Airfares for travel within Brazil and South America, in general, are all over the map. Sometimes they are really low, while other times they are really expensive.
It turns out that this past Monday, May 1, was a public holiday in Brazil, and I procrastinated too long to buy a one-way fare from Rio’s domestic airport SDU to Sao Paulo’s international airport GRU, where I had a flight out to Europe.
These one-way fares between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are anywhere from $50 to $150, depending on when you buy, and often cheaper if your start or end at one of the international airports (GRU/GIG) and not local tones (CGH/SDU).
The one-way fares were high and expensive on local Brazilian websites, although a bit less (in the $350 range).
I was then monitoring GOL availability using AAdvantage, but nothing opened up. Their award availability using AA miles seems good a week or longer out but is often very sparse at the last minute.
Nothing was available at first on Azul either, but then something opened up that I quickly ticketed using United Miles.
Conclusion
I used AA miles for GOL Sao Paulo (GRU) – Florianopolis (FLN) – Buenos Aires (AEP) and Mendoza (MDZ) – Sao Paulo (GRU) – Rio de Janeiro (SDU) flights that were pretty good value as well, but I did not record the cash prices at the time.
Redeeming was not available or didn’t make sense for AEP-SCL (Aerolineas) or SCL-MDZ (Latam) segments due to reasonable ticket prices.
I often mix and match paid and award tickets to stitch my itineraries together and tend to buy or redeem short-haul flights two to four weeks out, and I like the flexibility that both AA and UA have for award tickets.
Last year, a GOL agent claimed I missed the check-in deadline at Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro and asked me to go to their ticketing desk (what could they have done for the AA award ticket?). I just opened the AA app and canceled and refunded the tickets. Then, I opened the UA app, booked two tickets on Azul for two hours later, and walked to their desk to check in.