Other North & South America Frequent Flyer Programs - Rate Varig Smiles

We are going to review Varig Smiles in the November issue of InsideFlyer magazine and would like your input.

If you would like to participate, please post your response in the thread with the pros and cons of membership in Varig Smiles and grade the program from A to F (A being the highest grade). You can include a plus or minus with the rating.

You can also respond directly to me at dmankell@insideflyer.com.
Thank you!

Smiles is not really Varig's anymore. Varig is now owned by Gol, an airline that started as a low-cost but now can't really be labeled as such. As Varig and Gol do not fly anywhere outside South America, Smiles (Gol's and Varig's FF program) is of limited interest to Brazilian customers who may be interested in flying to other places.

A few months ago Smiles announced it was establishing partnerships with other airlines like AA and Air France, so that customers could get credit for in their AAdvantage or Flying Blue accounts for flying with Gol/Varig; as well as the other way around. However, so far my experience with these partnerships has been tough. I have been trying to get credit in my FB account for 4 flights I took with Gol in May, the month the partnerships were starting up. To this day I haven't received the mileage, and it's been lots of letters, faxes and phone calls. Whenever you fly Gol/Varig, your FF number of any airline is never printed on your boarding pass, so that makes you suspect whether they are really serious with their FF initiatives, as requesting past credit is such a chore.

It is also very difficult to book a flight using Smiles points, because there is a very limited number of seats per flight, and you have to book several months in advance. The alternative is to book with double miles, so you can avoid blackout dates. I had to spend 80k miles to fly from Rio to Buenos Aires on economy with my wife, which is ridiculous.

To make matters worse, Gol/Varig are not members of any airline alliance, so how much more uninteresting can it get?

OVerall, I would rate it a D or E.

I agree with arrozcomfeijao. The only thing Im not really convinced is about how hard is to book a flight using Smiles miles. I had very positive experiences booking flights with them (both with full fares and promotions. On Varig's last days I booked a RT from SAO to CDG in C at the airport, 70 min before departure)
Another possitive thing about the "new smiles" are the GREAT promotions like 2.000 miles for a OW within Brasil, or the 6.000 OW within Southamerica.