GOL review : 17 July 2008 : by Patrik Frank

Customer Rating : 3/5

Delays are rare (although they do occur), staff generally know what they are doing. Their fare conditions are customer-friendly: changing your bookings for free is possible with a few clicks through the website up to 24 hours before departure - regardless of your booking-class. However that they do not deserve four stars is clear as well. Inflight service is ok, but a muesli-bar and a drink is just not worth five stars. GOL is no mainline carrier and thus does not offer the related services such as ff-program, codeshares with connecting longhaul-airlines. While the website does accept some international credit cards, Visa and Master are only accepted with their respective electronic authorization systems which very few banks seem to offer. Unlike TAM, cash payments are also not possible, not even within Brazil. They sell domestic legs on international flights without informing the passenger of this - which results in confusion at checkin or when going to the gate: is it in the domestic part or in the international?

GOL review : 15 July 2008 : by Jason Burnie

Customer Rating : 3/5

Sao Paulo to Rio. Check in staff could not speak English at all but he impressed by running around to find his English speaking colleague just to brief me the boarding details. FAs could fairly communicate in English. Snacks and drinks were provided on this short flight. FAs pushed the trolley up and down to check if any passengers want additional snacks or drinks or not. Departure and arrival on time. Baggage arrived on the belt quick enough. Rio (GRU) to Iguazu (IGU) via Curitiba. Check in was smooth. Once on board FAs friendly and they can speak English very well. Similar to previous flight that they pushed the trolley up and down to top up snacks and drinks. Transit in Curitiba we were not allowed to disembark. However, they still kept the turnaround time short at only 30 min. Arrival at Iguazu no problem at all. Good value good service.

GOL review : 1 May 2008 : by A Hijmans

Customer Rating : 3/5

SSA-BSB-SSA. Both legs in 737-800. Outbound flight on time, inbound flight delayed for half an hour in BSB, waiting for a connecting flight to arrive. Arrival in SSA nearly on time though. Aircraft spotlessly clean on both legs, two drinks and aforementioned cereal bars served with a smile (IFAs will give you extra cereal bars if you ask.) Check-in staff extremely helpful and friendly. Just three stars though due to the fact that the seats in the 737-800s are rock hard, even if their pitch is good for a low-cost airline.

GOL review : 30 April 2008 : by V Berjot

Customer Rating : 3/5

SSA-Recife Recife-Brazilia Brazilia-GIG. 2 of the 3 flights delayed on departure but only one really late on arrival. Planes clean and new. Pleasant crew. 2 drinks offered (and the cereal bars mentioned by another comment!) despite short flights. No problem with the on-line booking despite being non brazilian. Check in very quick in the different airports.

GOL - by Pedro Rosa

30 December 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

I don't believe what I'm reading: I have used this airline so often this year - about 12 times in 6 months - and only two flights were on time, the other 10 usually delayed for about an hour, average. Their prices are not that low-cost, their lunch is ridiculous (micro-snack); domestic lines at check-ins are known to be the longest. As for international flights, they're gross, totally unprepared and asking you silly questions - this is also valid for all ground crew. We have to fly them because of their widespread net, and my company loves to pay for their extra fees, which ultimately keeps them up. It's a one-star company deserving a null, packing their customers/passengers in uncomfortable Boeings.

GOL - by Patrick Meier

20 September 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

GIG-SSR Generally a fair service for such a short flight. The fact that GOL is not accepting foreign credit cards for online booking and only accepts Amex for purchase at the ticket counter it´s absolutely not acceptable for an airline that offers international flights !

GOL - by Kristian Laursen

6 September 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Sao Paulo (CGH) to Rio de Janeiro (SDU). Boeing 737-800 quite new and good. There were serving with soft drinks and snacks for the flight for 40-45 minutes. Check-in and boarding was efficient and very smooth.

GOL - by D Hodson

30 June 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

GIG-IGU via CWB. Very impressed with quick check-in, time keeping and professionalism. 737-400 a little tired now but did the job fine. Drinks and snacks served which considering each leg was 45-60mins, was an impressive feat. Considering the price paid for tickets, this was a bargain. Will definitely use them again next time I am in South America.

GOL - by Jeffrey Boen

5 November 2006  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

IGU via CWB to CGH and connecting to SDU. All flights on new aircraft arrived on time. Seats were comfortable, esp. for these three short flights. Unlike with European LCCs, the airfare was not really low cost, and complimentary snacks and drinks were served (by friendly F/As). Based on this experience, I can highly recommend GOL.

