Continental/United Club Lounge at GRU
 

I'll be spending 3+ hours at GRU waiting for a connecting flight out of Brazil after clearing customs in Rio and I'm wondering if there's a Continental/United Club Lounge past the customs area.

Not sure I follow exactly what you are doing, but the RCC is airside at GRU. Are you going through passport control at GIG and then the flight stops in GRU before continuing?

exactly

OK, if you are also asking about an RCC at GIG instead of GRU, UA uses the old Varig lounge which is on the lower lever once you clear passport control and security. Go to your left and walk towards the Dufry shop around gate 34 (I think) and you will see signs or the escalators to the left of that store to go downstairs. At the bottom of the escalator make a 180 degree right. There will be a snack place on the right, The old Varig (now GOL) lounge is on the left. The TAM lounge is straight ahead. You can use either, but I prefer the Varig/GOL lounge.

I know where the lounge is in Rio but I can't remember ever seeing its entrance airside in SP.

The RCC at GRU is in Terminal 1 on the second level. From the gate area, walk through the Dufry store area and make a right just as you get to passport control. Either take the elevator (very slow and one was broke) or continue past them and around to the left to use the escalators to get to the second floor. At the top of the escalator or when you get off the elevator you will see the Delta lounge and the TAM lounge (quite small and often very crowded at that time of the evening). Continue out into the hall way and bear left. The TAM first class lounge will be on your right followed immediately by the RCC.

OK, thanks!

We've used both the "VIP" lounge in the international departures area of GIG (you walk to the end of the hallway, by the small duty free shop, and go down the stairs; it's next to a TAM Gold Club, and is used by a number of airlines, including US Airways). Look for signs for a VIP club. We used it because we were flying Envoy Class on US Airways. If you're not flying biz class but have RCC membership, I don't know what the situation would be.

Not sure if you'll have time to get to the RCC club in GRU. Can take a bit of walking, depending where you're starting from, but if you just ask directions you'll get there. When we were flying Continental Biz-First Class to the U.S. out of GRU last year we weren't allowed to use the showers since we weren't United passengers (though did get the free snacks and booze). This past February when we asked about the showers (hoping the "merger" had changed things), we got a different answer: the showers were broken.

When taking domestic flights, you can't get to the RCC, etc., but there's always the American Express Centurion Club. Sort of a RCC-lite.

I was in the United/Continental (RCC) lounge two nights ago. I had a United flight that left at 10:10. Prior to the departure of my flight, there was also a Continental flight scheduled to leave as well as another United flight scheduled for 9:10.

Incredibly, almost every seat in the lounge was taken when I entered the lounge.:(

It was not until the Continental flight was called and the United flight was called did the lounge resemble anything like I recall as far as crowds go.

Even though the lounge had been filled with waiting passengers, when the lounge finally cleared to a comfortable level, the available refreshments, including hot soup, were a welcome thing to find in the lounge prior to departure.

Although some posters (in other threads) have criticized the lounge and said it was the worst lounge they had ever seen, I think that once you see for yourself, the lounge is quite nice despite its somewhat aged appearance.

Enjoy the lounge.
-

dgcpaphd, have to agree with your observations. I noticed the increase in use on March 1 and am expecting the same this Monday. And the TAM business lounge is small and has always been crowded as well at that time in the evening. But in another recent post that I read here on FT someone commented that they or others had to sit on the floor in the gate area as all the seats were taken. Probably what the near future holds as they try to improve GRU for 2014 and 2016.

Hello, qfrodo -

When you mentioned the TAM lounge, I remembered something I neglected to mention about the RCC.

The internet service at the RCC has been available for free since sometime last year and I found it functional. However, last Tuesday evening, there were so many people trying to use the service that connection speeds were incredibly slow and often pages failed to load. Furthermore, telephones that use wifi also would not function properly because of the VOIP used for the conversations. The girl at the reception desk told me she got many requests from lounge users to reset the system but, because of the huge number of people using the system, resetting it did no good.

As an alternative to an overcrowded internet connection, it is allowed for United passengers to use the TAM lounge if they chose. In that regard, I used the TAM lounge on prior occasions where there is an internet connection that does not get a large number of users like the one at the RCC does. TAM, furnishes lounge users with a card and PIN to access the TAM provided internet service.

Even though you mentioned that the TAM lounge gets crowded and a seat is sometimes difficult to find, if someone really needed to use the internet while the one in the RCC was not working properly, TAM would be an alternate source of a provider.
-

Curious. Why are you clearing Customs at GIG if you're then continuing on to GRU for an international flight? Is the GIG-GRU a domestic flight and you couldn't arrange a simple international transfer?

SoCal, I think he answered that in post 3 when replying to the question in my post (#2). I do this all the time on UA 860, passport control at GIG and then hit the RCC at GRU while the set up the interior for the long leg to IAD.

I was barred from the Gold *A lounge (by mistake I had assumed it was the Continental President's club because I saw the Continental logo in the doorpost).

They sent me to the RCC lounge at GRU where they didn't have access to the CO reservation system, so they couldn't get me a boarding pass, I had to do it at the gate, they also didn't tell me that the gate was located in the other terminal, so I wasted a bit of time looking for the gate in the wrong terminal (when I left the lounge, the attendants were busy with other people so I didn't ask).

Still it was alright, better than wasting my time at that the horrible terminal, at least I ate a lot of cheese and crackers and drank a couple beers. My plan was to skip the inboard dogfood meals since Continental had screwed up my special meal request on my way down, and their toll free number is not open on Sundays in Brazil.

anyone know if the showers are working in the RCC? I saw various reports in other threads discussing the SEA-EWR mistake fare stating the lounge agents said they were broken; however a voucher was provided to some other place. I am arriving morning of 5/29 for the 12hr stay and want to shower before heading into the city.