lincolnjkc

Just because when I was searching I found next to nothing really useful on the subject I thought I'd drop my experiences here just in case anyone winds up in the same position as me.

General Azul Observations Querying "ola, voce fala ingles" (hello, do you speak English?) from check-in agents universally got a "so-so", from gate agents got either "a little" or "no". English is not used onboard the aircraft at all, which I was a little surprised by as that was a new experience for me (I had expected it on my MIAT flight from Ulaanbataar, Mongolia to Beijing and vv -- but on those flights English was actually used more and more consistently than Mongolian or Mandarin). Service is pleasant but very light (presumably due to COVID). Also worth noting that Azul was founded by David Neeleman -- who started another "Blue" airline.

Standalone Azul Ticket, CGH (Sao Paulo) to SDU (Rio de Janiero) - Ticket was purchased on Azul.com, and I entered my MP# during booking but saw no indication of it anywhere on Azul's website or when I checked in online. Arriving at the airport several hours early I presented my passport and MP card, asking the agent if it was possible to get on an earlier flight, knowing the fare rules specified a BRL$100 (~$20 USD) fee for the change. She was quite helpful, "added" my MP# to the reservation, confirmed me on a flight leaving about 30 minutes later, and preserved my Espacio Azul (essentially Economy+) seat. Boarding pass indicated "ELITE - UA [MP#]" in upper portion of boarding pass. Was not charged for the change. Boarding pass indicated Tudo Azul Diamante boarding.

Segments added to UA ticket, SDU-CNF-GRU (Rio de Janiero to Belo Horizonte to Sao Paulo) Ticket was "purchased" via an itinerary change on UA.com, selected as such because it was the only thing UA.com offered to get me from Rio to GRU and, having experienced Sao Paulo traffic, I wanted to limit my risk exposure to a ground transfer from CGH to GRU. Unable to check in on voeazul.com (concerning messages about "reservation not valid") but both UA and Azul's call centers confirmed everything was ticketed and confirmed.

Check-in was generally uneventful, again handing over my passport and UA MP card. Agent and 2 colleagues seemed quite confused about how to check the bag, eventually sticking 3 tags on my bag (two labeled CONJNUCTION - TRANSFER, and the agent hand-writing "CONNECTION" in ballpoint pin on each of them) and telling me that I would only need to pick up my bag in Cleveland. Was given two pieces of paper representing boarding passes for all four segments (two AD, two UA) -- but UA MP# was not reflected on any of them and there was a significant language barrier when I asked/attempted to ask via Google translate to confirm the number was in the reservation. (Boarding passes indicated group 2 boarding for the same espacio Azul seat as above).

When I was attempting to ask a gate agent to confirm, my lack of Portuguese was again a significant barrier, however a pilot nearby jumped in and translated, telling me that the MP# was not in the reservation because "Mileage Plus is not a suitable mileage plan for Azul flights" -- I didn't push it any further.

On arriving at SDU (about 6.5 hours before departure of UA36) confirmed the Azul agent at the arriving gate that I would not need to reclaim the bag and it would be automatically be transferred to United. You have to exit security and change terminals to make the DOM-INTL connection in SDU. Being so early there were no UA check in counters available, but I found a CUSS kiosk and was able to print "normal" UA boarding passes which I used to clear security and then burned most of that time in the GRU *A lounge.

The bag never showed up -- automatically or by bag tag # -- in the UA app, but at the gate UA confirmed that they had received one bag from Azul and I would indeed claim and recheck it at IAH. Did the "did you check this bag yourself"/sticker on passport security dance at the gate. UA flight uneventful, got to IAH, waited for the bag to drop because it obviously couldn't have been priority tagged, UA printed a new tag for it with the normal Priority label. Bag was rechecked and now I'm waiting for my last flight in ~24 hours of continuous travel in the club.

