Watching the World Cup on the sands of the Copacabana???

[MFKS]

I work at a local Travel Agent and was myself looking at travelling next year but have decided not to. I also have an interest in the ZPL3 competition and have been reading this thread out of interest to see what everyone was thinking and doing about the travel next year.

The flights I was looking at were with Swiss and/or Lufthansa and the airlines they partner with. It does mean that you would have to travel through Europe to get there or come home. The fares are basically a round world fare, although you will need to purchase a one-way flight between Santiago and Rio (either way).

As an example of the route you could take and airlines that can be used, if you chose the Swiss Air option you could fly Sydney to Dubai on Qantas. Dubai to Zurich on Swiss. Zurich to Rio on Swiss (via Sao Paulo). Santiago to Sydney on Qantas. The bonus with this fare is the fact that you are allowed a return flight form Zurich to basically anywhere in Europe, which breaks the flight up a little.

If you chose to fly Lufthansa the itinerary would look pretty similar but your main stop in Europe would be Frankfurt or Munich.

I thought that this information would help a few people and give you guys some more options. These fares aren't generally used at a lot of agencies.

If you want some more info let me know and I can give you some contact details.

Seeing as you work in a travel agents can you give us a bit of insight into what you would expect fares to be??

Right now Sydney >> Rio De Janiero via Santiago (Chile) with dates approx 1 month before I wish to go and 1 month before I wish to return return are at $2100 return.

What would you expect (from your experience in the travel agent industry) to be the price for (factoring in the inflation rate just cause it is a World Cup) the same flight 1 month later will actually be???

[PC14]

At the moment, as I am sure most people understand, fares are only out until around the start of June. We won't have fares available for the end of June and into July next month.

Speaking to my boss, who has been in the industry a fair bit longer then myself, we believe that if there is any inflation it won't be a too much higher then the fare now. We believe the biggest problem and driver of the price will be availability, especially as there are only two airlines that fly from Australia straight into South America. At the moment we are unsure if the airlines will be adding extra services for the World Cup, which is what happened in 2010. If they do not then availabilities at the cheapest fares will be minimal unless you get in early.

If you are looking to budget for your flights, I would suggest anywhere between $2500-3500. Again these are only estimates and airlines can change there prices and availabilities daily.

[MFKS]

At the moment, as I am sure most people understand, fares are only out until around the start of June. We won't have fares available for the end of June and into July next month.

Speaking to my boss, who has been in the industry a fair bit longer then myself, we believe that if there is any inflation it won't be a too much higher then the fare now. We believe the biggest problem and driver of the price will be availability, especially as there are only two airlines that fly from Australia straight into South America. At the moment we are unsure if the airlines will be adding extra services for the World Cup, which is what happened in 2010. If they do not then availabilities at the cheapest fares will be minimal unless you get in early.

If you are looking to budget for your flights, I would suggest anywhere between $2500-3500. Again these are only estimates and airlines can change there prices and availabilities daily.

Thanks for the reply

Am planning on getting in early. Driving me ****ing nuts at present. Am planning on spending 4-5 days somewhere else on my way there just have no idea where!! That just gives you far too many ideas. Big problem I am gonna have though is that I am staying for the second round also so I need flights home early July. This may put me into difficulty getting flights to Brazil when I want/ how I want as the bulk who are going for group stage only will be able to book before me.

Be pretty handy if your thoughts come true as I have budgeted 4k for flights and any money not spent on this can be rediverted to ticket fund which I am looking at going for the dearer sideline options as I feel this may present more chances with the ballots as others look for the cheap seats

[PC14]

Flights are now out for June but not for July.

[A.J.]

For anyone wanting to do an extended trip, Qantas have a pretty good sale on at the moment. Just booked May 30 - July 24 for $1460 return. Ends thursday

[MFKS]

For anyone wanting to do an extended trip, Qantas have a pretty good sale on at the moment. Just booked May 30 - July 24 for $1460 return. Ends thursday

Handy if you can stay for nearly 2 months.

Me I am looking for 4-5 weeks and just couldn't get it to work for me. At this stage I ain't paying more than $2500. **** em on principle I will wait until I get it for that price then book. If it don't then so be it I will pay more. I just ain't gonna be the idiot who books early and pays over the top

Flights are slowly coming out and the best i have got so far is that from Qantas for $2900. Improving slowly last week I could get $3500 as the best deal!!!

[A.J.]

Yeah we just fluked it, were prepared to pay about $2500 return judging on prices around the dates we were looking at. Jumped on yday to check if they had availability til the end of July and saw that deal up until a day before we wanted to come back so just booked it.

