AA and VCP / Viracopos São Paulo and airport doings
Mar 8, 2015, 9:26 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: NYC, SLC, LAX
Programs: AA EXP, UA Plat
Posts: 3,951
AA and VCP / Viracopos São Paulo and airport doings
Based on the latest OAG schedule update as of this weekend, JFK-VCP appears to be dead as of May. No adjustments on MIA-VCP.
The frequencies on JFK-GRU are not being restored in this schedule update, so if that holds, JFK will see a 3 weekly reduction of frequencies to SAO.
The frequencies on JFK-GRU are not being restored in this schedule update, so if that holds, JFK will see a 3 weekly reduction of frequencies to SAO.
Last edited by JDiver; Oct 12, 2015 at 6:24 pm Reason: Restore original post title
Mar 8, 2015, 9:31 am
#2
Join Date: May 2001
Location: (AA EXP)
Posts: 609
I just took the MIA-VCP service and loved it. Old 767 plane wasn't the best, but the "new" VCP airport experience was fantastic. Less than 10 minute wait for immigration, no line for customs, I was in the car 15 minutes after landing!
Sorry about the JFK loss. Come on down to Miami!
Sorry about the JFK loss. Come on down to Miami!
Mar 8, 2015, 11:23 am
#3
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 472
I just took the MIA-VCP service and loved it. Old 767 plane wasn't the best, but the "new" VCP airport experience was fantastic. Less than 10 minute wait for immigration, no line for customs, I was in the car 15 minutes after landing!
Sorry about the JFK loss. Come on down to Miami!
Sorry about the JFK loss. Come on down to Miami!
Mar 9, 2015, 9:05 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New York
Programs: AA EXP 1.0mm, not sure where I am with hotels these days
Posts: 2,795
The airport terminal that AA uses is brand new, cost hundreds of millions and caters to a whopping five or six arrivals and five or six departures per day. Yes per day. Spiffy clean with plenty of posters of new shops coming including a Starbucks. When I flew from VCP to JFK in January, the only businesses open were the drug store (street side) and a coffee shop and duty free shop (airside). It's easy for immigration and security because there are no flights! Thus no passengers. EXCELLENT choices of free wi-fi.
Part of the problem is that it is being sold as an alternate airport for Sao Paulo. The problem is that while it may be in Sao Paulo state and there is plenty of business in Campinas, it takes about an hour and a half to get there from Avenida Paulista. With no traffic exiting the Sao Paulo city area. If you take car service, it's about $R600-$700. If you take a metered taxi cab, you will make that cabdriver's year. One way car rental can be problematic. Public transit involves going through and transferring at a main bus station somewhere in the zona norte part of Sao Paulo - if you don't know even limited Portugese or where you are going in the terminal, it may be problematic to get to the right bus. Lovely drive through beautiful countryside though.
My guess is that AA got free take off and landing fees to try it out. And then had only Brazilian tourists from the area flying to the US for holiday rather than American business travlers from the US. The workers there were extremely nice and enthusiastic about doing a great job. They had free beverages and snacks for passengers and the families streetside to introduce the airport. So in a way, if the terminal as an international airport fails, I feel badly for the people who work there, and the country / state taxpayers who paid for it. Undoubtedly, after the soccer stadium problems for the World Cup, the current Petrobras scandal, could airport terminals be the next corruption fiasco to be exposed as Brazil heads to a recession?
They should try to get Gol or Avianca Brasil or even Azul to move to the terminal. It's far better than Terminal 0 which is classic 60s South America.
Part of the problem is that it is being sold as an alternate airport for Sao Paulo. The problem is that while it may be in Sao Paulo state and there is plenty of business in Campinas, it takes about an hour and a half to get there from Avenida Paulista. With no traffic exiting the Sao Paulo city area. If you take car service, it's about $R600-$700. If you take a metered taxi cab, you will make that cabdriver's year. One way car rental can be problematic. Public transit involves going through and transferring at a main bus station somewhere in the zona norte part of Sao Paulo - if you don't know even limited Portugese or where you are going in the terminal, it may be problematic to get to the right bus. Lovely drive through beautiful countryside though.
My guess is that AA got free take off and landing fees to try it out. And then had only Brazilian tourists from the area flying to the US for holiday rather than American business travlers from the US. The workers there were extremely nice and enthusiastic about doing a great job. They had free beverages and snacks for passengers and the families streetside to introduce the airport. So in a way, if the terminal as an international airport fails, I feel badly for the people who work there, and the country / state taxpayers who paid for it. Undoubtedly, after the soccer stadium problems for the World Cup, the current Petrobras scandal, could airport terminals be the next corruption fiasco to be exposed as Brazil heads to a recession?
