First post as a new member of flyertalk.

Just completed a TP run which may be of interest. Had to spend some time in Sao Paulo - and biz from London direct is generally quite steep. Routing via the US seemed like a good option but where to start from? Paris and Amsterdam were somewhat cheaper, but Lisbon was the winner - booked via AA on the link via ITA Matrix. 680 for £1945.

LIS-LHR-JFK-GRU out / GRU-MIA-JFK-LHR-LIS back.

Flew down to Lisbon the night before and stayed in the Melia at the airport. The OneWorld lounge isn't open in time for the flight out but the Melia serve breakfast from 4am. London was smooth and was in the F lounge not long after landing at the A gates. My concern on this trip was how quick I could turnaround in JFK. I had opted for hand luggage only. I was first off the plane - thankfully Immigration was completely empty and I was through 7 minutes after exiting the plane. Quickly upstairs, through the JFK First Class area and channelled to the front of security. In total from exiting the plane to back airside was a mere 21 mins.

On the way back I opted for GRU-MIA-JFK rather than GRU-JFK direct (which would have been a 12 hour break).

Whole trip went very smoothly and no trouble with the return leg of my positioning flight back to London.