What's the deal with prices to Sao Paulo and Rio? I keep expecting them to go back down but have seen nothing. The cheap flights are 40-50% higher, even in this off season.
From NC the best I can do is around $900 on UA,AA,DL,or CO. $600 last fall and spring.
I need to go!! Help! Thanks.

Have you tried a consolidator fare? They have more restrictions than booking directly with the airline, but if you have to go, this could be an option. You can find consolidators in the Sunday travel section of major newspapers. There are also on-line consolidators.

Out of curiosity, I plugged in a round-trip fare from Raleigh-Durham (RDU) to Rio, October 16-30 on travelhub.com.They returned a fare of $571.50 plus tax, for a total of $674.40. I have not used travelhub, so can't personally endorse it, but it's something you may want to consider. Good luck!

That's a great price, walkabout! I believe one of the problems with getting low fares is that there simply are not that many flights into Rio and Sao Paulo compared to many other large cities in the world. But while we've often found the fares prohibitively high from our origin, it's turned out to be a great destination for using FF miles. For a trip last month, we were able to book four standard (minimum) level award tickets via NWA & CO through Houston at only 33,500 miles each. We did the same thing in 2002 so if you have that option, check it out.

After searching travelhub, I also plugged the same dates into sidestep.com. They returned a total round-trip price of $676.10 on Continental Airlines. Sidestep books these tickets through airfare.com. This ticket is nonrefundable, and it will cost at least $350 if you need to make changes.

Hope this helps.

United has a "Special Deal" called "Brazilian Getaways" advertising each-way fares to GIG or GRU from Washington Dulles (IAD) for $434. For the roundtrip with tax it would cost about $930. I thought this was a joke. Sidestep is also showing fares of $906 for WAS to GRU.

United has started to show E-fares every week for their S. America destinations and I think the most recent one had a fare of $570 or so. Last Nov, the E-fares were about $350 roundtrip. I flew IAD to GIG and back on a ticket that cost $421, getting the same price as an E-fare but booked on the days that I wanted, buying 4 days in advance. The E-fare ticket at the end of December for IAD <-> GRU was $412, buying a week in advance (i.e. the r.t. fare was around 340).

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to once again brag about those cheap fares to Brazil that I got. My advice is to check the United E-fares to Brazil to see what a good price is. Also, I predict that those prices will drop in the next few months and stay low through January.

Please check the United website tomorrow or Wed. and check the fares from your origin to GIG and GRU. Post those fares here. Then come back on Nov 18 with the e-fare on that date. Just for yucks.

Anyway, roygbill, when are you going and how flexible is your schedule? At the same time that I got that cheap fare in November, they were pricing tickets at around $900 for late December travel.