flyingmike

Hi,

Me, my 17 year old, and my brother are planning an April visit to family in Brasilia. I am Gold on UA with Club access, but that is from 100% north American travel so this Brazil trip is more than I usually plan.

Am using cash for this - not miles, economy seats. All the fares seem largely the same looking at AA, LATAM, UA, etc. give or take a few hundred dollars

1. Is UA a reasonable airline for this, or should I be seriously looking at another airline for some reason?
2. If I book all three seats I should be able to select E+ seats for all three of us, correct?
3. On any UA itinerary we will have a connection in IAD, HOU, EWR or ORD. Is there any reason to prefer one of those over another? HOU I have been to only a handful of times, the other three I am quite familiar with.
   1. If it matters, I am leaning towards itineraries with 4+ hour connections in those cities (rather than the alternative 48 minute connect time). Hence, UA Club quality might matter a bit.

Eager to get any thoughts and opinions, especially anything I have not pointed out above.

Thanks! Mike

PsiFighter37

1) Unless you have a 1-stop option, UA is probably as good as any
2) No - UA Gold only allows you to guest one additional person into E+, unless the benefits changed
3) For strictly UC access, I would probably transit via either ORD or IAH (only putting IAH on here because the situations at IAD and EWR undoubtedly are worse). That said, you might be able to access someone else's *A lounge since you are *G...not sure what the access rules are like ex-EWR (where the choices are thin no matter what).

PVDtoDEL

IAD actually has the best lounge choices out of the 4 hubs OP is looking at - both TK and LH have lounges accessible airside that are much nicer than anything at ORD/IAH/EWR.

PsiFighter37

I figured INTL / *G options might be better, hence why I said my opinion only pertained to UCs I haven't transited internationally in any of the other hubs outside of EWR to have a strong opinion!

PVDtoDEL

The other thing I would recommend to OP is to look at the one stop *A options from BOS - specifically, CM via PTY and AV via BOG should save a decent amount of time as compared to flying UA connecting to AD.

qfrodo

I've been traveling back and forth between the US and Brazil for a number of years. It is what has made me a 1K for the past 11 years and a million miler. In the past, UA 861 out of IAD used to originate in BOS with different aircraft. A lot of the Brazilian community in BOS and surrounding areas used this flight all the time, sometimes so many that they would hold the aircraft at IAD so they could make the connection. So they probably still use UA 861 out of IAD, but a different flight number out of Boston, and with a better connection time, as not many delays due to waiting for connecting passengers any more.

As mentioned, the TK and LH lounges are pretty good at IAD, they are in the B terminal, so you would need to allow a bit extra time to get to the UA gate in C or D. The aircraft currently being used on IAD-GRU is the 767 which a number of people on here feel provides the best E or E+ seat experience. A 4 hour connection should be plenty, I usually look for at least 3 hours. Azul has been rated pretty high and right now is probably the best airline in Brazil. I like them as does the wife (which is more important ). And since UA has a stake in Azul, you get PQD, PQM, and RDM if all on one ticket. Just make sure your FF number is on the Azul ticket, as you might have to request the credit after a week goes by.

On the return, I believe you should be able to use the Star Alliance lounge in GRU, but I don't know the exact rules off hand.

I'll be on 860 and 861 in March.

dvs7310

One additional point to add, if you book it via UA, then make sure your connection on AD is from GRU and not VCP (AD's main base). The transfer between the airports is not straightforward and is time consuming. AD operates BSB flights from both airports and UA will sometimes offer a connection from the other airport. If you're flying economy then personally I'd prefer to connect in BOG or PTY to AV or CM respectively, I just don't like GRU connections, international to domestic is a bit of a PITA.