Only doing 2-3 weeks in Brazil, the rest will be Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. Want to squeeze in more but also don't want to rush too much. Probably shouldn't be staying for 2 months either due to money + work, but I'll worry about that at a later date!

[evolution]

Applied for my tickets tonight, had all intentions of going for Category 3 but end up going for Category 1. Selected the "4 game Team Specific Ticket" as well, fingers crossed I get the tickets first go and not have to piss about with the other phases.

[MFKS]

Applied for my tickets tonight, had all intentions of going for Category 3 but end up going for Category 1. Selected the "4 game Team Specific Ticket" as well, fingers crossed I get the tickets first go and not have to piss about with the other phases.

Done the same Category 1 but went for the group stage only option. If Holger's boys some how jag it in to the second round I can't see them winning the group

Went for Category 1 as figured it will be the least popular with people looking at the cheapest option first

Bit disappointed that i can't book tickets for the second round though. Due to my interest in booking tickets for Australian games at this stage i can't also book knockout round matches. Am planning on taking in the matches in the second rd at Maracana and in Sao Paulo and was even gonna look at getting to the one in Brasilia if I could.

I also have little faith in Australia making it out of the group and it will cost me a mint if they do and I have to make last minute plan changes in Brazil. But that will be a price I will begrudgingly be happy to pay

[durbo]

If anyone is planning on doing the Fanatics Tour starting in Rio, or might be interested, I'm trying to flog my tickets that I've paid a deposit on. 2 tickets at 6 grand each twin share. Work backflipped on my annual leave application after I paid and they won't refund it, only transfer to someone else. Spewin.

[evolution]

Booked my return flight today, leaving South America on 29 July. Was going to ticket my flights with LAN but they have been holding back availability (and are always a bit slow to release the flights anyway), so switched over to Qantas who had almost full availability on the exact same flights. All up the international ticket is costing me $1500 plus about $700 taxes which I am extremely happy with.

Just need to wait now until the draw so I can book the internal flights.

Post World Cup I am going to fly down to Montevideo and spend a couple of days there, then catch the ferry across the Buenos Aires. After that will fly up to Panama and then finally doing a Central America tour for a couple of weeks. It is June yet?

[MFKS]

Booked my return flight today, leaving South America on 29 July. Was going to ticket my flights with LAN but they have been holding back availability (and are always a bit slow to release the flights anyway), so switched over to Qantas who had almost full availability on the exact same flights. All up the international ticket is costing me $1500 plus about $700 taxes which I am extremely happy with.

Just need to wait now until the draw so I can book the internal flights.

Post World Cup I am going to fly down to Montevideo and spend a couple of days there, then catch the ferry across the Buenos Aires. After that will fly up to Panama and then finally doing a Central America tour for a couple of weeks. It is June yet?

Am gonna hold out a bit longer myself. No notable air far sales for June 2014 yet have been made available. Still feel confident I should be able to book for $3k max by December so I will be holding out t least to something decent comes through from LAN,Qantas or Aerolineas Argentinas flying to Sth America.

Can get flights from USA to Brazil for about $1800 return and add to that a flight from Australia to USA for $1200 when on special there's $3k anyway.

Me I ideally plan to spend best part of a week in Chile then stopover in Iguazu Falls for a day or two before arriving in Rio about 2-3 days before the WC kicks off. Hopefully LAN can come to the party with some flights under 9k to do it.


On another note FIFA need their heads read with the draw for the tourny. This bullshit of not basing groups in regions is a ****ing farce. Considering the size of the country each group should be based in an area of Brazil so you can at least bus/drive between cities or at least limit the amount of flying required.

Any one going is pretty much stuck flying to all games if you are following a certain team that's if you don't want to drive for 2000km - 5000km to get to the next game.

Once again proving the idiots have NFI

[backstick]

Can get flights from USA to Brazil for about $1800 return and add to that a flight from Australia to USA for $1200 when on special there's $3k anyway.

Where from? and with who?

[MFKS]

You can get flights from USA to Brazil in June next year right now for around $1800 return right now. Try Expedia Webjet Skyscanner etc

You can pick up return flights from Australia to USA for $1200return as soon as they have a sale on. There will be half a dozen of these on between now and next june

[MFKS]

PC 14 any chance you can give us some insight as to when the airlines will have sales on tickets for June 2014??

Not necessarily focused on Brazil but hoping the airlines at least provide some options to elsewhere to help get the prices down to a reasonable level for Brazil bound travel.

ie Sydney >> USA>> USA>> Rio etc


Also fully understand most will be looking at going via Qantas/LAN/ Aerolineas Argentinas flying direct to Sth America. When would you think that these mobs will offer up something reasonable??