They should try to get Gol or Avianca Brasil or even Azul to move to the terminal. It's far better than Terminal 0 which is classic 60s South America.
Last edited by george 3; Mar 9, 2015 at 9:10 am
Mar 9, 2015, 9:27 am
#5
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: SAN
Programs: AA-EXP; US-Silver; Marriott-Platinum; Starwood-Platinum; Hilton-Gold
Posts: 1,260
Based on the latest OAG schedule update as of this weekend, JFK-VCP appears to be dead as of May. No adjustments on MIA-VCP.
The frequencies on JFK-GRU are not being restored in this schedule update, so if that holds, JFK will see a 3 weekly reduction of frequencies to SAO.
The frequencies on JFK-GRU are not being restored in this schedule update, so if that holds, JFK will see a 3 weekly reduction of frequencies to SAO.
Mar 9, 2015, 12:50 pm
#6
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New York
Programs: AA EXP 1.0mm, not sure where I am with hotels these days
Posts: 2,795
True, and the fares certainly haven't been much of a bargain compared with TAM. The slowdown might have to do with some of the economic concerns coming out of Brazil. The real is now 3 to the dollar plus or minus. Inflation is high (couldn't believe the price of food in the mercado where my son shops in Itaquera compared with two years ago) as are interest rates. With consumer debt very high as a percentage of household GDP, growth will be difficult the next 12-18 months. And that doesn't even go into the politics of the Partido Trabalhadores ruling party.
Mar 9, 2015, 12:58 pm
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2001
Location: LAX; AA EXP, MM; HH Gold
Posts: 31,789
I'm not certain of the timing, but I believe that Delta owes US Airways seven weekly unrestricted GRU frequencies that are supposed to transfer, IIRC, this month. These frequencies were part of the compensation paid by DL for the LGA slot theft, err, slot swap transaction.
Mar 9, 2015, 1:24 pm
#8
Join Date: May 2001
Location: (AA EXP)
Posts: 609
I fly for business to VCP, my "true" destination is Piracicaba, much easier to reach from VCP than from GRU! I go once every 2-3 months. Also, there are several manufacturing operations in Piracicaba, so I'm sure I'm not the only one using VCP for that purpose. Enough to fill a jet each way every day? Not so sure about that!
Mar 9, 2015, 3:36 pm
#9
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New York
Programs: AA EXP 1.0mm, not sure where I am with hotels these days
Posts: 2,795
There was an Azul flight VCP-FLL on the board when I was there March 5, 2015. It was the only other flight on the board at 9p.
I fly for business to VCP, my "true" destination is Piracicaba, much easier to reach from VCP than from GRU! I go once every 2-3 months. Also, there are several manufacturing operations in Piracicaba, so I'm sure I'm not the only one using VCP for that purpose. Enough to fill a jet each way every day? Not so sure about that!
I fly for business to VCP, my "true" destination is Piracicaba, much easier to reach from VCP than from GRU! I go once every 2-3 months. Also, there are several manufacturing operations in Piracicaba, so I'm sure I'm not the only one using VCP for that purpose. Enough to fill a jet each way every day? Not so sure about that!
For your trip, you must have doing cartwheels when they were announced AA was flying to VCP. Flying to GRU and then driving to Piracicaba was what three hours in great driving conditions? The night we were there (1/5?) Azul to FLL, AA to MIA and JFK, Copa to Panama City and maybe Azul to Orlando? Can't remember what the fifth one was. A shame.
Mar 9, 2015, 8:01 pm
#10
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Programs: AA EXP 1 Million Miles, Hilton Diamond, AMEX Platinum, AA Citi Exec, Hilton Aspire, Bilt
Posts: 179
JFK-VCP is dead
I can confirm this unfortunate news. I had my GF booked on a 50k J award VCP-JFK on April 28th. Just received an email with new itinerary consisting of VCP-MIA and MIA-JFK. Hopefully AA will be generous and let me change the routing to the GRU-JFK nonstop
Mar 10, 2015, 2:28 pm
#11
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New York
Programs: AA EXP 1.0mm, not sure where I am with hotels these days
Posts: 2,795
Good luck with that. AA has been very stingy with the 50k J awards on the direct GRU-JFK flight in favor of the "we have no black out period *wink* *wink*" 155k/175k J awards.
