Varig (RG) is the worst airline I have flown with in the Star Alliance. I have tried most of their aircrafts (MD-11, 763, 737, 777) in both C and Y. Apart from the 777 all the IFE in business class is done by portable video players. Not the end of the world but I have noticed that they typically don't board enough players for the passengers. On a few occasions they ran out and on one occasion they didn't have any on the flight at all (5 hours). If you must fly Varig I would recommend aiming for a 777 if you can for your route. The 777 in C is similar to UA's product (slightly less recline & pitch). It has personal video in Y, too, but I have not been in coach on this aircraft.
Most of my experience on RG has been within LatAm and only on routes that they serve either exclusively or have the best timed flights on, since there would be no reason to fly with them otherwise. I typically take UA or AA on the longhaul and stay with LAN anytime I can once I am down there.
Experiences/Opinions:
RG managed to lose my luggage for almost an entire week once, the payout for that is 50 USD incase you are wondering; they may have located them sooner but they don't use computers to track bags in Peru. They would call Sao Paulo once a day to hear if they have been located yet and pass the message on to me in the afternoon. I finally spent a small fortune calling Sao Paulo myself every hour until they turned up-in Miami!
RG once downgraded me to Y when I checked in at the airport because they had 'ran out of meals' in C. I didn't mind about the meal issue & offered take a Y meal for that matter since all I wanted was the seat. They said that not having the proper meal served was 'against the rules' and so I was downgraded (with compensation) to Y. C had at least 20 empty seats in it.
Most flights I have been on depart 30-60 minutes late.
One flight was oversold in C and RG seemed to have no idea how to handle it. Pre-reserved seats were thrown out the window and it became a free-for-all. I ended up volunteering off the flight to avoid the mess.
Food has been a bright spot. I do really enjoy the meals I have had with them.
Lounge options in GRU are awful-all of them-as is the airport.
Lounge option in GIG is great-as is the airport (RG terminal).