Azul Airlines

Salvador to São Paulo with Azul. I am very pleased with staff. I needed a wheelchair to get around since I have a broken foot and they were extremely helpful and friendly while helping me. Pleasant surprise. Muito feliz com os funcionários da Azul.

This was my first flight on Azul and I was impressed. Check-in was fast and efficient. Plane departed on-time. On board service was friendly. The plane was clean and well-maintained. We were served free beverages and a selection of chips and cookies on this one-hour flight. Each seat had an individual seat back TV screen. On arrival my checked bag arrived on the carousel quickly. I am very happy that we now have more airline options in Brazil with the addition of Azul and Avianca and no longer are forced to choose between the former duopoly of TAM and GOL.

Took 3 flights with Azul within 3 days. All flights were boarded and disembarked via a bus which is annoying. On board the FA's were very professional and attentive. There were drinks and a wide range of snacks offered on all flights. The seats were comfortable and all flights left and arrived on time. The only complaint I have is that all announcements including the safety brief were in Portuguese only. Overall I was pleased with the experience but the lack of English announcements is an inconvenience and a safety hazard.

We travel in Brazil and internationally quite a bit sometimes from within Brazil and sometimes from abroad. If you plan to use a non-Brasilian credit or debit card in Brasil, the golden rule is make sure it is 'unlocked' for use in Brasil for the period in use or they may likely decline it for security reasons (we use both, but our business card is a UK one). But what if you don't notice that it is going through Brasilian verification? Online it usually makes no difference: this time it did. I booked a flight with Azul, which I've done many times. The booking went through but they said there was a small problem on the card which was not unlocked. I phoned Mastercard and made sure it was unlocked. The Azul confirmation came through again, saying the payment and flight was confirmed. Mastercard also said that that specific payment had been confirmed when I spoke to them. The next day, an email arrived from Azul saying there is a problem. I spend an hour on the phone with them but the upshot is that they said they had refunded the amount (this later turned out to be untrue) because of the initial problem. They asked me to send email photographs of the front of my credit card and passport (which in itself breaks Internet security protocols and their agreements with Mastercard). They assured me that was the only way to sort it out and it would all be confirmed and sorted out in thirty minutes so reluctantly I sent them. Two hours and more long distance phone calls later, the person who had made the promise had gone home and the new person said the flight would have to be paid for again and not with that card (there is nothing wrong with the card). Now I know the airline gurus on here will say, Oh it's all your fault, you should have done such-and-such, but the mistakes or problems I encountered (as someone who books many flights) could happen to anyone, which is why I am sharing the story. So when the offices open again I phone Mastercard again. They tell that the payment was definitely approved (and supplied the authorisation code) and that the transaction had definitely gone through (and provided me with the transaction code) and that it definitely had not been refunded. I asked if there was a refund pending and they said there was not any refund pending. When confronted with this, they (Azul) changed their story and said it hadn't been refunded but it would be refunded once the payment was made in person at their office. This required my partner to take several hours off, take a taxi from Sao Paulo to Barueri (where the Azul office is situated, a journey of about 25km with tolls and heavy traffic that can take over an hour) and pay cash for something that they, Azul, had already received cash for and still had cash for. (Presumably if we had accepted them at their word, that the money had been refunded, and just changed to a flight with TAM, bearing in mind this is two days before travel, they would not have refunded it at all.) The other 'option' they offered was for my partner to take the money to the airport and pay for the flight and that they would refund the money to the credit card after she had done so. (The first option meant lost time and expense, the second one arriving at the airport without a guaranteed flight carrying more money than is desirable when travelling around.) We decided we had few choices but to pay for the flight twice in the hope that the money will eventually be refunded and an e-ticket issued.

Recife to São Paulo Campinas. My experience at Azul was great from the departure airport to the arrival at destination. Check in was quick, kind enough, ground service is exceptional. Azul airplanes are great - comfortable leather, seat comfort is great. One bright spot is the onboard entertainment on Embraer 195 and Embraer 190, each seat has a TV with live programming and passengers are distributed headphones. The meal on board has several options for snacks and drinks for free. The cabin staff smiling and kind.

Good company, punctual schedule, good attention stewards, and the meal also good. A quiet flight with good entertainment. The order of the bags was also timely and fast.

Azul operates this route with ATR 72-600. The aircraft was new, comfortable and safe. The pitch is good and has a leather seat. The crew are friendly and professional. Service includes free soda, juice, water and snacks. The round-flights were on time.

Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo. Brand new Embraer 195 with personal screens on every seat and live TV with a broad selection of movies sports channels and news. Cabin crew is friendly and well-groomed. Flight time was 55 minutes. Snacks (cookies chips and pretzels) along with water juices and spirits were distributed free of charge. Announcements and safety information/instructions were held in Portuguese only: in my opinion they should be in English too. Overall a nice experience. Ticket fare was very low considering the peak season (beginning of February). I usually fly TAM for domestic flights within Brazil but as of now I will consider Azul as a valid alternative option.

Belo Horizonte (CND) to Montes Claros (MOC) on flight AD5028 Embraer 195. My travel begins with a fast reservation on website. Easy and objective. The onboard service is another differential of Azul. When boarding you are always welcomed with a big smile from the flights attendants. The ATR-72 have no entertainment onboard because usually the route is regional and it is fast but onboard the EMB-195 you can enjoy excellent individual entertainment. The comfortable is another differential of Azul. All aircraft's have just double seats.

Flight 6966 - 05/02/2014 Rio de Janeiro (GIG) to Campinas (VCP). Good company. New aircraft (Embraer 190 Embraer 195 and ATR-72). Nice Staff. One of the best in Brazil.