Not a seamless experience, and the MP recognition could be helped, but given the biggest impediment in making this 100% easy is my inability to speak more than a few words in the local language I'm quite happy with how well it worked -- and particularly that despite the super long connection and fare break in the ticket Azul was able to check the bag through.

eng3

I flew Azul earlier this year and had a similar experience flying on the same stand-alone flight. Added MP# when booking or online checkin (can't remember). Got a "economy plus" seat and boarded early. Can't remember if there was any priority security lane, I don't think there was. I didn't have any issues with my status not showing up on my BP. I had no issues with people not being able to speak english at the airport or in-flight. That is certainly a problem elsewhere in south america. I could have sworn the safety briefing was given in english as well.

lincolnjkc

Definitely no priority security lanes but I had at most 2 people in front of me at any part of Brazilian portion of the trip so wasn't really something I felt was missing.

Curious... Was your flight a domestic Brazilian flight or international? I'm wondering if that may flip the Portuguese/English so to speak... Portuguese only on each of my 3 legs, from safety briefings to what I could best guess were "we'll be landing in 20 minutes".

qfrodo

Used to fly Azul quite regularly before Covid, mostly the domestic leg between VIX and GRU, either as part of the UA ticket or stand alone. Normally would hear some things in English, so a bit surprising you heard none. In the Brazil forum I mentioned that Azul agents are often not up to speed on the UA-Azul relationship (UA owns a percentage and Azul is a partner airline), but as a 1K you would be the equivalent of Diamante. Have also flown Azul to Portugal and the US and seem to recall a bit more English being used there. Never had any problem checked bag wise. (knock on wood)

lincolnjkc

I strongly suspect, with English being the international language of aviation, that on an International flight you're generally more likely (not just Azul) to hear English -- that's one of the only reasons I can think of that an airline from Mongolia, on a flight between Mongolia and China and vice-versa, would have used English in their safety briefings, etc.

I do wonder if I had a "SSR LANG English" in the reservation if that may have also helped a little (at least potentially alerting that they had a passenger onboard who had no chance of comprehending Portuguese) would have helped. I also had some hope that the FO for my SDU-CNF leg (who played translator for the gate agent about adding MP to the boarding pass) told me "I will be briefing you for your flight today" before disappearing down the jetway -- but nope.

Of course I have to keep reminding myself that I'm a guest in their country and its my own fault I don't speak the local language so no complaints, just an observation

Overall very happy with the Azul experience.. Having free seatback live TV on all aircraft [even if the only English option was CNNi) and free WiFi on the A320 was definitely a plus

fumje

Certainly forgivable after 24h continuous transit, but I infer you meant this to be SDU-CNF-GRU. CGH-CNF-GRU sounds rather deranged!

lincolnjkc

The funny thing is in more normal times I'd kill to do something like CGH-CNF-GRU but you are correct and I've edited the OP to fix. Another challenge is the local GA airport (and the office code for one of our offices near that airport, since CLE was taken by our local data center) is CGF so I've been doing battle with myself to avoid substituting that in place of either CGH or CNF each time I look at things

dcpdxtrans

Pre-COVID, I used to fly AD often. Only a couple years ago, I flew AD in J int'l where the price was excellent. The latter experience (both hard and soft) was very good and surprising. Intra-Brasil, I thought AD was comparable to O6 (now defunct) and JJ (now LA, which I have yet to fly). G3, IMHO, resides a rung below. I don't recall any issues with speaking in EN (since I can get by in PT) and since many are bilingual already. Also, I have not seen the MP issues you described. I wonder if it is a COVID-inspired experience.

lincolnjkc

It could be a COVID-inspired experience or it could be a departure airport experience -- CGH despite the agent saying her English was "so-so" we had no issues communicating and she had no issues with getting my MP# added to the reservation. On the other hand, I got the impression that SDU heavily tilted toward the Domestic Brazilian traveler with most international travelers going through GIG (which, had it not been for COVID and its affects on route/schedule availability I almost certainly would have done myself) and thus both less exposure to English and less exposure to the MP partnership?

