Trip Reports - A cheap trip to Brazil: Iberia (IB) and TAM (JJ) experiences in Economy.

I wasn't sure whether or not I'd write this experience up of the flights I took on my trip earlier this month, but having found some notes I made during the trip in my bag (what can I say, I'm a slow unpacker!) I decided why not. Excuse me in advance for rambling!

My name is colmc, and I am a travel addict: It's been a while since my last trip report! (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/914594-tale-four-locos-trips-ei-b6-vx-fr.html).

As per my usual custom, I wanted to go away for the week of my birthday, but being a little cash strapped I decided to challenge myself: how far could I go while spending the minimum I could afford. So, I took to one of my favourite activities: scouring travel sites :)

The whole "looking at destinations" thing always makes me feel good. I like the feeling of possibilities as much as anything else. I guess that's something I share with more than a few people on this board.

Eventually I found myself at iberia.com - and from a quick investigation, it looked like they had some really competitive prices. Iberia, despite it's many flaws, has an extensive range of flights from Europe to South America - and having never been to that continent I was pretty intrigued. This meant a long, long flight in Y. Worse than that, it was a long, long flight in Iberia's Y. Reading reviews didn't instill me with confidence, but something inside me gave me the "what the hell" feeling, I found a fantastic value fare to Brazil. At just €550 return from Dublin to Rio de Janeiro, and returning to Dublin from São Paulo, it fit the bill perfectly. I booked it and having picked up said bargain fare, and then some bargain accommodation in both cities, I was soon all sorted for a trip to Brazil. Iberia's website was pretty intuitive, and the booking process painless. So far, so good for Iberia!

My next trial was to book at flight from Rio De Janeiro to São Paulo - a task made remarkably difficult by the Brazilian airlines! TAM's website was awful - and more expensive when booking outside Brazil. GOL's site worked well - but would not accept any of my credit/debit cards. Azul, Webjet and Oceanair all faired no better. Left with no choice, I booked it with TAM - and paid much more for it than what it was on offer on their domestic site. Annoying experience all in all, it must be said.

Still - the trip was all planned, and paid for. All I had to do was wait.

So, the day had finally arrived: My trip to Brazil was imminent. I checked in online for the first leg of my trip on iberia.com, and it was all quite an easy process. Unfortunately, I couldn't check in for my MAD - GIG leg due to the overnight layover in Madrid. Still, although online check in was due to be opened 24 hours before the flight, Iberia seemed to be quite flexible on that timeframe. I was able to check in for MAD - GIG at least 30 hours in advance, and it meant I had both boarding passes before heading to the Airport.

There were 3 check-in desks available at Dublin for this flight - one business, and two economy. Each desk had a passenger at them, and with only one person ahead of me in the queue, I was soon summoned over to the empty business class desk to drop my bag. The agent was pleasant, and my bag was soon tagged only Madrid (due to the stopover, which suited me!) with no fuss. Security at DUB was busy, but moving well for once and before I knew it, I was through into the Departures area. I took my time and eventually headed for the gate area to find a seat. As time went by, it was obvious that the flight was going to be full due to the number of people at the gate. Gate staff arrived eventually, but as the time for departure came closer there was no sign of a plane - and no information forthcoming from the ground staff! Trusty mobile internet is great - a quick Google showed me that the inbound flight was late: so I knew we would have a delayed departure. Stoically, I decided to read my book - Dublin Airport is not a great provider of options. Eventually the inbound flight touched down and got to gate - 25 minutes later than scheduled. Passengers were already getting up and ready to board..something that really annoys me. I have to bite my tongue - I'm kind of OCD about queueing. Worse than that, then I get panicked about not being in the queue. There is no happy medium for me :D

As time passed, boarding was called - from back to front. As I was in seat 6C, I had a while to wait, but with 3 gate agents, the boarding was at least happening quickly, and soon I was on board and settling into my seat. As predicted, the flight was completely full and much consternation was caused by the shortage of overhead bin space, mostly caused by the massive carry on's people insist on bringing! I don't get why people need carry-on bags the size of small apartments, personally, but judging from this flight I was in a minority. Eventually it was all sorted out, with people using any space they could find. Doors were closed, and we were on our way.

