Flights to Rio

[srob]

Hi. I hope this isn't too cheeky but I was wondering if anyone could recommend places to look, to get flights to Rio from the UK as cheaply as possible! I've searched as much as I can, and can get them down to about £610, but they were listed as £460 last week! Not sure if they were actually available at that price or just gimmicked to get people interested, but now we try and book them they've shot up to £680!

The dates are 10/04/10 - 22/04/10 to suit a wedding so not really flexible. It's two adults (well actually 6 sets of two adults, but the rest are coming back on the 24th). A 'cyber pint' and my never-ending gratitude if anyone can help or suggest anything!

Thanks

[v15ben]

Do you have any preference where you fly from in the UK or where you fly via? I'll have a look when I am next working on Thursday if you want.

Also with those £460 flights did you go right through to the final buying page or was that with the age old 'estimated taxes and charges?'

[srob]

v15ben said:

Do you have any preference where you fly from in the UK or where you fly via? I'll have a look when I am next working on Thursday if you want.

Also with those £460 flights did you go right through to the final buying page or was that with the age old 'estimated taxes and charges?'

Hi. I think you're right, it was a case of the taxes not being added now I've done a bit more investigation.

Don't really have any preferences where we fly from. All based in East Anglia so we naturally thought London airports, but if it's of any benefit I'm sure we could travel.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[VxDuncan]

Well flying from London (ie LON not LGW or LHR) should give you the best range of options. I take it you've tried the likes of opodo etc for options? Keep the flexible dates ticked and try not to fly at weekends. I would expect Iberia would be fairly competative, tranisting through Madrid. In many cases the flight from the UK to the transit airport (be it madrid, paris, schipol) is the one that breaks the chain and ramps the price up.

One thing I would say is try not to book through the likes of opodo, travelocity, expedia etc, instead go to the relevant airline website and book direct. That way all the booking references match and it's easier to amend if you need to. Trying to change a booking in Papua using an opodo booking reference last year I found this the hard way. That said, I'm sure booking through STA they will help should you need to make amendments to flights ;o)

Have fun though - always wanted to go to Rio but been put off by the flight costs. Maybe next year...

[v15ben]

Another potential option might be Tam as you avoid the taxes of a major European airport en route but sometimes end up with a meaty stopover in Sao Paulo on the way to Rio. I'll have a look tomorrow, but I'd certainly recommend the websites Duncan mentioned and also www.flightscanner.net as they are usually pretty accurate on price and give a good view of what options are available.

[srob]

VxDuncan said:

Well flying from London (ie LON not LGW or LHR) should give you the best range of options. I take it you've tried the likes of opodo etc for options? Keep the flexible dates ticked and try not to fly at weekends. I would expect Iberia would be fairly competative, tranisting through Madrid. In many cases the flight from the UK to the transit airport (be it madrid, paris, schipol) is the one that breaks the chain and ramps the price up.

One thing I would say is try not to book through the likes of opodo, travelocity, expedia etc, instead go to the relevant airline website and book direct. That way all the booking references match and it's easier to amend if you need to. Trying to change a booking in Papua using an opodo booking reference last year I found this the hard way. That said, I'm sure booking through STA they will help should you need to make amendments to flights ;o)

Have fun though - always wanted to go to Rio but been put off by the flight costs. Maybe next year...

Thanks for the advice. One of the girls is really struggling to get the time off, which is why we're going weekend-to-weekend. To be honest it hadn't occured to me that the days would make that much difference with long haul.

I went to the Rio Carnival a couple of years ago, and across to Foz waterfalls on the Argentinian boarder. It was meant to be a once in a lifetime trip until a mate decided to marry a Brazilian girl. We tried to get him to marry someone from somewhere we haven't been before

Thanks for the help too Ben, much appreciated and if you have any more ideas please share

ETA I did wonder about getting an economy hop to Madrid then a straight flight from there. We flew with Iberia last time and stopped in Madrid. Maybe I'll have a quick look on their (and Easyjets!) sites...

Edited by srob on Wednesday 21st October 15:07

[v15ben]

YHM Simon, but I reckon if you can still get the £610 then that may be your best bet. The cheap flight to Madrid option then flying on from there might work out. If you can get some cheap direct flights to Brazil on Iberia's Spanish website then you'll be laughing (in theory.)

[srob]

v15ben said:

YHM Simon, but I reckon if you can still get the £610 then that may be your best bet. The cheap flight to Madrid option then flying on from there might work out. If you can get some cheap direct flights to Brazil on Iberia's Spanish website then you'll be laughing (in theory.)

Thanks, I'll check when I get home. I looked into the (seperate) flight from Madrid with Iberia option, but I think that the Euro exchange rate has killed that idea. They were quoted in Euro's and about the same as a flight from UK. Oh well, bite the bullet time I guess!

Thanks for all your help everyone

[srob]

Just as an update, we've booked direct flights with BA on the 10th returning on the 24th. They came in at just shy of £700, which is lots of money but at least it's done now so I can save for the holiday and wedding!

Thanks again to all who had suggestions

[BigAlinEmbra]

srob said:

Just as an update, we've booked direct flights with BA on the 10th returning on the 24th. They came in at just shy of £700, which is lots of money but at least it's done now so I can save for the holiday and wedding!

Thanks again to all who had suggestions

I was just about to suggest BA. IMO saving a couple of hundred quid versus going rendition air and stopping over in some grim hell hole just ain't worth it.