VARIG

The first time I stepped into a Boeing 777 was at Varig, I was curious to find out about the latest gizmos and widgets on board. Yet, that quickly became secondary, there was a feeling of sambaaa and that was much more interesting! The Sao Paulo plane was nearly empty since I was boarding in Paris on a connection flight to Amsterdam. Thus I had the chance to sit on the front row, you know that row where you can lean in full, because there is no one in front! What a luxuary!!! Brazilian air hostesses were very pretty and very smiling - unlike US airways! :0 As soon as I was seated, I was greeted since there were not many people around, all the ...  Read the complete review

I travel more than most, I have a gold Varig smiles card, silver cards for KLM, BA & Continental airlines. I am always happy to fly Varig, I have found them to be the most accomodating of any airline, and in South America none of the others even come close to Varig's performance. The only negative point with Varig as a domestic carrier in Brazil is that their ticket price is 50% to 100% more than the cheaper domestic airlines such as Fly & BRA (These are the Brazilian equivalent of easy jet or Go). The varig frequent flyer program is much better than any of the European airlines and only Continental give better rewards, I have used my Varig smiles for ...  Read the complete review

Varig used to be South America's best carrier by far. They had little competition in that area although VIASA wasn't bad. Now they've just become another member of the common herd, and the best are LanChile and Aces. I flew from Rio to Miami, in business class. The business class check in counters were extremely busy with long queues, so I went to one of the empty economy ones to check in. The girl refused to check me in and only did so with very bad grace after I called a supervisor. She gave me a different seat to the one pre-assigned in the system - probably out of spite. On boarding, I asked for something to read. I was given ...  Read the complete review

I work as an engineer for a company that is very much involved in the aerospace industry. So in 1999 when my company were invited to work on the design of a new aircraft in Brazil I was thrilled to be involved. In September 1999 I was told I would have to travel to meet the customer at their headquarters in a place called San Jose Dos Campos. San Jose Dos what I thought to myself and tried to find out a bit more about the locale. Dos Campos is a reasonably large city located about an hours drive from Sao Paulo and one hours flight from Rio De Janiro. Well given those options the choice was quite simple - fly to Rio and then onto Dos Campos. The ...  Read the complete review

Varig is going downhill in the service provided to customers. It used to be an excellent airline, with extremelly friendly staff, pleasant to talk to and fly with. Catering used to like a gourmet meal, even for touristic class. It was always a pleasure waiting for meal times. Sometime ago I became a member of the frequent flyer program, Smiles, and I did make use of it for some time. Nowadays my card has been very quiet. An alliance of bad service with an increase on prices has made me prefer other airlines to the Brazilian national airline, VARIG. ...  Read the complete review