I left New York City on a snowy and cold Wednesday morning. It was about 30F. I bundled and walked to the subway station at 86th St and Broadway, near where my children live. I took the No. 1 train to Times Square, walked through the passageway west towards the Port Authority subway station and took the E train to Jamaica Station. Then I took the AirTrain to Terminal 8, where LATAM Airline is located. I've never flown LATAM so I am unsure of its service. However, I've flown many international airlines and found that they often give as good or even better service than the US airlines. LATAM is a merger of LAN and TAM airlines, both South America based. Nowadays, with airline alliances (OneWorld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam, etc) , I am able to credit the mileage to my American Airlines frequent flyer account.
Why fly LATAM? After I decided on this trip, I used Google flights to check and track the price of my itinerary: NYC to Rio, then on the return flight Lima to NYC. Google flights: (https://www.google.com/flights/) uses the same search engine as Kayak, which I used to use. Or, rather, Kayak uses Google flights search engine. The difference is that Google is a non-commercial search engine, whereas Kayak tries to sell you flights, hotels (lucrative business), and rental cars. I like the simplicity of Google flights. It also allows me to track the prices of flights that I am interested in. As I got closer to my trip, I found that the best price and scheduling option was LATAM, I paid $857 for JFK to Rio, and returning on a direct flight from Lima to JFK.
The first part of my trip is from JFK to Sao Paulo, an 8-hour flight. It left JFK at about 6:30pm; about an hour late, probably because of the snow and rain. It's an overnight flight and like most flights today, it's full. It's a relatively new Boeing 767 and its entertainment system is as good as Delta, which I thought is very good. It has some of the latest movies, a library of old movies, TV shows, music, games, flight path, etc. Basically, it has enough things to keep you entertained throughout your flight. Being not a movie-theater person, it gives me the opportunity to catch up on some of the latest movies. I watched one of the new movies: Dunkirk
Not long after our flight took off, the flight attendants served dinner. I asked if I have to pay for a glass of wine and they said no. I was a little surprise because on a recent British Airways flight from London to Munich, they wanted to charge me for even a glass of water! It goes to tell you how far the traditional national airlines like British Airways, Air France, Japan Airlines, etc, have gone down financially because of the change in the airline industry. I chose a short rib dinner, which was surprisingly good. The quality of the meal is as good as other international flights, but still below Singapore Airlines, which I consider the gold standard.
Unfortunately, I don't sleep easily on airplanes. I may have dozed off for a few minutes here and there but not a long few hours of sleep. I passed the time by listening to music and reading my Kindle. I am currently reading a book called The Sympathizer, a book by Vietnamese-American professor named Viet Thanh Nguyen. It won many book awards from 2015-2017; the most deserving of it the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It gives a different perspective of the Vietnam War and from a Vietnamese perspective of the after-effects of the war.
I had to clear through Immigration and Customs in Sao Paulo. US citizens require a Brazilian visa when entering the country. When I was in NYC over Thanksgiving, I went to the Brazilian consulate there to apply for my visa. The 10-year visa costs $160, payable only with Money Order. It took me only one afternoon to get my visa. It saved me a lot of money, not having to send it (usually by FedEx costing about $30) to a visa service agency to be processed. That fee usually costs around $85. I did the same thing applying for a Bolivian visa.
Normally, you'd have an airline representative to help you transfer your baggage to the next flight after you cleared customs. In this case you have to look for the signs and ask people. After some time going through the chaotic airport, I found where to drop off my luggage. Since I have about another hour and a half, I looked for the airport lounge to get some food and relax. I have access to Priority Pass lounges through one of my credit cards. It's a nice privilege because since I travel so much, it's nice to have a quiet place to wait for my flight instead of a food court or the airport gate. I also took the opportunity to get some cash from one of the ATM machines. I use a Schwab Bank debit card, which refunds me the ATM fee if I get charged one. This is usually my process - get local currency from an ATM in the airport lobby before leaving the airport.
The flight from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro takes about an hour. I bought a voucher from one of the official taxi stands for about 117 Reals or about $35.52. It took about half an hour for the taxi to go from the airport to Hotel Regina, which is in the Flamengo area. Happily, I was given a single room when I checked into the hotel.
