Thanks for the advice, but I didn't end up using it. I held, but didn't book SBA-LAX-GRU-LIM in C, with the second two legs on Varig. I tried for AC through YYZ, but as you said, there was no availability. Reading about Varig on their board made me quite hesitant to go through with it.

Then I found a fare for $394 for a direct flight LAX-LIM on Lan. Since I'm going with 3 other people (who don't care about miles, or status, only money, and live near SFO, ORD, and NYC) we're all going to meet up in LA and take that flight together, and I'll save those 80000 miles for something else. It probably won't be as nice (and possibly horrible) but it's fairly cheap and I'll be with my friends rather than alone, and we won't have to worry about finding each other once we arrive.