fanoftravel

Hi - I did a search and did not find this, so my apologies in advance if I missed any posts...

I have not had any luck finding the sign-up page for GOL in English. When I go to the GOL English site and then select Smiles, it takes me to a section in Portuguese.

Also, is it easy to check award availability using GOL miles for Delta, AF, KLM, Qatar, etc.?

Would I be able to check on the GOL Smiles site once I sign up, or will I need miles in my account first?

Also, if the various Skymiles airlines show availability for their respective partners on their own site (for instance Air France shows Delta seats at the low level), then as a general rule will the same seats be available using GOL miles?

For Qatar award seats, again if American Airlines is showing availability on the AAdvantage website, will GOL likely have the same Qatar seats?

Thank you!

SoCal

I assume you mean Delta Airlines, not American Airlines, in your last sentence. Gol and Delta are not in the same alliance but are code share partners. AA and Gol are not partners. I'd call Delta directly about availability. Gol's Web site also lists a ticket office for Los Angeles: +1 (310) 775-2575 as well as a toll free number for the U.S. overall +1 855 5 FLY GOL

There does not appear to be an English language page for Smiles

fanoftravel

Thanks for the reply, but I did mean American in my last sentence.

Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I could have been...

It appears that GOL Smiles can be redeemed for flights on Delta, AF, KLM, Qatar, etc.

So, I was asking if, after signing up for GOL Smiles, one can check partner (for mileage redemption) seat availability easily, for which carriers and even without the requisite miles in the account.

I then was wondering, for example, if Delta is showing availability for mileage seats on their Skymiles website for seats on Air France, is it generally the case that those same seats will be available for a GOL Smiles member?

As Qatar is both an American mileage partner (being part of One World) and a GOL Smiles partner, I was asking if one checks for QR availability on the American website for Qatar seats using AA miles, if seats are available, would those same seats generally be available for GOL Smiles redemption.

I'm hoping someone who uses GOL Smiles can comment on the ease of using the award miles to fly on the partner carriers. Thanks.

arthrod

You can check online without having the amount of miles for partners! But you have to have an account. For Delta, availability usually is the same for the Delta website on the smallest amount of miles needed. For the other partners I usually check in the Smiles website itself.

If you're checking Gol flights, you don't need an account, you can check it here:

https://emissao.smiles.com.br/SmilesSite/

pb9997

To be able to use Gol miles for awards there needs to be availability on the partner's carrier at the lowest level AND Gol's award system must be able to produce a connection if there is one to be made. Mixed classes, such as a coach feeder to an international premium cabin are not allowed.

Thus, Gol's system is much more restrictive than a partner's availability and even more restrictive than the Gol's T&C imply.

At the end of the day it boils down to whether Gol's system is able to find availability and secure a connection; Connections allowed are only the next same-day scheduled flight, even when there is availability on another flight five minutes later.

In my experience partner's award booking engines are much more enhanced thus availability found there does not usually translate to an available Gol's award with them.

fanoftravel

Thank you for the replies.

What if you call in? Are the agents able to put together more complicated itineraries in which coach can be combined with business/first class or connections other than the next scheduled flight can be used?

Finally, are there partner award charts that show the number of miles required for the various partners?

Thanks!

pb9997

Agents will book what appears in the website, and they make it very clear that if bookable on the website they are not expected to do it over the phone.

raenye

Does GOL collect YQ for awards (e.g., on DL/KL/AF)?

arthrod

No, but their award table is not fixed.

bobbybrown

https://www.smiles.com.br/tipos-de-tarifas-smiles

There are tables/charts at the bottom of this link. Seems mostly consistent with what I found, except that Etihad intra-Asia weirdly costs 25k instead of 12.5k. I didn't see any YQ attached on the ticket, but my experience is very limited.