And I’m off to São Paulo. Here are the flight statistics:

Flight 4 to São Paulo 

Date: 20/10/2013
Code: TAM3511from GIG to GRU
Airline: Tam Linhas Aéreas
Plane: Airbus 320
Distance flown: 303 Miles
Duration: 0h55

Well, the actual duration was close to 4 hours… Let’s say Star Alliance will not miss TAM when they switch over to One World…

The check-in was confusing, no indications. I first stood at the special needs counter. Then at the Business check in, but they said my flight (Rio-Sao Paulo) would be checked in at the INTER-national desk. A-ha!

There, at baggage drop of, a queue of 10 people, no staff…like, ever. After 30 minutes I got to another counter…. still pretty early, only to hear the plane would be late… no further info on that, then an announcement only in Portuguese that we’d be an hour late…

Finally in the plane, off the gate, only to return 10 minutes later. No English announcement, rumours, we have to switch planes…

Portuguese announcement asking people with connections to Argentina and Chile to get off the plane. Only to send half of them back 10 minutes later because they did not mean all those passengers, just certain flights….

At 3 o’clock we could finally take off, whatever the technical problem was… Gee… and that with my barely repressed flight panic. Sven, do you remember your blue arms after the flight home from Tenerifa?

Anyway, I’m on holiday, can be relaxed… but still after three hours of sleep, getting up at 7.30 you just want to arrive at one time…