At present LAN offer flights Sydney>> Rio via Santiago for $8000/$9000 leave early June return early July. Obviously no one in their right mind would cough up at these prices

[evolution]

PC 14 any chance you can give us some insight as to when the airlines will have sales on tickets for June 2014??

Not necessarily focused on Brazil but hoping the airlines at least provide some options to elsewhere to help get the prices down to a reasonable level for Brazil bound travel.

ie Sydney >> USA>> USA>> Rio etc


Also fully understand most will be looking at going via Qantas/LAN/ Aerolineas Argentinas flying direct to Sth America. When would you think that these mobs will offer up something reasonable??

At present LAN offer flights Sydney>> Rio via Santiago for $8000/$9000 leave early June return early July. Obviously no one in their right mind would cough up at these prices

Obviously not PC14 but can offer some insight...

From experience (4 years in the travel industry and counting) airlines never tell you when they are gonig to be having a sale. Obviously people know that "earlybird" deals for Europe are going to be in October/November etc, but when an actual sale will happen is anyones guess.

As I said before LAN are holding back availability on their flights, having spoken to my contact there I've been told the head office is still deciding what they plan to do with the flights for this time. No time frame for when this will be sorted.

I'm still at work, so I can actually provide an example.

Under normal circumstances this is what the availability for Santiago to Rio would look like:

MON 07APR14 SANTIAGO /RIO DE JANEI
1 SCL GIG 0830 1345 LA 786 W7 P4 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 V7 S7 N7C*E
Q7 O7 X7

(Each letter representing a booking class, with the numbers representing how many seats available in that class)

This is what it looks like in June:

TUE 10JUN14 SANTIAGO /RIO DE JANEI
1 SCL GIG 0830 1345 LA 786 W0 P0 Y2C*E

So in my opinion, at least for LAN and by association Qantas, that it's not a matter of them putting out a sale - it's a matter of them actually releasing the cheap(er) booking classes for sale. This is why when you are looking for flights it is giving you a fare of $9000 as only the *full* economy fare is available.

Hope this gives you a bit of insight MFKS. Let me know if you need any more info!

[MFKS]

Thanks for the reply Evolution.

More confused than ever


The whole thing is baffling as all ****.
You would think the airlines would actually want your business!!!

As I am planning on going 10-14 days early I am planning on spending a week or so seeing the sights somewhere other than Brazil. My desired preference is Chile but if it is Argentina/USA or wherever I am not gonna be too fussed.

I understand the airlines are only interested in the bottom line ie the $$ but you think there would also be some interest to get as many of the WC fans to drop in and spend some of their $$$ supporting the local economy of the country of the airline rather than all the money ending up in Brazil??

At present it would seem the likes of Chile and Argentina have no interest in getting a couple of thousand Aussies blowing money supporting their tourist industry!!!

I fully understand Qantas not giving a ****

[PC14]

Sorry gents.

I have only just come back into the office from a few weeks leave. You'll never guess where I was...South America. Rio, Iguazzu, Buenes Aries, Patagonia and a short stopover in Santiago.

Evolution has hit the nail on the head. We have no idea when airlines will release seats on the flights that coincide with the world cup let alone when, or if, they will release specials. There is every chance there will be no specials for that time period.

I would recommend staying away from Aerolineas, for the simple fact, and I am almost 100% sure, they do not have seat back entertainment on the aircrafts. Bad for those of us that can't sleep on flights. Unless of course you have an Ipad or tablet.

It really is just a wait and see when or if they come out with specials.

[evolution]

Evolution has hit the nail on the head. We have no idea when airlines will release seats on the flights that coincide with the world cup let alone when, or if, they will release specials. There is every chance there will be no specials for that time period.

I heard last week that LAN are about to release a special high season fare for June/July next year. It'll be about $1000 higher than usual, but at least this means they may release some seats!

I would recommend staying away from Aerolineas, for the simple fact, and I am almost 100% sure, they do not have seat back entertainment on the aircrafts. Bad for those of us that can't sleep on flights. Unless of course you have an Ipad or tablet.

100% correct. I'd only go with Aerolineas if they are going to save me a couple of thousand dollars on the fare. Even then I'd be hesitant!

[MFKS]

http://www.thefanatics.com/fifa_worl...-australia-rio


Only for those booked on their trip though so don't book if you ain't going with them

Fanatics have today released flights for Rio and Sao Paulo.

Don't quite fit into my time frames anyway but the prices?? FMD

You have been able to get Sydney to Rio/Sao Paulo on Emirates for $3100>> $3400 on Expedia Skyscanner etc for the last 6 weeks and they want to charge $3800.

Pleasing thing is people are booking them so I am stoked. The more that book them the less demand for when I want