I've never travelled with IB before, but I had been on one of their A320's. Purely on a technicality: two of this aircraft's sister models, already equipped for Iberia are currently being used by Aer Lingus after IB didn't take delivery of them. As such I knew what the cabin was going to be like - and to get a seat close to the front! This particular model of A320 is equipped with some pretty nice grey leather seating, but it has two issues. One is the lack of a seat pocket - instead there is a small storage area above the tray table. It's already filled with the Iberia magazine, safety card and sick bag - if you have anything other than a very slim paperback/newspaper/magazine, don't expect to stow it there. And you're going to have a fun time if you drop an iPod or similar device in there..

The second, is that past row 8, the seat pitch is tiny, bordering on excrutiating. Rows 1 - 8 and convertible for business class seating, and therefore have extra pitch (quite generous for short-haul). The rows behind that, however, were terrible. Having seen this on the Aer Lingus aircraft, I was determined to get a seat in those rows, and luckily I did. 2.5 hours in the other rows would not have been nice.

In-flight service began pretty promptly, but I declined on this occasion. The crew, who were friendly and spoke excellent English came through the cabin regularly to collect rubbish etc, and soon we began our descent into Madrid. Before landing, connection information was announced (destinations, gates etc), which I thought was a nice touch. We had a long taxi to T4 which meant that we gained nothing timewise, and arrival was 30 minutes later than scheduled. Disembarkation was quick, and those with connections in T4S were asked to stay on board and exit via the rear where a bus would be waiting for them. It all seemed quite efficient. Madrid's T4 was really a sight to see. I love the open plan feel of it all - but this does mean some long walks. We had a while to wait for our luggage, but soon the first leg of my journey was over as I left the terminal and went to my hotel.

Pros:Modern plane, good seats in rows 1 - 8
Cons:Seats after row 8, suitable only for vertically challenged dwarves.
Score: A middling 7/10 for this flight. A lack of information about the delay at Dublin, horrible cabin layout for the majority of my co-passengers and a long wait for luggage after the initial delay marred what was a reasonable short-haul intra-European flight.

..to be continued :D

So after an excellent night of sleep, I left my overnight hotel (the Travelodge Madrid Torrelaguna - cheap, cheerful and took me 20/25 minutes by bus to get to/from the Airport at a grand total of €4 for the entire transport!) and made my way to back to Terminal 4. Again, I must express my awe at this terminal. It was bright, spacious and didn't feel "busy" despite the huge number of people around. All in all, quite impressive. I looked at the departures board, but couldn't find any desk area assigned to IB6025 to drop my bag at, I decided to venture to the nearby help desk. Trepidation: my first encounter with one of Iberia's (in)famous ground staff. Prepared to use my weak-to-the-point of non-existant Spanish I approached and asked "¿Hablas inglés?". Thankfully, for both of us, she did and quickly directed me to where I needed to go. There was no only 1 person ahead of me in the queue at the bag drop zone, and soon my bag was tagged to Rio and sent into the bowels of MAD. The agent was friendly, explaining where to go (T4S) and how long to give myself to get to the satellite. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the Iberia I'd heard of!

I went to the foreign exchange, and got some Brazilian Reals and headed for security, which was also extremely efficient and pleasant, with virtually no queue. I took a short walk around the terminal, and then made my way to the connecting train for T4S. Again, the spacious nature of this new terminal complex means a lot of walking, so for those who aren't as quick as they used to be, time should be allowed to make it to your gate. For me, however, it wasn't so bad. I browsed the shops and eateries in T4S (a good selection) and made my way to gate U55, found a seat and settled down to read a book. The gate area looked deceptively empty, again a tribute to the spacious nature of the terminal (and the amount of people in the eateries and shopping spaces probably!). Boarding commenced on time, again from the rear and it proceeded efficiently. Once on board it was obvious we were going to have a full flight and I stowed my bag and removed the pillow and blanket from my seat and settled in. I was impressed with the seat pitch and comfort - both were better than expected. The blanket also seemed of good quality (fleece type) rather than the thin scratchy rags sometimes presented as "blankets" in Y cabins! Gradually all the passengers were settled and I found myself with an empty seat next to me - but would the seat next to me remain free? My row companions in the D/E seats seemed to be hoping for some storage space (as was I secretly!) but it turned out not to be - at the last minute, the owner of the G seat boarded (one of the last to board), and the flight was pretty much full. The safety video was played, and we taxied to the runway just 5 minutes behind our time.

