Originally Posted by
swat16
US Airways in May from Charlotte (CLT) to GIG nonstop is 35,000 miles roundtrip in economy. This would cost your friend 30K Starwood Points per person roundtrip if it was available. If your friend has a US Airways credit card they will get 5,000 miles off so it would be 30K US miles roundtrip, or 25K SPG points per person. I'm not sure if they charge more miles if you have to connect through CLT from another city but I wouldn't think so.
doesn't charge more to connect, looked at 30k flights (+$111 booking fee) from CMH-CLT-GIG (35k off peak - 5k via US card). so signing up for the US card & its 40k bonus after 1st purchase will give you enough miles for the flight which for the same dates out of CMH was a $1300 flight.
also, flights btwn SAO&RIO are so cheap he might as well book it on US air if the dates are good, and pay the $150 a roundtrip btwn SAO&RIO costs, and fly the whole trip for 30k miles and $250 in fees compared to 60k miles on another airlines plus whatever their fees are.