Notes from Brazil:
- TAM Airlines is amazing. Go for it. I mean seriously… free blankets and pillows and headphones and candy, and even actual meals!
- Every country has guido frat boys. I got stuck on an airplane with them. Fist-pumping and yelling upon takeoff, landing, turbulence, and… well, every 5min it seemed. I now understand why guns can’t be brought on airplanes: I would have GLADLY decompressed the cabin to get those guys to stop yelling and let me sleep.
- Pro-tip Brazil: when you have a language selector on your site? Set it to more than just Portuguese please. I can’t give you money in exchange for WiFi access if I can’t read the damn website / registration screen.
- Fuck Brazil. Fuck Sao Paulo Airport, and most importantly? FUCK LAN AIRLINES! TAM = ok, LAN = the devil. See “My life in an Airport” for details on this one.
- Do not fly through Sao Paulo airport – if the bullet above this didn’t show this enough… its bad. While the airport itself isn’t completely horrific, the people there are not helpful (with the exception of a few Federal Police officers) and actively malicious (I met three guys on layover, trying to get their connecting flight, who were being deported by the airline. Deported for pretty much no reason besides it seemed funny at the time).
- Reason #2 for not flying through Sao Paulo? They put a skyscraper near the end of the runway. From what I hear its not THAT strange for airplanes to clip or barely miss the building.