As we gained altitude, service began. First off was a round of newspapers being offered to everyone - a nice touch in economy, I thought. (I noted that this also took place in the DUB - MAD flight, which I found unusual!). After a short period of time the in-flight entertainment began which is probably one of the biggest disappointments for some. IB currently has no seat-back screens, never mind AVOD in economy. It's still all shared screens in the back, unlike in Business Plus, meaning that a long flight to South America could become even longer if you're not prepared. Thankfully I had a book, an iPod and a laptop full of movies and TV episodes: I came prepared. Lunch was served, and was a choice between a chicken dish and pasta (which seems to be the general option on IB). Drinks were also served with dinner - but seemed to be limited to soft drinks, wine and beer. I didn't see any sign of spirits being served, but perhaps they were available on request!

The meal itself was perfectly acceptable: the only anomaly was an odd starter of some canned tuna on a splodge of coleslaw which just seemed wrong. The tortellini pasta however was perfectly fine. Desert was a mousse/sponge combination with blackcurrants that was pretty inoffensive. Soft cheese, crackers, butter, a water cup and a bread roll made up the tray along with real cutlery. Again, it's sad to say these days - but real cutlery in Y is a fastly disappearing thing in my opinion. Cabin crew passed through with extra bread rolls, and then multiple tea and coffee runs. I might as well mention that later in the flight a snack was served (cheese sandwich and tea/coffee), plus a pre-landing snack box (meat/cheese roll, yoghurt, chocolate bar with a drink service) - it seemed unlikely you would be hungry, and the quality was pretty good. Extra drinks were available in the rear galley (where I encountered the only "unfriendly" crew member on the flight, who didn't appreciate being disturbed it would seem!). We touched down at Rio a few minutes early, and taxied to the gate. Disembarkation was quick, and immigration took just minutes to get through for me (being close to the front of the aircraft helped!). Baggage took a long time to come through though, but about 35 minutes after landing I was out on the curb, awaiting my taxi.

So - my assessment of Iberia so far: well, it certainly challenged my preconceptions. The flight was pretty good all in all, and comfort levels were above what I had expected!

Pros: reasonable food, good seat comfort, generally friendly crew
Cons: IFE - come prepared with your own entertainment or be willing to suffer some awful movies!
Score: 8/10 - not half as bad as I expected. Had there been some better inflight entertainment, the score would have been higher. After all, it is economy so you have to be prepared for basic comfort levels and poor food. Yet Iberia managed to provide a pretty decent experience all in all

When booking this flight I couldn't get flights from Santos Dumont to Congonhas, the airports nearer to the cities in question to book, for whatever reason, so I had to settle for a GIG - GRU leg, which wasn't ideal.

However, it gave my another first in my traveling life: my first trip with a South American airline. I was looking forward to experiencing another new airline (geek that I am!) Of course, I was disappointed that my short time in Rio was up - a shame, but I did enjoy it! The day before I was due to leave, I decided to try checking in online for my flight on the TAM website. Well, this was an experience: I had to use the Brazilian TAM website, and well my Portuguese is not much better than my Spanish! The entire check-in process was in Portuguese, so with the help of Google Translate, I slowly made my way through the process and got myself seat 10C. I opted not to print my boarding pass, and collect it at the airport. All seemed to be ok, so the next morning I got myself a taxi back to GIG, which was a reasonably quick journey.

Check-in was a little confusing (or at least to me) with no where marked out for either my flight, or to drop bags if you checked in online. One deserted check-in area was marked for International flights, so my natural assumption was to go for the other - WRONG ;) A staff member advised me that as I was traveling to São Paulo, I needed to use the International area. I'm assuming this is due to the amount of interconnecting travelers, or some other reasoning, but I wasn't off to a good start! I went to the International counters, and was quickly shooed away as there was some kind of pre-checking to be done first - except there was no one at the desk. So I waited, she returned, dispatched some other confused looking passenger, looked at my booking confirmation and then sent me to the desk I was shooed away from just 30 seconds before. It did kind of amuse me, in a "this is just bizarre" sort of way - I had plenty of time to spend as I was pretty early, but I could see this annoying someone in a hurry, or more highly strung than myself :D

Check-in took about 5 minutes - being the only person at the desk, the agent didn't seem in much hurry to process me. She seemed confused that I wasn't connecting to another flight at São Paulo. As such she had already asked me about liquids, but as I was just a domestic traveller she told me I could ignore that. Eventually my bag was tagged and a boarding pass issued, and off I went. GIG isn't all that exciting an airport, so I made my way landside. Security was a breeze: no laptops out, shoes off or any other nonsense. I was the only one there so it took all of 3 seconds. Made me pine for when it was like that elsewhere. I took my place at the gate, surfed the web and read my book and before long, the aircraft arrived and not long after that, we were ready to board.

