TAM Flight July 2011

The school has bought our plane tickets! 

I am relieved and excited that we will be officially leaving for Brasilia in almost exactly 2 months from now. The school bought us tickets with TAM even though each ticket was $500 more than the cheapest airfare. Their reasoning is because Copa arrives in Brasilia at an ungodly hour. Regardless of their reasoning, it was thoughtful, kind, and will save us so much money because....dare I say it....the best part of having our tickets with TAM is that they allow excess baggage on their flights!

Paying for excess baggage is extremely inexpensive (in comparison to shipping companies). Can you imagine $150 for 70 lbs?? That's amazing! Now we can take our most prized belongings without having to worry to much. We can't be foolish, especially because we have a domestic flight that may not be as generous with all of our baggage, but we'll see how that all goes.

My husband wanted to take his smaller suitcase which is ideal for domestic travel, but not so much for international-I'm-trying-to-shove-all-that-I-own-into-2-suitcases-that-can-only-weigh-up-to-70-lbs trips. Now that we don't have a limit we can take it all. I mean, within reason of course. We don't want to prevent the plane from getting off the ground because it's so full of coffee makers, blenders, a DVD player, and my books.

TAM also allows pets in the cabin as long as they're 10 kgs or less. Our cat is there, but with the carrier his weight cannot exceed 10 kgs so he's on a diet from now until July. This won't hurt him; he's a bit overweight. The only real concern should then be that the carrier case that we have is too large per TAM's pet policy. What's the solution? Buy a soft carrier that we can manipulate to look the right size.

Now we've flown with TAM in the past, but unfortunately we never bothered with frequent flyer miles. This time we'll get 'em. I guess then that it's a good thing that we have to fly all the way to Sao Paulo to turn around and head north to Brasilia.

Anyway, no need to start worrying about the cat, the long flight, or anything else. We're grateful that the school is looking out for us and that we are able to fly on the date that we chose. With our flight to New York next month and then of course this one, we have a lot to look forward to. I LOVE to fly and am excited to have the tickets in my inbox.

Flight number...well, almost

We heard back from the travel agent today who heard from the school. They've made another reservation for us to fly from Orlando to Brasilia (the first one may not have been the best situation for us), and hopefully by tomorrow our tickets will be purchased. Yeahhh!

I won't say too much until they have been bought, but this appears to be the best deal for us.  I'm excited and will feel wonderful once everything is taken care of regarding our flight.

I don't want to worry about packing, shipping, or travelling with a cat, but I do realize that this is all part of moving abroad. I guess I should be grateful that we don't own a home or that we won't be moving to an unfurnished apartment. Now that would give me something to complain about. All of this, well, it'll all work itself out in the end.

I'll keep you updated as to who we fly with, what's the deal on shipping and our cat, and when we depart.

We have a lot to look forward to, that's for sure.




PS: By the way, this is my 100th post :)

Time to buy the tickets

I am so excited that I can feel my emotions whelm up inside of me. I almost don't sound how cheesy that sounds. The travel agency in Brasilia that the school uses contacted me today to make our travel arrangements. Under my contract, the school has to pay for my travel to and from Brazil; they will purchase my ticket moving to Brazil, and then again after my 2-year contract (even if I renew my contract and continue to work at the school).

The school is generously buying E's ticket (for us to reimburse) so that he can fly with me, for sure. I thought that was kind and it's welcoming because this means one less thing for me/us to take care of.

The travel agent contacted me with information that they need from us in order to purchase the tickets:

Passport number:
Expiration date: day, month, year
Nationality of passport:
Nationality of passenger:
Date of birth:
Last name as it is on the passport:
First name as it is on the passport:
Middle name as it is on the passport:
Date of departure:
Airport of departure:
Frequent flyer number:
Preference of seat:
Any relevant information will be welcome:

Once I sent the answers to the travel agent, she provided me with the possible airlines and their schedules to Brasilia so that we can see what our options are. God knows that Copa Airlines is much much cheaper than either TAM or Delta (we have sky miles with them). That's fine with me! Their pet policy is pet friendly :).

I'll post more once our tickets are bought.