GOL - by Denis Marchand
6 September 2006

Gol is serving more and more regular routes in Brazil. It is starting to expand in the MercoSul as well. But the low cost aspect is all relative: some of their tariffs can exceed TAM´s. Still, efficient checking / boarding procedures are still worth the interest, and so are the relatively new 737 operated. The only negative point really would be the snacks provided: cereal bars on all domestic legs. Don´t forget to bring your own sandwiches if your flight makes several stop-over.

GOL - by Jonathan Vass
18 June 2006

SSA-GIG Return. This is a low cost airline which shows no signs of being low cost - other than the price. New planes, free drinks and snacks served, comfortable and roomy seats. Very fast check in and departure from the aircraft. The plane departed half and hour late on both flights, but that really didn't matter. Non Brazilians can book flights online, but with American Express only. Top marks!

GOL - by Rodrigo Bastos
8 August 2005

I flew GOL three times (GIG- POA; POA-SAO; SAO-GIG) and think that airline is the best in Brazil´s domestic flights. The low cost have really low fares, the check in was quick. I waited two hours in SAO because the traffic! It was impossible to take off! The airport was very crowded! But GOL is one of the best in Brazil - and with the first international flight GOL is growing.

GOL - by Vinicius Magalhaes
25 July 2005

I flew with GOL for two times (shuttle RIO-SAO-RIO) and have no cause to complain. The economy night flight RIO-SAO was on time. The SAO-RIO was delayed 30 minutes. The price was ok (about $75 round trip). Excellent F/A. The pitch between the seats was not the best and the onboard service was very simple. A good choice for short flights. Now I'm trying to buy a ticket RIO-CWB-RIO. With GOL it costs about $260 (with stop in CPQ or CGH). VARIG for $180 (non-stop) and TAM for $390 (via CPQ, CGH or GRU). Who is really the cheaper?

GOL - by Jason Rose
12 July 2005

In response to Mark Johnson's point about needing a CPF number, when I used it last year, the GOL website allowed American Express holders from any country to book.

GOL - by Mark Johnson
10 July 2005

Can highly recommend this low-cost-carrier for domestic flights in Brazil. Fares are cheaper than others but also offer the best value for money for people like me using a domestic flight only for fast, save and cheap transport. GOL seems to be well and modern managed. Service is reduced to the very needed on a short trip of max. 3 hrs.: quick efficient check-in (no tickets nor boarding cards are handed out, just a sales slip containing all information) and inflight catering (one sandwich p.p. in a folded paper box, small but quality selection of beverages). Small but friendly and helpful stuff (cabin crew only 2-4 per cabin). Older and newer airplanes in use but all clean and well maintained. The only but not unimportant drawback: Foreigners wont be able to book online at GOL's website since you need a CPF-Number (Brazilian ID). But this you will NOT learn until filling in and processing all files with personal data at this website. Some people tell they call the GOL-service number for an advanced reservation; to pay at check-in counter. Already in Brazil every travel agency can book for you to the same fares and for a littly service charge like 17-20 BRL.I

GOL - by M Bertrand

11 March 2005

I would recommend GOL. Great website with easy on-line booking. Clean 'planes and efficient FAs. All flights on sectors I flew in February were on time. I object to having advertising on the tray-table in front of me. A sign of the times I guess

GOL - by Claudio Tusco

31 January 2005

GIG-GRU-GIG. Flight was ok in both legs. FA and food was ok, some cereal bars and soft drinks. This is perfect for the price we paid for the ticked (50% less then VARIG or TAM). In our way to GIG we had a small delay due to a connecting flight from EZE. When coming back to GRU we arrived a little late in the airport and were immediately transfered to another line for check in. Very smart from their part. The airplane in both legs was clean, but a little old though. A classic B737-300.

GOL - by Pablo Kleinman

29 November 2004

Flew GOL on several legs within Brazil and the services was quite good, the planes fairly new. Tickets are purchased online and it is worthwhile registering with a username and password on their site as that's the only way to make changes electronically (changes made over the phone cost more money). Tickets are in theory refundable minus a processing fee. Nevertheless, upon cancelling a pair of tickets for one leg, we only received a refund for one of the two. I have written to them four times already (once a month for the past four) and they have so far never replied or issued the refund for the second ticket. Also, you better speak Portuguese when dealing with customer service (I do, still no refund) because otherwise it's impossible to communicate with them.. barely anyone speaks anything else at GOL.

GOL - by Johan Olsson

17 September 2004

GOL is an excellent low-cost quality airline in Brazil. Flew GOL from FOR to REC to SAL to FOR. New planes (B737-800), excellent quick check in, on time departures, and excellent snacks/drinks. All at 50% of the VARIG cost.
 

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