On these short flights, TAM assigns you either boarding group A or B, with queues for both. I was in group B, and took my place behind the barrier. When boarding commenced, it did take a while to complete - meaning that we pushed back late. The cabin in this A320 was bright, and the red/cream fabric seats were comfortable. The flight was quite full, not least with lots of TAM flight and cabin crew positioning to São Paulo, to man various other flights. Some stragglers meant that the flight departed almost 25 minutes late, but as I'm quickly learning..such things happen. The on duty crew were all friendly, and announcements were made in both Portuguese and English. We were soon in the air, and TAM began showing some in-flight entertainment on the overhead monitors. It seemed a bit pointless for what turned into a 45 minute flight! Food service began as quickly as possible. TAM serves up hot sandwiches on domestic flights along with a drinks service (beer and softdrinks). The sandwich was made up of (according to the English PA) "turkey chest, white cheese and yellow cheese": it tasted better than it sounds. Again, it's a sad state of affairs when one feels so spoilt by a piece of bread and melted cheese. This is what flying in Europe and the USA does to you!

Almost as soon as the food had been distributed, clean up began as it started our descent into São Paulo. We touched down about 10 minutes behind schedule. Luggage was delivered quickly, with mine being one of the first 10 bags. I had arrived in São Paulo thanks to TAM and now all I had to do was face the trip from GRU into the city..

Pros: friendly crew, tasty snack
Cons: Confusing check-in experience at GIG, check-in agent who seemed to be in no-rush to actually check me in!
Score: 8/10 - TAM brought back a little nostalgia to me about what short haul flying used to be like - even if it was only a sandwich with "turkey chest", white cheese and yellow cheese ;)
I'd use them again, and I'd like to see what their long-haul services are like.

Thanks for the good feedback on IB and TAM!

My next trial was to book at flight from Rio De Janeiro to São Paulo - a task made remarkably difficult by the Brazilian airlines! TAM's website was awful - and more expensive when booking outside Brazil. GOL's site worked well - but would not accept any of my credit/debit cards. Azul, Webjet and Oceanair all faired no better. Left with no choice, I booked it with TAM - and paid much more for it than what it was on offer on their domestic site. Annoying experience all in all, it must be said.


If you were really concerned about finding a cheap ticket and landing in downtown Rio's SDU airport you could have tried to book with airlines such as Webjet or Ocean Air which operate SDU-GRU perfect for international connections in GRU. One good way of booking domestic tickets in Brazil is via websites such as Expedia and Decolar which most of the times have fares lower than the airline's website!

Rgs,

[Yes, my opus is almost done! :D]

After spending another few days in São Paulo, and enjoying it immensely it was time to go home. I checked in online for both legs of my trip home (thankfully with no stopover!) and when the day came, I decided to take the airport shuttle from Avenida Paulista in the centre of São Paulo back to GRU. I checked out of my hotel, and took a final stroll around the city centre before collecting my bags and heading to get the bus I was informed would leave around 2.40pm. Turns out that this crazy bus didn't quite go direct to the airport. It toured more hotels (understandable). Less understandable was going around in a circle, stopping outside the same hotel twice and waiting. And boy did we wait. And then we moved, and drove a little bit through the city. "Finally!" I thought. Until we stopped again, as the bus company's office. Turns out we weren't leaving São Paulo until 4 p.m! Lucky I'd left early - even with my flight not leaving GRU until 19.40! Thankfully the São Paulo traffic was nothing like the inbound, and we got to GRU at approximately 4.50. Yes, it was much cheaper than a taxi - but I'm never a fan of magical mystery tours when heading to an airport ;)

The Iberia desks at GRU were easy to find, and while there was no queue, all desks were occupied. The Business Plus desk became free and I was summoned to it to be checked in. The agent checked which language I wanted to speak (Portuguese, Spanish or English - a nice touch I thought), promptly re-issued the boarding passes I had already printed, and tagged my bag all the way to Dublin. He advised me to clear security before 6 p.m. as afterwards it can get busy, and told me exactly where I needed to go. Another excellent ground staff experience with Iberia - surely my luck would run out soon? I followed his advice and cleared security/immigration in no time, and then found my gate and surfed the web/read my book while listening to some random group of singers who decided to put on an impromptu performance in the departure gate area. The inbound flight arrived, and passengers disembarked and in an amazingly short time the plane was turned around, and re-catered considering it had arrived behind schedule. The crew for my flight arrived, and not long after they went on board, passenger boarding commenced.

