I just booked a r/t ticket for late March from Los Angeles to Rio for $605 roundtrip on American. That is the cheapest I have seen it in a long time and ironically the fare is higher from New York or Miami which are closer. I always use brazilianexpress.com which generates fares lower than even the airlines website as they are a consolidator. The same ticket booking directly with American would have been over $200 more. They also discount other airlines traveling to Brazil and I have never had a problem buying off their website. Worth checking out before your next trip to Brazil. Hint--you have to register(free) and log in before seeing the cheapest fares.

What is your flight itinerary??  As far as....LAX to GIG?

Trying to see what type of layovers you have

Thanks....

There is a daily direct flight from LAX to GRU that gets you in around 7:00 in the morning on AA and you can get a flight on GOL or TAM to Rio for less then $60. I did it last trip .  This upcoming trip i am staying the first day and night in SP and catching a flight into SDU the next day at noon.

My Itinerary is LAX-MIA--GIG and the reverse on the way back. About a 2 hr layover in MIA both directions which is perfect--not too long but enough time that you don't get too stressed if your flight is a little late arriving in MIA. I gave up trying to book flights to Brazil using miles on American since if seats were actually available they would route you on some crazy routing with multiple stops and long layovers. I might add that purchasing some of the cheaper tickets may not give you full mileage credit but I quit chasing miles a few years ago when they started to become so difficult to use.