deniah

Last week I went through my corporate booking engine for DEN-GIG trip.

This is what it yielded:

UA 402 DEN-LGA
UA 4257 JFK-GRU (TAM-op JJ8801)
UA 861 GRU-GIG

It showed up on united.com and allowed me me to change seats, request upgrades, etc

At JFK checking in (&luggage) w/ TAM, they confirmed whether my final destination was GRU? "Nao! Im taking UA861 to GIG".

This puzzled us both -- why would UA operate GRU-GIG? She had a colleague call to sort it out, while I called Premier desk. They both confirmed "UA 861 starts in IAD --> GRU --> GIG. pick up luggage at GRU, go through passport and customs control, and check-in with UA for the last segment". okay, whatever


Walked up to the CSR office at GRU (didnt see standard counters) as a couple just picked up their UA861 BPs. Yielded my passport and asked for the same. Lady asked, "are you an employee? or affiliated with UA through direct family?". Nope. "We cant board you on this flight. We cannot place a disembarked, LOCAL, rev passenger on this international flight. Simply impossible" I freaked a bit.

She did some clacking on the kb and handed me a slip. Told me to RUN to TAM desk and take care of it there. Apparently she gave an "even value ticket exchange" for a TAM flight departing t+45min. Despite the long line at TAM I did my best Usain Bolt impression and was able to get my bag checked and myself on the plane.

Apparently placed in F, too! (Y was full). For all of the 210 miles. And made it to GIG 1 hour earlier than planned. Not without a bit of scare at GRU. Now was the booking engine I used WRONG in issuing me an invalid/illegal itinerary? Was it supposed to make it through the UA system okay without any sort of flags yielded??

mahasamatman

No. GRU-GIG is an add-on that is only supposed to be ticketed along with the IAD-GRU flight. It's the same as the SYD-MEL add-on, which requires either SFO-SYD or LAX-SYD.

SEA1K4EVR

It definitely should not have been ticketed the way it was. I suspect that because of the code share from JFK-GRU the system was confused. Glad it worked out in the end...

I never would have accepted an itinerary like that with an airport change in NYC and the unecessary airline switch.

qfrodo

Those on ORD-GIG also connect to UA 861 in GRU.

pb9997

You could have flown the UA 861 GRU-GIG, as long as you had not cleared immigration & customs at GRU, coming from a UA ticketed flight from the US.

Once having cleared C&I at GRU you become a local pax and UA can no longer transport you for the GRU-GIG sector. UA check-in at GRU were correct in not issuing you a Boarding Pass and instead referring you to a local Carrier, TAM in this case. UA is not authorized to transport local pax for the domestic segment.

Next time you deplane at GRU coming from the US and aiming GIG simply follow signs for international connections, you'll be security screened and onwards to the gate where UA has their plane for the GRU-GIG sector; this plane sits on the international departing area. There, UA is authorized to issue you a Boarding Pass to transport you to Rio, should you have not been given you already.

I believe TAM at JFK might have issued you a Boarding Pass for the GRU-GIG, tagging your luggage accordingly (international-to-international) sector and might have advised you not to do C&I at GRU. UA international pax to RIO are C&I at Rio.

Cheers.

deniah

UA phone rep said TAM should not (and was not) able to see the UA-operated remainder of my itinerary. If they could have checked my bag through it would have made the everything much easier!

Had I not been EQM/EQS hunting I would have just taken AA down. In the end I only received EQ credits for a single domestic segment anyway!

PointWeasel

Will be flying YYZ-IAD-GRU-GIG with UA this Friday and am trying to confirm how much time we spend on the ground in GRU before continuing on to GRU. Has anyone taken this flight recently since the seasonal end of the IAD-GIG nonstop? Once we land in GRU, do the GIG pax just hang out in the intl departures area before reboarding?

Not that I am complaining about the tag-on, since it makes it easier than dealing with TAM or GOL and allowing for 3 hours between flights or making the trek down to CGH.

Also, will be in UA F in the pods, anything to be aware of? Is it worth 100K miles? :

qfrodo

Just took it today and am sitting here at GIG waiting for my domestic flight. The IAD-GRU segment left about 30 minutes late, arrived at GRU at 8:35. Once at the gate, as you walk down a hallway, agents will direct you to the left at a point where stairs that go downstairs exist (for terminating pax in SP) They also make announcements on the plane about this. Going to the left keeps you on the same level, and you will then go through a security check to return to the departure area. The GRU-GIG segment of UA 861 is scheduled to depart at 10:45. Boarding started at 10:00 AM. We pushed back from the gate at 10:35. Actual flight time was 30 minutes. Arrived at the gate at GIG about 1130. Then you go through Passport Control and Customs in Rio. Keep in mind UA 861 picks up pax from UA 847, ORD-GRU. In the past, the ORD flight has sometimes been delayed and UA holds 861. So you might want to keep an eye on what UA 847 is doing also.

BenjaminNYC

I would think since the pax's itin was from the US, he didn't need to be on the IAD-GRU flight. The fact that he came in from the US should suffice to allow him on GRU-GIG, no? What if I flew ORD-GRU on UA, are you saying I could not connect to GRU-GIG on UA??

braslvr

Sure, but only if you remain in transit. Once you clear C&I, you can't get on that flight.

BenjaminNYC

The OP was in transit - just got bad advice to go through C&I... (actually he had to go through C&I, since that was his first point of entry into Brasil... so hmmmm? I'm )

pb9997

BenjaminNYC, GRU facilities allow international arriving pax to clear C&I at their final destination depending on carrier and final destination in Brazil.

UA Rio pax are allowed to transit GRU as international and clearing C&I only in Rio; Somehow similar to UA pax transiting SYD and clearing C&I in MEL only.


Cheers.

BenjaminNYC

Thanks. So he just got some bad advice to clear C&I, then.

Paolo01

I have several upcoming flights to GIG and they all appear IAD-GIG direct. I suppose that I will see next week when my next one arrives. My last one in FEB was direct.

I should mention that the flight is UA metal earning UA miles. Flt 861 and then 860 on return.

NH_Clark

just pay attention when you arrive in GRU. As you come off the plane and walk down the hallway you'll come to an area where you either go to the right and take the escalator down to customs, or you stay left and follow the signs that say something to the effect "connecting passengers from Wash flight 861 going on to Rio follow this way".

If you catch yourself going down the escalator at this point you are going in the wrong direction and need to go back up the steps and follow the signs to the GIG portion of your trip.

I'm down here now and while coming in to GRU and waiting for my bag (which happened to get loaded on the contaciner going on to GIG ) I saw a fellow walk around the baggage area with a lost look on his face. Comes to find out he went through customs and now he couldn't figure where to go to catch the GIG leg of his trip. Needless to say he wasn't happy with the answer. I think he was lucky that along with my bag several others for GRU were on the GIG container and they had to pull it off to get the bags off. I think this allowed him enough time to get escorted back up and around.