Sao Paulo Airport (GRU) Brazil Advice

[cujosmom]

We will be flying out of Sao Paulo (GRU) post cruise and was wondering if there are any tips or advice about this airport. How early we should arrive....problems we may encounter, etc. I know all the flights to the U.S. depart late night but do they normally leave on time? Any advice will be appreciated.

[Mines]

We will be flying out of Sao Paulo (GRU) post cruise and was wondering if there are any tips or advice about this airport. How early we should arrive....problems we may encounter, etc. I know all the flights to the U.S. depart late night but do they normally leave on time? Any advice will be appreciated.

 

There have been a lot of problems recently at the domestic airport in São Paulo (Congonhas) with the horrible crash and air trafic control problems. Some of these problems overspill to Guarulhos occasionally, but do not normally affect the international flights too much.

 

As the plane will be coming in from the US earlier in the day, its departure time will depend on it arriving well. There should not be any delays at the Brazilian end, as it only needs to refuel and change over passengers.

 

I was delayed once travelling on a friendly British line because the crew spent too much time in the duty free shop.

 

Check-in is no different to other airports, so 2 to 3 hours before would b prudent. Depending on the day, traffic from São Paulo city to Guarulhos can be awful, particularly if it is raining. I would leave São Paulo city 4 hours before the flight.

[lucyjohnz]

I travelled to Sao Paulo on a business trip last year arriving early morning Sunday and flying back on Friday night. Sunday morning, it took us about 30 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel. Friday night, seems like we left for our 10pm flight around 6pm and it took 2 hours to get to the airport in constant bumper-to-bumper traffic. Then, the lines at the airport were horrendous - it probably would have taken us about 1 to 1 1/2 hours to get through the American check-in line, but my friend had an American Gold Member card and we got to go through the shorter Business-class line - that took about 30 minutes.

 

So, I think that leaving 4 hours before the flight time is probably a good idea.

[cruzzer]

Hello cujosmom,

 

You may not remember me, but I started the Alamo Cruisers in 2004.

My user name is still CRUZZER.

 

We are going on a 3 Continent cruise out of Sao Paulo. However, it will be in the year 2009!

 

 

Since you have not been with us, we'd love to have you at dinners (quarterly).

Let me know.

 

LRH@SATX.RR.COM

Still in Stone Oak?

 

Lois/cruzzer

[dabear]

see the other post on catching a plane from San paulo

[nancycoop1]

Our only experience with this airport was not a good one. We had to transfer planes there on a trip to the Amazon last year. When we were checking in at the counter we were told that we were given the wrong tickets in Miami (even though it was on TAM also) and I had to pay an extra $100 - which I refused to do. When I threatened to create a scene I was told - OK, just go on. When my husband attempted to check in behind me he was told his ticket was not valid and he had to buy a new one. He refused and went to the supervisor (there was quite a line there). We both made the plane, but barely - my husband had to be taken out by a private car and they held the plane for him

 

We were later told by other Brazilian officials that if we had just given them $20 we would have had no problems. I have no idea if this is true, but do know that we will never willingly travel thru Sao Paolo again.

 

Sorry for the bad news as I usually just overlook things, but this was very flagrant. In hindsight I would have just offered the $20, but was too tired to realize that was what was happening.

 

Sure hope you don't have any experiences like this one.