(The lack of English at SDU was not at all limited to Azul's staff; going through SDU's version of TSA my pleas of "desculpa nao entendo portugues" just lead to more security people arriving and speaking more loudly and slowly in Portuguese... [guess that's not only an English/American phenomenon] and the only time on the trip Google Translate was flat out refused as method to bridge the language gap; similarly to Azul I had had no challenges at CGH's security checkpoint)

seanp7

I just flew CGH-SDU on Sunday and it was great. All onboard announcements from the Captain & FA's were solely in Portuguese. The E195 was jammed; near 100% full. No snack service, it was either a promotional Heineken 0.0% alcohol beer (what's the point? ) or water. I was in Boarding Group 1 on the boarding pass, but they boarded back to front for COVID.

Flew FLL-VCP in J on the A330-900neo two days prior and service was excellent. Dinner was good, wines decent, but I skipped the breakfast. Dual language announcements. Even PDB Champagne. Got 5 hours of solid sleep on that one. Priority Boarding in FLL.

I couldn't see the MP# on the boarding pass, but the longhaul flight posted correctly (paid J). CGH-SDU was a UA award and just posted with 226 miles (shhhhhh!)

Barring the unable to check-in online/app issues above, I really like Azul and will fly them again!

eng3

It was domestic.
My memory is a little fuzzy, but I'm struggling to remember any flight's I've been on where zero english was spoken. Usually, at least the safety briefing has english or subtitiles at minimum.

dcpdxtrans

I don't even notice if it is in EN or another language anymore. I wonder if other frequent int'l flyers feel similarly

lincolnjkc

An oddity (IMO) with Azul is despite 100% seatback entertainment (basically the same platform as the DTV equipped 737s in UA's fleet on both the E95s and A320s) is all three of my segments were done as a live demo. Although it's a very small sample, I'm also not sure Azul has figured out what it wants to be when it grows up -- parts of the experience felt very high end and parts felt very ULCC (e.g. you can't price, let alone buy, an unrestricted ticket online -- you have to call the call center.

Speaking of the call center, it hung up on me 5 times in a row at the same point 5 options down the tree in the overly long spiel while trying to confirm my UA issued flights were OK after the website error I mentioned in the OP ("blah blah travel agent blah blah conrona virus blah blah chat via our website* blah blah Ok, moving on...<call disconnected>"

I find language fascinating (and I only do maybe 2-3 INTL trips on average so maybe I don't count as a frequent intl flyer ) as well as the different emphases different carriers/national regulators place on different aspects, e.g. ANZ including the brace position as part of their briefings so I definitely notice -- e.g. MIAT, Mongolia's flag carrier, did English, Mongolian, then Chinese in that order during their briefing on my between ULN and PEK

*- Its worth noting that despite the robot imploring you (in English) that you can chat right from Azul's website you can only actually start a chat if you have a valid CPF number (Brazil's national identification number/US Social Security Number analog from what I've found)

dcpdxtrans

I concur: It is very interesting to see the emphasis other countries place on parts. My point was that it doesn't matter whether the briefing is in EN or another language: I can still understand what the airline is trying to communicate.

As for CPF is much different than a SSN though the CPF does identify a person.

qfrodo

I don't think it is necessarily that Azul can't figure out what it wants to be when it grows up, rather just the way some things are done in Brazil. Some processes are very modernized and I think why don't they do this in the US. Other processes still continue that have their roots in the 18th century and I think why do they still do this? In all my travels over the past 12 years in Brazil using UA to come and go, I normally could not check in on line if there was an initial Brazilian domestic flight to start. The only exception was a brief period of time with JJ before they went off and joined with LAN. This was due to JJ converting to the IT platform that *A uses. Otherwise, you call or go to the airport. Never had a problem waiting until the day of travel, with Azul, LATAM (JJ) or OL, so their systems do share info, even if the website won't let you check in online. But I can use miles to book a flight on Azul without any UA segments :-)