Gol Transportes Aéreos

Route EZE (Buenos Aires) - BGI (Barbados) was supposed to take about 10 hrs including connecting time in GRU (Sao Paulo). It took us 72 hrs to get to our destination since the first flight departed with a 3 hr delay due to technical problems and it was almost impossible to get to Sao Paulo in time to board the connecting flight. However staff insisted that we had no choice other than boarding it with the promise that should we miss the connection (which we did) and being that it was a weekly flight the staff at Sao Paulo would be aware of our situation and would have an alternative plan. We landed in Sao only to find that the flight had departed without us and that they had no other plan than suggesting we board the next flight a week later! From then on it was a 3 day nightmare dealing with staff who were not prepared to manage even the simplest situations. After an endless wait at the airport a supervisor came with a "solution" a terrible itinerary via Brasilia and Miami staying overnight in Sao. When we told him it would be too tiresome he replied "I lost 2 hrs 30 mins trying to solve this I cannot do any more". Not much compared with the 3 days of our vacations spoilt. The connecting time for this new schedule was too tight and again due to the first leg delay we missed the connecting flight from Brasilia to Miami! We had to stay overnight in Brasilia too and also explain the situation all over again to the staff there who asked us "but why did they send you here"? Finally the following morning we boarded an American Airlines flight and arrived in Barbados via Miami 72 hrs later.

GIG-SSA. Bought the ticket on-line. While the booking process is less torturous than in the past the website is still full of traps that make many people give up in frustration. GOL was once known as Brasil's low-cost airline but prices are now the same as its competitor TAM. The check-in line at GIG was fairly long. The check-in agent was very helpful and allowed me to take a large bag as carry-on instead of checking it to save me the overweight luggage charge. The boarding process was efficient. The aircraft was clean and comfortable. GOL used to serve free beverages and a light snack but on this flight we were handed a menu and all refreshments had to be purchased. I chose a sandwich combo that included a tasteless sandwich a bag of chips and a can of Pepsi for 20 reais (approx US $15.00 a rather steep price for the mediocre quality). The flight crew was pleasant. We landed on-time in SSA. Overall GOL provides a reasonable service but it's no longer the low-cost airline many assume it to be.

SDU-CGH. Boarding at SDU was chaotic – the flight was delayed by almost 1 hour and the gate changed several times. Gate change announcements only in Portuguese. Eventually we were bussed to our aircraft. Aircraft was newer Boeing 737-800 cabin clean good leg room. Service consisted of free soft drinks and some snacks. Overall a good experience spoiled by the ground handling.

I think it's worth the attention to not fall in the ambush of GOL website and contract the service of travel assistance by mistake. By the time you make payment a check box appears asking if you "confirms the service engagement?". At no time is described "confirms the travel assistance service engagement?". Moreover it is not broken the price of the service alone but has added to the value of the ticket. You can only identify the service conditions when you click on link and another window opens. I always buy passage on the site and this time I ended up contracting the travel assistance services by mistake.

BeloHorizonte to Florianopolis via Sao Paulo. not charged for our excess baggage flights arrived on time. Juice and chips served for free. Very polite staff. A good no frills product. Only problem for foreigners is actually buying the flight over the net. We had to get our Brasilian friends to buy as we don't have a CPF number.

Sao Paolo to Rio. Originally booked on TAM but was re-routed due to delayed flight from Dubai. Ground stuff was polite and I was asked my seat preference in English. Departed on time. Arrived on time. Drinks were served. Baggage came very quickly. Friendly stuff. Clean surroundings. First when I saw orange colours I immediately associated it with UK no frills airline Easyjet but I was pleasantly surprised at overall performance of GOL.

GIG-FOR. Originally booked on TAM but when we had to be rerouted from the US Delta put us on this flight. Actually on a plane from Flex Airlines apparently a low-cost subsidiary of Gol (this had happened once before when I was booked on Gol). While some of the passengers were outraged that they weren't on a Gol plane seating and service was about the same. Small snack and drinks (non-alcoholic only) served. Seating space average for airlines these days. We got to Fortaleza on time.

SSA-GIG-SSA modern 737-800 both legs. Outbound flight departed 20 minutes late but arrived on time. Inbound flight left Rio 45 minutes late and arrived 20 minutes later than scheduled. Inflight service friendly but basic: cereal bars on outbound flight pretzels inbound. Limited choice of minerals. All in all Gol is a very good no-frills airline.

Fortaleza-Rio roundtrip. Basic no-frills flights. Tiny sandwiches soft drinks juice coffee water included. Biggest gripe was the fact that while the airline e-mailed my original itinerary to me they did not notify me when my original flight to Rio (a non-stop flight) stopped flying a couple of weeks before I was to depart. Unbeknownst to me I was put on a flight through Brasilia (fortunately leaving about the same time as the original flight). I learned of the schedule change only because I happened to look at the airline's Web site to confirm whether they were taking into account daylight savings time in Rio. I did ask them to send my revised itinerary via e-mail to make it official but they did not. Other than that the flights were fine. On the return we were put on a plane operated by Flex Airlines apparently a low-cost subsidiary. Once inside it was pretty indistinguishable from the Gol flight in which I had flown to Rio.

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.