Flying Azul

In the interest of saving money and traveling like a Brazilian, I booked a flight from Sao Paolo to Salvador on Azul which must be the Southwest of Brazil. They give free snacks on board and check an inordinate amount of bags for free.

The two hour flight pretty much took all day to negotiate - which in any case was a lot better than a 35-hour bus ride... First I walked about 10 blocks to catch a local bus which took me to the El Dorado Shopping Center. There I caught a free shuttle to Campinhas (an airport which is about 90 minutes from Sao Paolo.) It might be the equivalent of catching a shuttle from Century City to the Ontario Airport. Then I stood in a really long line to check my bag and get a boarding pass. By the time I reached the front of the line, it looked like the plane would be leaving within 10 minutes. I held my anxiety to myself and just put one foot in front of the other. Then my carry on bags were quickly screened - no need to remove shoes, pull out laptops, separate liguids, just a quick whiz of a screening and suddenly I was ushered on board Azul. All announcements were in Portuguese -- no need for translations because very few non-Portuguese discover Azul. (I'm glad I did).

The entertainment was a variety of sports, talk and travel shows and the snacks included cold drinks, chips, cookies and strong hot coffee.