Other North & South America Frequent Flyer Programs - Expectations in F on RG

Gifting newly-weds with a honeymoon flight to/from Rio, first class, YYZ-GIG.
Using my UAL milege plus miles they ended up on Varig. Will they have lie-flat seats? What service should they expect?
TIA

I recenly flew LAX-NRT on RG in first. Service was great. Just 4 of us up front. However steward did not speak English so it was a bit difficult. Excellent trip on the whole.

When is this for? It looks like all the RG service from YYZ is on a 2 cabin 767. Are they connecting through another city?

When is this for? It looks like all the RG service from YYZ is on a 2 cabin 767. Are they connecting through another city?

If it's via YYZ and non-stop, this will be a 763 on AC metal(RG codeshare).

[UAL will only release paper tix to me, and I will forward to the lucky couple.
Will ticket within next 48 hours, report back.
They tried for past 72 hours, looking for (originally hoped-for) Buenos Aires, but entire month of January and first week of February were unavailable.
More later, and thanks for your interest.


QUOTE=Eastbay1K]When is this for? It looks like all the RG service from YYZ is on a 2 cabin 767. Are they connecting through another city?[/QUOTE]

They tried for past 72 hours, looking for (originally hoped-for) Buenos Aires, but entire month of January and first week of February were unavailable.


Funnily enough, I was going to suggest Buenos Aires as an alternative destination to Rio. Whenever honeymoons and Rio are mentioned I recall this conversation I had with an Irish guy in a Rio pub during the 2002 World Cup.

Me : What brought you down here to Rio?
Him : We’re on our honeymoon (pointing to his wife who admittedly wasn’t a looker).
Me : Hmm, much as I love the city I’m not sure if I’d spent my honeymoon here.
Him : (Took long swig from pint then sighed) F**kin tell me about it!! The birds here are lovely!!
Me : (Uncomfortable silence) Anyway do you think we will win the game?

Last year a friend of mine wanted to go there and I advised him against it although in his case the decision was a little easier as he wanted to go in July. IMO two important elements for a honeymoon would be a nice hotel and the feeling of being totally relaxed when out and about. Although I feel Rio is not as dangerous as some say you still need to keep your guard up to a significant degree. Also the nice hotels are relatively pricey in what is generally a cheap destination. Better value to be had in BA.

If they do go to Brazil an option might be to spend a weekend in Rio at a nice hotel e.g. enough time to see the sights, take in a samba school then spend the rest of the time at one of the quiet beach resorts in the North East. There are many options in the states of Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Bahia. Maybe others here can give some specific recommendations. It may be possible to build the internal flights into the award using Varig.

Finally Varig don’t fly to YYZ. If it’s a first class award I presume they would be better connecting in JFK and enjoying RG’s first class cabin rather than AC’s business class cabin on the direct flight.

If you have to fly RG, then try to make sure you get on a flight/route that has 777 metal. The MD11s that RG is operating are very very old and the interiors are quite messed up.

I'm sure you will have an excellent time in Rio. Rio is great.
Would recommend you to visit:

http://www.riodejaneiro-turismo.com.br/pt/

and

http://www.embratur.gov.br/en/home/index.asp

As for YYC-GIG with RG, the flight is actually a codeshare RG, operared by Canadian. The flight goes to GRU and you then connect to GIG. They use 767 on this route, so I think you cannot expect a lie-flat seat.

Also had good experience with RG in their new 777 (three more will be added to their network now in November) and the MD-11 is also ok.

Hardi

As for YYC-GIG with RG, the flight is actually a codeshare RG, operared by Canadian. The flight goes to GRU and you then connect to GIG. They use 767 on this route, so I think you cannot expect a lie-flat seat.


Too bad that "Canadian" has been dead for over 4 years now ! Also "Canadian" was never a member of *A but rather a member of OW. The codeshare service "Air Canada" provides to GRU has seats with 60 inch pitch and 151 degree recline. Check here (www.aircanada.ca/services/business/if101a.html) for the 763 seat specs and other on-board services.