couldn't give us exit row boarding passes in Berlin all the way back to Rio, and of course, by the time we got to London, all the exit row seats on the full flight had been given away. Nobody could explain why BA does this, and nobody could bother to find a way to try to accommodate us. On the return flight to Rio, business class was empty, but even though I'm a OneWorld elite status member on American with Million-Mile status, there were no offers to upgrade us, or even to seat us in the Economy Plus section (or whatever it is that BA calls it) which is a bit more roomy. None of this is a way to win repeat business, and it'll be a cold day in hell before I voluntarily fly BA again.

[+ Axiom2001]

Last year I used 25K on American and paid about $350 dollars for my ticket to Brasil; I flew to Sao Paulo from Miami (...had a Brasilian Pass which I used to get to Rio after going to other fab areas of Brasil) and left from Rio back to the States--Miami.

 

I've recently transferred 25K from AMEX to Continental; I will use them to go to Sao Paulo this year; I'll will have to pay an additional $300+ dollars. I did all of this last week.

 

So, talk with your agant at Continental; perhaps you will not have to fork out the entire amount for a ticket to Brasil and to your favorite city!

[Driver]

I've just used my remaining airmiles (4,100) and reduced a Varig fare of $750 down to $420 from the UK to Rio in October.