Mar 10, 2015, 6:48 pm
#12
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: NCL
Programs: UA 1MM/*G. DL Gold for one more year.
Posts: 5,305
The airport terminal that AA uses is brand new, cost hundreds of millions and caters to a whopping five or six arrivals and five or six departures per day. Yes per day. Spiffy clean with plenty of posters of new shops coming including a Starbucks. When I flew from VCP to JFK in January, the only businesses open were the drug store (street side) and a coffee shop and duty free shop (airside). It's easy for immigration and security because there are no flights! Thus no passengers. EXCELLENT choices of free wi-fi.
Part of the problem is that it is being sold as an alternate airport for Sao Paulo. The problem is that while it may be in Sao Paulo state and there is plenty of business in Campinas, it takes about an hour and a half to get there from Avenida Paulista. With no traffic exiting the Sao Paulo city area. If you take car service, it's about $R600-$700. If you take a metered taxi cab, you will make that cabdriver's year. One way car rental can be problematic. Public transit involves going through and transferring at a main bus station somewhere in the zona norte part of Sao Paulo - if you don't know even limited Portugese or where you are going in the terminal, it may be problematic to get to the right bus. Lovely drive through beautiful countryside though.
My guess is that AA got free take off and landing fees to try it out. And then had only Brazilian tourists from the area flying to the US for holiday rather than American business travlers from the US. The workers there were extremely nice and enthusiastic about doing a great job. They had free beverages and snacks for passengers and the families streetside to introduce the airport. So in a way, if the terminal as an international airport fails, I feel badly for the people who work there, and the country / state taxpayers who paid for it. Undoubtedly, after the soccer stadium problems for the World Cup, the current Petrobras scandal, could airport terminals be the next corruption fiasco to be exposed as Brazil heads to a recession?
They should try to get Gol or Avianca Brasil or even Azul to move to the terminal. It's far better than Terminal 0 which is classic 60s South America.
Part of the problem is that it is being sold as an alternate airport for Sao Paulo. The problem is that while it may be in Sao Paulo state and there is plenty of business in Campinas, it takes about an hour and a half to get there from Avenida Paulista. With no traffic exiting the Sao Paulo city area. If you take car service, it's about $R600-$700. If you take a metered taxi cab, you will make that cabdriver's year. One way car rental can be problematic. Public transit involves going through and transferring at a main bus station somewhere in the zona norte part of Sao Paulo - if you don't know even limited Portugese or where you are going in the terminal, it may be problematic to get to the right bus. Lovely drive through beautiful countryside though.
My guess is that AA got free take off and landing fees to try it out. And then had only Brazilian tourists from the area flying to the US for holiday rather than American business travlers from the US. The workers there were extremely nice and enthusiastic about doing a great job. They had free beverages and snacks for passengers and the families streetside to introduce the airport. So in a way, if the terminal as an international airport fails, I feel badly for the people who work there, and the country / state taxpayers who paid for it. Undoubtedly, after the soccer stadium problems for the World Cup, the current Petrobras scandal, could airport terminals be the next corruption fiasco to be exposed as Brazil heads to a recession?
They should try to get Gol or Avianca Brasil or even Azul to move to the terminal. It's far better than Terminal 0 which is classic 60s South America.
But VCP's investment in the beautiful new terminal must be matched by an investment in convenient ground transportation other than the buses to Tietê that leave every two hours. Persuading Azul to accept paying passengers in their coaches would have been a start.
Mar 11, 2015, 11:45 am
#13
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New York
Programs: AA EXP 1.0mm, not sure where I am with hotels these days
Posts: 2,795
Alas, you are right (except the taxi to São Paulo was more like R$400). VCP is only viable as a co-terminus of SAO. The arrival experience was brilliant, in every way that GRU is not - the immigration officers speak flawless English, as soon as you are through, your bags are coming off the belt and a friendly lady stands ready with a cart for you, and the customs officers are really on the ball (maybe that contributed - Brazilians would prefer the laissez-faire attitude of GRU).
But VCP's investment in the beautiful new terminal must be matched by an investment in convenient ground transportation other than the buses to Tietê that leave every two hours. Persuading Azul to accept paying passengers in their coaches would have been a start.
But VCP's investment in the beautiful new terminal must be matched by an investment in convenient ground transportation other than the buses to Tietê that leave every two hours. Persuading Azul to accept paying passengers in their coaches would have been a start.
Interesting to hear that the level of service exiting equals the level of service entering. If I were Brazilian, I'd protest against this more than the Amazonia estadio futebol because of its unfulfilled potential.