Hello there!

Has anyone traveled to Brazil from the US in airlines other than American and United? I see lower prices in Delta, Copa, and Latam, but I am uncertain about how reliable they are. Any good or bad experiences with them?

Thanks in advance for sharing!

9 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

Hello there!

Has anyone traveled to Brazil from the US in airlines other than American and United? I see lower prices in Delta, Copa, and Latam, but I am uncertain about how reliable they are. Any good or bad experiences with them?

Thanks in advance for sharing!

I have flown Avianca from the U.S. to Brazil and Colombia. They are a pretty decent airline. I've only flown Copa and Latam while inside Brazil. My experience was that they were just like your standard airline, like UA and AA. Neither one gave me the low quality feel like a Spirit or Frontier Airlines flight.

From Canada I have split about evenly between Air Canada to São Paulo direct, or Copa to Rio or other Brazilian cities via Tocumen. The latter has always been fine, and sometimes staggeringly low prices at any fare class. The one hassle has been nail-biting extremely short layover in Panama, or dreadfully long, ie, 4-5+ hours. Shockingly, my checked luggage has made it thru 45-minute connection (that is their shortest but “legal” layover) but I would probably try to restrict to carryon in that event. In winter there’s always the risk of weather delaying Canada departure and messing with short layover, but so far so good. April would likely not pose that problem from DC. Also, both legs shift according to day of week. Generally, I look at one-way schedules for windows of desired days, give or take, and strategize from there based on the layover variations and possibly prices. Obviously, whole trip return then booked to capitalize on lowest fare and guaranteed destination. Lastly, the Tocumen expansion may mean a longer more stressful sprint from arrival to transfer gate. And annoying pop-up repeat X-ray security clearance at times directly at transfer gate. 

I flew with Copa on this trip from New York to Rio  - they are decent - regular airline - very short connection time but all worked out 

Copa operates narrow body airplanes from the U.S., and requires a stop over in Central America. They are usually the cheapest option for N. America - S. America routes.  Business class seats in narrow body airplane are not lie-flat. Economy class seats are 3-3, better not be stuck in the middle seat.

I ended buying an Economy Plus ticket from United from DC to SP, and then to and from Rio with Gol and Latam. The total bill was almost 1.4K, it would have been almost 1K without the Plus tickets.

There are cheaper flights from DC, but involve two stops or more than 23 hours in transit.

2 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

I ended buying an Economy Plus ticket from United from DC to SP, and then to and from Rio with Gol and Latam. The total bill was almost 1.4K, it would have been almost 1K without the Plus tickets.

There are cheaper flights from DC, but involve two stops or more than 23 hours in transit.

So envious. Try flying from Oceania. My tickets are twice or more ☹️

for me Delta is a small step above UA and AA. If they had more direct flights that I need to take I would choose them even if the price was a little higher. I swore to never fly UA again about 8 years ago and haven't set foot on them since but from what I understand they've improved since then.

United has improved with still room for improvement. I swore to never use DL again in 1993 and still haven't been on one of their planes.... I really showed them!!

7 hours ago, floridarob said:

United has improved with still room for improvement. I swore to never use DL again in 1993 and still haven't been on one of their planes.... I really showed them!!

But does DL care?

I guess we even each other out

3 hours ago, scott456 said:

But does DL care?

That was what my sarcasm at the end of my statement was about.....pay attention.

18 minutes ago, floridarob said:

That was what my sarcasm at the end of my statement was about.....pay attention.

I don't know about DL.  But I really don't care. 🙄

14 minutes ago, scott456 said:

I don't know about DL.  But I really don't care. 🙄

Cared enough to comment twice 🙄

6 minutes ago, floridarob said:

Cared enough to comment twice 🙄

Yes, so you get it...just in case...

13 minutes ago, scott456 said:

Yes, so you get it...just in case...

You're the one that doesn't get it and didn't get it from the start...obviously 😏

11 hours ago, floridarob said:

United has improved with still room for improvement. I swore to never use DL again in 1993 and still haven't been on one of their planes.... I really showed them!!

It’s been 30 years - anymore most of DL now is what used to be Northwest Airlines back then.

1 hour ago, floridarob said:

You're the one that doesn't get it and didn't get it from the start...obviously 😏

Sure, if you say so, I really don't care whatever you get.🙄

For someone that doesn't really care, you surely seem to care.....

I replied to say I don't care.  But if someone didn't get it and insisted that I care, that's his problem. 

8 hours ago, scott456 said:

that's his problem. 

yet you continue......ironic.

Ok...that's ironic both way.

1 minute ago, scott456 said:

Ok...that's ironic both way.

You're that little kid in school that just wants to get the last word, even though 5 posts after saying that you didn't care 😆

5 minutes ago, floridarob said:

You're that little kid in school that just wants to get the last word, even though 5 posts after saying that you didn't care 😆

Hello toddler.

All were preemptively thanked, I presume evenly.