Other North & South America Frequent Flyer Programs - Varig short-haul in Latin America

For the *A junkies out there, Ive recently taken Varig on short flights intra-LA and find their business class service to be excellent. F&B is very smooth, service crisp, and you even get the Sony personal video player (in business). I think all short-haul service is two-class only.



------------------
Gaucho100K

I have not yet flown RG in business, but next year I will burn the extra miles and do so. I don't expect great seats on a DC 10 tho..

If the flights are not packed, coach is great though. Food in Varig coach is IMHO, Better than UA business (international flights), and the service on the domestic flights (coach) usually makes UA look silly.

Their Smiles program leaves a lot to be desired, which is why I credit all my miles to UA.

*You haven't experienced air travel until you've landed in Natal in a 767* http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif (That was Transbrasil, Varig uses 737s)

braslvr:

What made the flight into Natal so interesting? I've been there a couple of times, but have always driven from Recife.

As for Varigs service, I've always been quite satisfied with Varig's service along with their subsidary Pluna.

If your traveling in SA, TAM is also quite good.

Originally posted by jaguar99:
braslvr:

What made the flight into Natal so interesting?

A short runway. I've done it twice, and the deceleration factor is incredible. Once, we actually made our u-turn to the terminal on the dirt/gravel at the end of the runway. It could also partly be due to the pilot not touching down soon enough, but it's still to short for a widebody IMHO.

Varig's 737s have plenty of runway to spare.

BTW, what is the secret for getting a decent fare on Varig's once per week MIA-REC run? It would save me about 8 hrs. of flying time, and I could avoid GRU. When I price SFO-MIA-REC-NAT, it is always at least $800. more than SFO-MIA-GRU-NAT or SFO-LAX-GIG-NAT, even months in advance.

bras:

I don't think that Varig still flies DC10 in the passenger's services ! Most likely you'll get an MD11 from LAX.

Another fun airport in Brazil is in Foz do Iguaçu (IGU),... quite short and on a plateau . I was fortunate to be invited to stay in the cockpit for the landing on a RG737-300 ,...fun fun fun ! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Cheers

M

------------------
_________________________________________
Get Paid... With Your Free Email at
http://www.themail.com/ref.htm?ref=424497

bras:

The flight MIA-REC is always priced higher than a connector thru Rio or Sao Paolo. This is due to the competition from these cities and value of direct vs. connection.

You may want to try MIA-Forteleza. The flight to Recife stops in Forteleza for about and hour on the way down. From there you could catch a cheaper domestic ticket.

Best of luck.

RG was excellent on 2 flights in April--GRU to POA and POA-EZE. Far exceeded Aerolineas Argentinas. Biz class, both 737s, 2 pm GRU-POA and 9 PM POA-EZE they fed us well and had excellent coffee.

You might consider booking the UA codeshare to REC, then RG on to your final desination.

Of the 3 (RG, TAM and Transbrasil), what are preferences, likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses (Our co. has a deal with DL which applies to DL coded TR flights as well. I've always used RG, but wonder what TR is like).

jl

Originally posted by MMM:
bras:

I don't think that Varig still flies DC10 in the passenger's services ! Most likely you'll get an MD11 from LAX.




Very interesting. My upcoming Oct. itinerary shows a DC 10, but it was booked months ago. I will call RG tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.

edited to note that I called, and it has in fact been changed to a MD11. Now, as soon as I can find a seat map for that puppy, I'll be calling them back.

[This message has been edited by braslvr (edited 09-11-2000).]

Originally posted by jamiel:


You might consider booking the UA codeshare to REC, then RG on to your final desination.

Of the 3 (RG, TAM and Transbrasil), what are preferences, likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses (Our co. has a deal with DL which applies to DL coded TR flights as well. I've always used RG, but wonder what TR is like).

jl

UA codeshare to REC???????? Please tell me more!!! The only way I even found out there WAS a direct flight MIA-REC was from the folks at Varig. UA could/would not help at all.

From my experience, service on Transbrasil is equal to that of Varig. Fewer TR employees speak English (if that is a concern), and as I said, nothing compares with Varig's meals.

I have never flown TAM, but Vasp was OK too before their demise.

And HEY!! Good to get this forum going again!

[This message has been edited by braslvr (edited 09-10-2000).]

sorry my ua timetable is in the car but i think they codeshare on all RG flights from the USA including Recife/Fortaleza.

i'll ck and let u know.

jl