Rio Olympics
Jul 30, 2015, 11:23 am
#17
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 135
That's disappointing to hear that the floating hotel won't be available to us normal people.
Are people planning to buy airline tickets immediately once they're available? Deant, since you've been to multiple events, can you give an indication if airline prices are generally about the same price or do they usually go up/down as the games approach?
Are people planning to buy airline tickets immediately once they're available? Deant, since you've been to multiple events, can you give an indication if airline prices are generally about the same price or do they usually go up/down as the games approach?
Jul 30, 2015, 11:34 am
#18
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,667
Jul 30, 2015, 12:52 pm
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2003
Location: CA
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 2,879
Have never paid attention to airline prices because we have always managed to fly on points. I suspect that VidaNaPraia is correct that prices may go up as we get closer to the games because of the lower price fare "buckets" being already sold.
Jul 31, 2015, 8:44 am
#20
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Austin TX
Programs: AA PLT, ICH Plat
Posts: 1,965
I am in Rio this month and will post any info I hear.
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Rio’s residents to host Olympic fans as Airbnb signs deal for 2016 Games
The famous Rio de Janeiro welcome and hospitality of its residents will play a lead role in accommodating visitors during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. After Rio 2016 signed an agreement with Airbnb, the online home rental community, about 20,000 affordable accommodation options in the city will be available to visiting sport fans.
“Unlike most hotels we can offer visitors the feeling of being at home, and the majority of guests we host are searching for exactly this,” said Daniel Almeida, who rents eight rooms in his home in the bohemian neighbourhood of Santa Teresa through Airbnb. “We may not have the very best rooms or locations in the city, be what makes us different is the human warmth we offer.”
The construction of new hotels in Rio means the demand for 40,000 rooms for Games clients – such as representatives of the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee and International Sports Federations – has been met. In 2009, the city had half this number.
However, with Embratur, the Brazilian Tourism Institute, predicting 380,000 foreign visitors for the Games, the rooms offered by Airbnb will help the city cope with the influx. Rio is the city with the fourth largest number of properties on Airbnb – exceeded only by Paris, New York and London.
The Silicon Valley company was announced as the official alternative accommodation services supplier for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at an event at the organising committee’s headquarters on Friday (27 March). Co-founder Joe Gebbia said Rio’s residents, known as cariocas, will contribute to the Games atmosphere. “With visitors travelling from around the world, Rio residents will get to serve as diplomats for their home country, hosting a global audience with real, authentic Brazilian hospitality,” he said.
Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman said: “Airbnb has proven to be a wonderful choice in allowing us to increase supply. We are aware of Airbnb’s capacity in Rio and understand the impact that partnering with the leader in alternative accommodations will do for visitors coming to experience Rio and the Games.”
Airbnb will have a presence on the Rio 2016 Olympic Games ticketing platform via a specific landing page where customers will be able to book their listings in Rio. To find more about tickets, visit http://www.rio2016.com/en/take-part/spectators.
http://www.rio2016.com.br/en/news/ne...for-2016-games
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Rio’s residents to host Olympic fans as Airbnb signs deal for 2016 Games
The famous Rio de Janeiro welcome and hospitality of its residents will play a lead role in accommodating visitors during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. After Rio 2016 signed an agreement with Airbnb, the online home rental community, about 20,000 affordable accommodation options in the city will be available to visiting sport fans.
“Unlike most hotels we can offer visitors the feeling of being at home, and the majority of guests we host are searching for exactly this,” said Daniel Almeida, who rents eight rooms in his home in the bohemian neighbourhood of Santa Teresa through Airbnb. “We may not have the very best rooms or locations in the city, be what makes us different is the human warmth we offer.”
The construction of new hotels in Rio means the demand for 40,000 rooms for Games clients – such as representatives of the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee and International Sports Federations – has been met. In 2009, the city had half this number.
However, with Embratur, the Brazilian Tourism Institute, predicting 380,000 foreign visitors for the Games, the rooms offered by Airbnb will help the city cope with the influx. Rio is the city with the fourth largest number of properties on Airbnb – exceeded only by Paris, New York and London.
The Silicon Valley company was announced as the official alternative accommodation services supplier for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at an event at the organising committee’s headquarters on Friday (27 March). Co-founder Joe Gebbia said Rio’s residents, known as cariocas, will contribute to the Games atmosphere. “With visitors travelling from around the world, Rio residents will get to serve as diplomats for their home country, hosting a global audience with real, authentic Brazilian hospitality,” he said.
Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman said: “Airbnb has proven to be a wonderful choice in allowing us to increase supply. We are aware of Airbnb’s capacity in Rio and understand the impact that partnering with the leader in alternative accommodations will do for visitors coming to experience Rio and the Games.”
