I can't find a Paypal option. I think it must have been removed since those reports, because I've looked pretty hard. I don't have have a LATAM account, and haven't tried registering for one. But trying to book through the app or Brazilian website require the CPF entries to use a Credit Card. I also tried using my Chase SPR as a "debit card" but that errored out. I can't find a PNR or locator number on any of their error screens to try and call in. I didn't try a real debit card, mainly because I don't know enough about the foreign transaction fees, nor do I want to lose the points and protections from the SPR.

The fares have changed a lot in the last two weeks for SAO-RIO (booking end of January). Currently I've got an outbound on GOL at the same price as LATAM (both airlines also had intermittent availability at the lower price through US OTA's - but they would never show the discounted [~1/2 price] rate on the return leg or as a round trip). I booked the return on GOL using 3000 Etihad miles + $8 in taxes. It's not my ideal schedule, but included one bag and seemed like a decent value. I'll keep watching and maybe checking with Etihad in case later flights open up. Or if one of the LATAM sales pops back up, I'll try one more time! I think the cancellation fee on the reward ticket is 10%, so I wouldn't be too worried about losing 300 miles.