Flights to Sao Paulo are at a premium these days since Brazil’s ongoing failure to upgrade airport infrastructure, coupled with a booming economy, has ensured that demand has overwhelmed supply. Both British Airways and TAM offer non-stop flights from London to Sao Paulo, but business class fares are significantly lower if you can stand a stop in Europe.
The lowest fares are normally with TAP via Lisbon, while Iberia can also be good value through Madrid. Beware that, in addition to the main airport at Guarulhos, TAP also serves Sao Paulo’s secondary airport at Viracopos; a hub for Azul’s domestic flights, but not too convenient for anything else. If a travel agent offers you an unfeasibly cheap TAP flight to Sao Paulo, ask them to double check the airport code, GRU is the main airport, VCP refers to Viracopos and few agents seem to be aware of it’s existence; an American Express agent spent 20 minutes assuring me that a flight was heading to “the city’s only airport”.
As it happens, American Express had an offer on a flight via Frankfurt. Lufthansa and TAM flights from Frankfurt carry each other’s code and leave at very similar times. There was, however, a steeper discount on the ticket if I opted for the TAM operated flight. As Lufthansa’s business class is wholly unremarkable, and I’d never tried TAM, I thought it was time for a new experience.
Wondering why I’ve rattled on for an age about airline fares? That would be because I’ve nothing polite to say about the flights. The seats are a fairly standard angled-flat product, but it is seven-abreast on the 777s; the dreaded middle seat is alive and well in Brazil.
The food was actively unpleasant - the mystery chicken dish, pictured above, was actually the high point. Throughout both flights, service was minimal. Before each take-off the crew solicited orders for drinks after take-off, then didn’t bother to serve them. On the outbound flight, the crew didn’t serve anyone anything until they were dishing-up food, 90 minutes out of Frankfurt. Empty drinks glasses and bottles sat, unmoved, for over eight hours at one point. The entire impression was one of crews doing as little as they could possibly get away with.
TAM’s lounge offering in Sao Paulo is so appalling as to be comical. The business class lounge has, perhaps, thirty seats. In the evening rush, with flights leaving in quick succession to a variety of European and American destinations, the lounge was a zoo. People were sharing seats and sitting in the floor space between them. Inexplicably, despite the obvious shortage of space, the lounge features a grand piano. As the receptionist was apologising to another customer about the unavailability of toilet roll, I turned around and used Priority Pass to access the United Lounge.
United’s Red Carpet Club is much larger than TAM’s lounge, but was also packed and chaotic. The guy at reception did say that seats should become available when the flight to Chicago was boarding and, sure enough, a boarding call a few minutes later emptied the room. However, having bashed TAM, I should mention that United’s facility was visibly filthy (sofas you stick to) and ran out of basics; like glasses and water.Guarulhos airport is amongst the world’s most cramped, TAM can’t really be blamed for this. The dreadful standards of on-board service and woeful food, are, however, cause to avoid TAM as much as possible.
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