I am considering booking a trip to EZE on Varig next month from JFK. Anyone on here been on them lately? How is their service? Are they a safe airline, I know that they have had some planes repossesed, so I hope they don't cut back on safety! Any insight anyone could offer would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I flew NRT-LAX on Varig last year in C (alas a route that no longer exits). I was pleasantly suprised, especially by the quality of the service and food. The aircraft (an MD-11) was a little old, but I didn't feel unsafe. There was no IFE system, only personal video players, which I actually think is better -- on demand and no huge processing devices restricting your legroom/seat width. The lounge at LAX was a wonderful throwback to the seventies!

I flew with Varig in "Y" back in 1996 from LAX to NRT (Tokyo) and service was pleasant. The food was a bit crude, but they're Brazilians. Overall, the cabin was somewhat dirty, but the service made up for it. I think that was on a 747 or a 777, I'm not quite sure anymore.

Yes, RG is a MP partner, but this is not really a UA question. I think you will get the best responses in the *A forum.

Did LAX-NRT a few times on Varig, in short, the service was very good, the seats not very comfy, remined me of the old C seats still on TG. Food was on par with UA, nothing to write home about. The only annoying thing was that at LAX we parked at the remote terminal and had to be bused to the internation terminal. Didn't enjoy that, that flight attendants were great on all the flights I had, nice amenity kits too. Haven't tried Y on them so cannot say anything about it. Liked the athmosphere on board with announcements in Portugese and being addressed in Portugese, seriously made me think about heading down to Brazil for the next holidays.

I have flown them a few times, most recently back in December.

They were OK, the lfight was 3 hrs late due to a late crew in from Rio, and I slept most of the flight home to MIA.

The best part was that I got a fere upgrade just by asking the ticket agent. Amazing, she started to hammer away loking for a seat, found one, and never hassled me about my ticket code or anything. So I got the last seat in C, middle at the bulkhead, great for 6 hours of sleep.

So, all in all, B+...

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).

Of course, Varig is a safe carrier. Your flight to EZE will be safer than your taxi ride through NYC.

Thanks for all the responses, it really helps to get a picture of what one might expect on an airline. Their prices are about ~$200 lower than UAL at this point, so we'll see.

I flew Varig on a reward ticket (thanks Aeroplan) in 2003. I flew Miami-Sao Paulo-Santiago, and then Santiago-Sao Paulo on the return. My trip was in business class.

I can't remember the plane, but business class had a 2-3-2 set up. There was very flew people in business.

I found that the food was excellent, and the service very good. And the plane did not crash, so I can only assume it was safe .

Greg

I just took them from GRU-GIG and had a mixed experiance.

- After showing my 1K card in GRU me and my companion were moved from the coach section to the Business Class section on the MD-11 as part of the excellent treatment we recieved from the ticket agent.
- However, the domestic lounge in GRU was so awful, we left early to go sit at the gate.
- Our inbound aircraft arrived late and we were delayed nearly 40 minutes without an explanation.
- The seats are just awful with a limited recline and an unworkable footrest, I'd compare them to feeling like I was in an old United 767-200 seat.
- The F/As seemed friendly but the IFE was spotty with the tape going out ever so often. I only recieved 500 miles with no 1K bonus which is annoying.

I did LHR-GRU-LHR on RG in C last December. It was a VERY disappointing experience - and I am not doing it again. Lousy service, lousy aircraft, lousy seats.

What happened to LAX-NRT on RG? I thought LAX-Nagoya was the one cut.

is the OP booking a varig internet fare? they are available on RG's internet site but don't get miles in a lot of *A programs (like US- hence I am RG silver since dividend miles wouldn't accept this fare). If flying in coach would definitely choose RG over UA/AA for the cost savings (I don't think UA has a nonstop from JFK anyway).

However- if you fly AA, depending on your fare basis, you can sign up for a challenge- you will have almost enough q-points for either AA gold or AA plat- on a $900 fare you will get almost 10,000 q-points, top that off with a LGA-BOS or DCA mileage run and you will be plat with a soft landing to gold the next year!

I don't think you will get many positive responses from people who have lived in Brazil... Much of the problem with Varig's service comes from low morale. Paychecks are often delayed or lumped together, and several times bankruptcies and mergers have been discussed. Several years ago, Varig planes in Paris were seized by foreign creditors, and most employees know that if there is ever a merger with TAM, Varig employees will suffer (TAM has stringent language requirements, for example, that most Varig employees would not meet). I have never had any specific problems with Varig, just don't expect happy people or "fresh" interiors...

TAM, on the other hand, has high morale and the people there are very dedicated to their company (witness the massive outporing of grief when the President died two years ago). There are usually at least 4 languages spoken fluently on each flight, and the captain personally greets every single passenger on the tarmac or jet bridge. They even put down a red carpet to welcome you on board.