Airbnb will have a presence on the Rio 2016 Olympic Games ticketing platform via a specific landing page where customers will be able to book their listings in Rio. To find more about tickets, visit http://www.rio2016.com/en/take-part/spectators.
http://www.rio2016.com.br/en/news/ne...for-2016-games
Oct 13, 2015, 3:01 pm
#21
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Berkeley, California
Programs: Starwood Gold, Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 560
I thought I'd post my experience thus far in planning for the Rio Olympics. This information is probably too late to help most people, but might be useful for future Olympic planning.
I decided to go to the Rio Olympics rather late with regards to ticket purchases (late July 2015). I'm in the U.S., so Cosport is our Authorized Ticket Reseller (ATR). They had two rounds of a lottery to disburse tickets which ended before I had decided to go. They also had a general release of tickets following the lotteries which I also missed out on. At this point, I felt a bit screwed, but advice from people who had attended previous Olympics was that Cosport would continue to release tickets and to keep monitoring the site.
I subscribed to a number of threads on Tripadvisor's Olympics forum and Gamebids.com's forums in case there was a release of tickets and people reported it. Sure enough, Cosport dumped a bunch of tickets one day at random which I missed out on by a number of hours. Finally, a month or two ago, Cosport did another release of tickets, someone reported it on Tripadvisor, and I was alerted in time. I jumped on the chance and immediately spent around $2000 on tickets for various events. The highly popular events were not available, like swimming, diving, gymnastics, or beach volleyball; but, I got a nice variety of things, including two nights of track and field and the gold medal men's soccer match.
The prices varied widely dependent upon the event. "B" class tickets for track and field went for $300 at face value. With ticketing fees, I was at $350 for each ticket. A "B" class ticket for the men's soccer gold medal match went for $212 at face value. On the other hand, Men's basketball was a fairly reasonable $42, and I got a C class Greco Roman wrestling ticket for $20. I continue to monitor the Cosport site, but I'm fairly happy with what I have. All I'm really hoping for is the closing ceremony and beach volleyball. I have a number of free days to see Rio and whatever free events are going on (e.g. Marathon, sailing, etc.).
For accomodations, it was pretty clear I wasn't going to be able to it with points since all of the major chains weren't showing availability. Everything seems to be locked up by the Olympic committee. At this point, it was just basic legwork of reseraching hostels, B&B's, and Pousadas for availability and cost. About a third of the places I contacted were booked up, another third hadn't figured out what they were going to charge for the Olympics, and a third had rates at a rather significant multiple of their regular rates. However, the effort paid off and I was able to find a Pousada in the Ipanema neighborhood in an excellent location at only 2-3 times their regular rates. As expected, they wanted half of the total cost up front, which was fine.
Some Brazilians have advised to wait until 2016 to book accomodations since Cariocas aren't big on advanced planning and the options might be better, but I wanted to lock down my accommodations and am fairly happy with what I got. I don't mind a fairly basic place and the price is very fair.
As for plane tickets, I followed a fairly basic strategy. I have miles in both Star Alliance and One World. I did my homework and figured out all of the various routes from my home airport (SFO) to either Rio (GIG) or Sao Paolo (GIG, VCP) for both alliances. Then, as award schedules opened up, I kept checking for availability.
Aeroplan had early availability through YYZ to GRU in Premium Economy, but I wanted business class, so I passed on that. I found a convulted itinerary on Avianca which did SFO-SAL-LIM-EZE-GRU in business class, but was kind of crazy. I thought about booking the premium economy seat on Air Canada, but it was too late, and the availability wasn't there anymore. So, I booked the itinerary on Avianca just to have something locked up.
I kept watch on AA as they had the best routes. AA was consistently opening up award ticket availability SFO-MIA-VCP in business class about 2 days after their award schedule opened up. Sure enough, at midnight pacific time, I checked AA and was able to snag SFO-MIA-VCP in business class on the date I wanted. I did the same thing for the return, and got VCP-MIA-DFW-SFO. SFO-GIG never had availability (and still doesn't). I canceled my Star Alliance flight and ate the cancelation fee.
Now, I realize that booking this far ahead that changes are inevitable. Today, during routine checking of my itineraries, I discovered that AA wouldn't be flying the MIA-VCP route during the Olympics and that I had to call in to get that fixed. Fortunately, AA took care of me and opened up inventory between MIA and GRU. I even got a better itinerary on my inbound going GRU-MIA-SFO.
So, this has been my experience so far in booking an Olympic vacation - hotel, flights, and event tickets. I hope this is helpful others doing Olympic planning. If I remember, I'll report back on future experiences.
I decided to go to the Rio Olympics rather late with regards to ticket purchases (late July 2015). I'm in the U.S., so Cosport is our Authorized Ticket Reseller (ATR). They had two rounds of a lottery to disburse tickets which ended before I had decided to go. They also had a general release of tickets following the lotteries which I also missed out on. At this point, I felt a bit screwed, but advice from people who had attended previous Olympics was that Cosport would continue to release tickets and to keep monitoring the site.