I tried not to take a nap so that I can adjust to the local time quickly. Rio is about 5 hours ahead of Phoenix and 3 hours ahead of NYC. The Flamengo beach is about 2 blocks from the hotel so I took a easy walk there.
That night I went to bed at 9pm, ready for an exciting week in Rio.
Why fly LATAM? After I decided on this trip, I used Google flights to check and track the price of my itinerary: NYC to Rio, then on the return flight Lima to NYC. Google flights: (https://www.google.com/flights/) uses the same search engine as Kayak, which I used to use. Or, rather, Kayak uses Google flights search engine. The difference is that Google is a non-commercial search engine, whereas Kayak tries to sell you flights, hotels (lucrative business), and rental cars. I like the simplicity of Google flights. It also allows me to track the prices of flights that I am interested in. As I got closer to my trip, I found that the best price and scheduling option was LATAM, I paid $857 for JFK to Rio, and returning on a direct flight from Lima to JFK.
The first part of my trip is from JFK to Sao Paulo, an 8-hour flight. It left JFK at about 6:30pm; about an hour late, probably because of the snow and rain. It's an overnight flight and like most flights today, it's full. It's a relatively new Boeing 767 and its entertainment system is as good as Delta, which I thought is very good. It has some of the latest movies, a library of old movies, TV shows, music, games, flight path, etc. Basically, it has enough things to keep you entertained throughout your flight. Being not a movie-theater person, it gives me the opportunity to catch up on some of the latest movies. I watched one of the new movies: Dunkirk
Not long after our flight took off, the flight attendants served dinner. I asked if I have to pay for a glass of wine and they said no. I was a little surprise because on a recent British Airways flight from London to Munich, they wanted to charge me for even a glass of water! It goes to tell you how far the traditional national airlines like British Airways, Air France, Japan Airlines, etc, have gone down financially because of the change in the airline industry. I chose a short rib dinner, which was surprisingly good. The quality of the meal is as good as other international flights, but still below Singapore Airlines, which I consider the gold standard.
Unfortunately, I don't sleep easily on airplanes. I may have dozed off for a few minutes here and there but not a long few hours of sleep. I passed the time by listening to music and reading my Kindle. I am currently reading a book called The Sympathizer, a book by Vietnamese-American professor named Viet Thanh Nguyen. It won many book awards from 2015-2017; the most deserving of it the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It gives a different perspective of the Vietnam War and from a Vietnamese perspective of the after-effects of the war.
I had to clear through Immigration and Customs in Sao Paulo. US citizens require a Brazilian visa when entering the country. When I was in NYC over Thanksgiving, I went to the Brazilian consulate there to apply for my visa. The 10-year visa costs $160, payable only with Money Order. It took me only one afternoon to get my visa. It saved me a lot of money, not having to send it (usually by FedEx costing about $30) to a visa service agency to be processed. That fee usually costs around $85. I did the same thing applying for a Bolivian visa.
Normally, you'd have an airline representative to help you transfer your baggage to the next flight after you cleared customs. In this case you have to look for the signs and ask people. After some time going through the chaotic airport, I found where to drop off my luggage. Since I have about another hour and a half, I looked for the airport lounge to get some food and relax. I have access to Priority Pass lounges through one of my credit cards. It's a nice privilege because since I travel so much, it's nice to have a quiet place to wait for my flight instead of a food court or the airport gate. I also took the opportunity to get some cash from one of the ATM machines. I use a Schwab Bank debit card, which refunds me the ATM fee if I get charged one. This is usually my process - get local currency from an ATM in the airport lobby before leaving the airport.
The flight from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro takes about an hour. I bought a voucher from one of the official taxi stands for about 117 Reals or about $35.52. It took about half an hour for the taxi to go from the airport to Hotel Regina, which is in the Flamengo area. Happily, I was given a single room when I checked into the hotel.
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| Hotel Regina in the Flamengo area |
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| Sugarloaf Mountain, as seen from Flamengo Beach |
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| Flamengo Beach |
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