I flew to Rio thru Sao Paolo in NF this xmas - flight down to GRU was perfect - great taking off from LHR at 930pm having had the whole day at home in London and landing in GRU the following morning.

However given the timings of connecting flights, we chose to fly with Webjet as opposed to TAM - would never do this again. I didn't feel safe. Very old 737 which at one point during the descent began to shake violently with a loud noise emanating from the left wing as the flaps extended that everyone turned their head and I began to feel nervous.

In short - fly BA in F to GRU. The best airport to then fly to in Rio is SDU (Santos Dumont) given its proximity to the city. I wouldn't recommend Webjet despite them eventually getting us their safely / being slightly cheaper.