A TAM plane curves around Rio de Janeiro's Sugar Loaf mountain after taking off from Santos Dumont Airport.

Welcome to my third Flyertalk trip report. For those curious, you may view my previous reports here:

A trip to Garden City, Kansas (GCK) with AA (many large pics included)

To ICN with Oneworld from BOS, in AA J and JL (Many pictures included)

Background: This trip starts all the way back in February. After finding this fare: [FARE GONE] AA: BOS-GIG $559 RT AI, 4.1 cpm possible, I was able to book one trip for myself. After a near-disaster when ticketing due to AA's computer system choking on two holds I had for the trip, and an EXP agent and myself "gently nudging " Web Services to reinstate my hold so I could book it, I was able to ticket the dates I wanted over Memorial Day weekend in the USA. I then successfully applied my AA SWUs to clear into business class on both ways. With three days in Rio de Janeiro, I was fortunate to have great weather, and was able to see almost all of the major sights, eat lots of great food, and have an excellent trip. So, without further delay, this is my trip report for Boston-Rio de Janeiro and three days in Brazil!

This trip report is in three parts, to skip ahead click on the links below:

American Airlines Boston-New York JFK-Rio de Janeiro Galećo (GIG)

Sheraton Barra, and the city and surroundings of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro Galećo airport (GIG), American Airlines GIG-Dallas/Fort Worth Airport-Boston