Not much else to say here: chicken and pasta meal, of which the pasta was very good. Iberia's blanket came in useful as with the aid of sleeping pills and a neck pillow I slept for almost 6 hours, meaning I woke up not long before breakfast was served. A record for me! The breakfast consisted of another snackbox containing a fruit pot, a filled bread roll a chocolate bar and possibly another item. A drinks round and multiple tea/coffee runs were performed also. We landed in Madrid on time, and the transfer to my flight to Dublin was painless, if a long walk!

The flight from Madrid to Dublin was also a carbon copy of the inbound, packed with a crew that was a little less friendly than the outbound. Landing at Dublin was a little late, and luggage did take a little while to come out - though in Dublin Airport that seems to be a common occurrence in my experience!

All in all though - I'd definitely (and probably will for my next South America trip) use Iberia again. For the price, I thought the service was decent and comfortable if not the most modern (no AVOD etc). However, they far surpassed the horror stories I had heard before flying them - so kudos to them

Pros: Again some reasonable, edible food, good seat comfort, generally friendly crew on the long haul
Cons: I slept through them ;)
Score: 8/10 again. All was much better than I expected. My trip with Iberia looked like it would be a trial, but it turned out to be one of the more pleasant long haul flights I've taken in economy!

Thanks for the good feedback on IB and TAM!



If you were really concerned about finding a cheap ticket and landing in downtown Rio's SDU airport you could have tried to book with airlines such as Webjet or Ocean Air which operate SDU-GRU perfect for international connections in GRU. One good way of booking domestic tickets in Brazil is via websites such as Expedia and Decolar which most of the times have fares lower than the airline's website!

Rgs,

Yup - I tried. Without a Brazilian issued credit card, nothing seemed to work out well apart from TAM. Such is life - I still got to enjoy the TAM flight :)

Booking via Expedia or Decolar is possible with foreign issued credit card. You can also purchase your ticket with GOL with an AmEx credit card and Webjet is the same, AmEx foreign issued credit card is acceptable. Webjet operates SDU-GRU for R$79.

[Yes, my opus is almost done! :D]

After spending another few days in São Paulo, and enjoying it immensely it was time to go home. I checked in online for both legs of my trip home (thankfully with no stopover!) and when the day came, I decided to take the airport shuttle from Avenida Paulista in the centre of São Paulo back to GRU. "Finally!" I thought. Until we stopped again, as the bus company's office. Turns out we weren't leaving São Paulo until 4 p.m!

Next time get the Airport Bus which departs from Congonhas Airport and goes directly to Guarulhos. If you have a TAM or GOL or Webjet ticket you could get their buses free of charge from Congonhas to Guarulhos and vice-versa. TAM, GOL and Webjet operate airport shuttles between CGH and GRU.

Rgs,

Great read and like you, I've only heard terrible things about IB. Then again, when expectations are very low, it's quite easy for them to be exceeded.

Any link to pictures by chance? Would love to see some of the cabins and the "turkey chest" sandwich. :)

Alas, pictures are thin on the ground. Travelling light I didn't bring a camera (not something I fancied bringing around Rio/Sao Paulo anyway!) so only had my phone - which obviously, I couldn't use in flight :(

Thanks for the report and the info on IB. ^

Thanks for the report! Nice to know IB doesn't have to be bad.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like pretty cool travelling.

So IB is only BOB on shorthaul I guess.

So IB is only BOB on shorthaul I guess.

In economy, yes - all BOB :)

Thanks for the great report, colmc. My memories of IB date from the mid-90's when I was living in Galway, and later London.

The memories are not great, except for a memorable flight from Madrid to JFK with my (now) wife in J, with beat up seats but...:D :-: