abeyro

When I was in Rio earlier this year, only one lounge was available for Priority Pass cardholders, namely Gol Premium Lounge (pretty shabby, btw )

Recently Priority Pass added 2 new lounges to their offer (both in T2):
1) Plaza Premium Lounge - Airside - 1st Floor, Mezzanine Floor
2) Plaza Premium Lounge - Airside - 3rd Floor, at the South Pier

However there are no pics of their interior whatsoever...
Has anyone been there?
Are they any better than the infamous Gol "Premium' Lounge?

boboqui

No comparison! The one on the third floor is excellent!

Here's a review and pics: http://www.melhoresdestinos.com.br/p...ip-galeao.html

I thought the carpet was amazing

qfrodo

The carpet reminds me of the sidewalks along the beach. At least the ones here in Vitoria.

erik123

Glad to hear it! The airport is a dump.

Esmjb

The new terminal is really nice though seemingly 3 times as big as needed. I read the other day they are consolidating the old, decrepit terminal 1 into the new one due to lack of demand.

Esmjb

I wouldn't be surprised if every city in Brazil had that design somewhere though I don't know. Depending on who you talk to it represents the mixing of white Portuguese with black slaves or the meeting of the Rio negro and Amazon river near Manaus.

RafKa

Agree. The AAdmirals Club spanking new and is the nicest one I've seen anywhere in the world.

ajeleonard

The new lounges are nice but the quality of construction of the new pier is appallingly bad, and lots of evidence of corners cut everywhere. An improvement off a low base but nowhere near as nice as GRU T3

Esmjb

Can you point to anything specific? I didn't inspect it top to bottom but to my eyes everything looked pretty nice.

MSPeconomist

Is this still the AA lounge that you enter though the GOL lounge and then go upstairs?

RafKa

No - this is a completely new, dedicated AAdmirals Club at the new pier. Really nice.

boboqui

Don't forget to wear marathon sneakers for the hike to the gate!

BrianWBrazil

I am surprised you actually found time to visit the lounge! I flew out of GIG in September and it took 2 hours to get from bag drop (BA business class) to the airside departure hall (and they have this crazy set-up where every departing passenger is obligated to make a convoluted trek through the duty free area to get to departure gates). In my case, this left no time for anything other than dash for the gate! There were three significant bottlenecks where the wait times were horrendous: bag drop, x-ray security, and passport control (on departure). I mentioned to a sales assistant in the duty free, as I sprinted past, that their investment in the DF concession might not amount to much if the airport systems do not allow passengers sufficient time to actually stop and make a purchase.

zackery149

2 hours! , Luca, lordy.

I am flying out in December (evening busy time), will give myself plenty of time.

Was there reduced staffing at security and passport control, or could you tell?

Thanks

BrianWBrazil

Well, I can't be sure as to the exact nature. I fly out of GIG quite often but this was my first time at T2 since BA migrated there in August. I hope it was a glitch but it could be systemic; it was certainly very different to the relatively quick procedure that I had been used to at T1. I am flying BA from T2 again in about 3 weeks so I hope things have improved. Nevertheless, I will give myself 3 hours from departure to be safe. The check-in took too long, as did the security screening, but then, after all that, came departure passport control, which seemed on par with my experiences in the US in terms of a snaking line moving slowly into the distance.

As an observation, anyone who has flown domestic in Brazil from GIG can vouch for the fact that massive long queues for check-in are considered the norm here. If fact, my experience has been quite negative in that regard. My worse experience was arriving two hours before a flight to stand in a line that took well over an hour to get to the desk. Then, to add insult to injury, the staff were walking along the long line asking for passengers for flights with an imminent departure, pushing them to the front of the queue. So, having stood in line for an hour and 20 minutes, the passengers behind me at bag drop were passengers who had arrived only 2 minutes ago and ushered to the front in order not to miss the flight. Completely absurd and very common practice here.