I subscribed to a number of threads on Tripadvisor's Olympics forum and Gamebids.com's forums in case there was a release of tickets and people reported it. Sure enough, Cosport dumped a bunch of tickets one day at random which I missed out on by a number of hours. Finally, a month or two ago, Cosport did another release of tickets, someone reported it on Tripadvisor, and I was alerted in time. I jumped on the chance and immediately spent around $2000 on tickets for various events. The highly popular events were not available, like swimming, diving, gymnastics, or beach volleyball; but, I got a nice variety of things, including two nights of track and field and the gold medal men's soccer match.
The prices varied widely dependent upon the event. "B" class tickets for track and field went for $300 at face value. With ticketing fees, I was at $350 for each ticket. A "B" class ticket for the men's soccer gold medal match went for $212 at face value. On the other hand, Men's basketball was a fairly reasonable $42, and I got a C class Greco Roman wrestling ticket for $20. I continue to monitor the Cosport site, but I'm fairly happy with what I have. All I'm really hoping for is the closing ceremony and beach volleyball. I have a number of free days to see Rio and whatever free events are going on (e.g. Marathon, sailing, etc.).
For accomodations, it was pretty clear I wasn't going to be able to it with points since all of the major chains weren't showing availability. Everything seems to be locked up by the Olympic committee. At this point, it was just basic legwork of reseraching hostels, B&B's, and Pousadas for availability and cost. About a third of the places I contacted were booked up, another third hadn't figured out what they were going to charge for the Olympics, and a third had rates at a rather significant multiple of their regular rates. However, the effort paid off and I was able to find a Pousada in the Ipanema neighborhood in an excellent location at only 2-3 times their regular rates. As expected, they wanted half of the total cost up front, which was fine.
Some Brazilians have advised to wait until 2016 to book accomodations since Cariocas aren't big on advanced planning and the options might be better, but I wanted to lock down my accommodations and am fairly happy with what I got. I don't mind a fairly basic place and the price is very fair.
As for plane tickets, I followed a fairly basic strategy. I have miles in both Star Alliance and One World. I did my homework and figured out all of the various routes from my home airport (SFO) to either Rio (GIG) or Sao Paolo (GIG, VCP) for both alliances. Then, as award schedules opened up, I kept checking for availability.
Aeroplan had early availability through YYZ to GRU in Premium Economy, but I wanted business class, so I passed on that. I found a convulted itinerary on Avianca which did SFO-SAL-LIM-EZE-GRU in business class, but was kind of crazy. I thought about booking the premium economy seat on Air Canada, but it was too late, and the availability wasn't there anymore. So, I booked the itinerary on Avianca just to have something locked up.
I kept watch on AA as they had the best routes. AA was consistently opening up award ticket availability SFO-MIA-VCP in business class about 2 days after their award schedule opened up. Sure enough, at midnight pacific time, I checked AA and was able to snag SFO-MIA-VCP in business class on the date I wanted. I did the same thing for the return, and got VCP-MIA-DFW-SFO. SFO-GIG never had availability (and still doesn't). I canceled my Star Alliance flight and ate the cancelation fee.
Now, I realize that booking this far ahead that changes are inevitable. Today, during routine checking of my itineraries, I discovered that AA wouldn't be flying the MIA-VCP route during the Olympics and that I had to call in to get that fixed. Fortunately, AA took care of me and opened up inventory between MIA and GRU. I even got a better itinerary on my inbound going GRU-MIA-SFO.
So, this has been my experience so far in booking an Olympic vacation - hotel, flights, and event tickets. I hope this is helpful others doing Olympic planning. If I remember, I'll report back on future experiences.
Nov 6, 2015, 8:26 pm
#25
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Boston
Programs: AA Platinum
Posts: 2
I've had a similar experience to escog. Had booked BOS to GRU in milesaaver business (50k) but leaving on the VCP to MIA flight, also to recently find out that it was cancelled. So now roundtrip from BOS to GRU through MIA in business/first for 100k round trip.
Have tickets for 19 events so far, and staying in various Airbnbs (booked 5 stays for 3-4 nights at a time, changing location depending on where our events are).
Have tickets for 19 events so far, and staying in various Airbnbs (booked 5 stays for 3-4 nights at a time, changing location depending on where our events are).
Jan 3, 2016, 6:33 pm
#28
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,667
Just be aware that for the World Cup and for Carnaval in Rio most years, there are reports online of foreign tourists who book and then find out that their reservations have been cancelled when the owners realize they can get more money from someone else.
Jan 3, 2016, 6:58 pm
#29
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2003
Location: CA
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 2,879
This problem is especially true of Airbnb. With Airbnb being a "sponsor" of the Olympics they have signed up a lot of new apartments and owners that have absolutely no reviews. It is really a case of buyer beware.
One good note is that Brazil has waived the visa requirement for US citizens for during the Olympics.
One good note is that Brazil has waived the visa requirement for US citizens for during the Olympics.