Connecting at GRU

[KeithMEL]

I need advice from anyone who's familiar with Sao Paulo airport.

I'm connecting from LA to LH, with an hour and 15 minutes' connecting time. The published MCT for international-international connections at GRU is an hour. The LA flight I'm booked has an on-time rate of 87% per flightstats. However I am on separate tickets with the latter being a rather complex award ticket.

The earlier flight would mean a 5am wake up call (0700 dep) and more than 5 hours' waiting time at GRU.

Taking into account all of the above, I was wondering whether an hour and 15 is adequate, or should I play safe and go with the earlier flight?

Many thanks in advance.

P.S.: I am also assuming that LA in EZE will interline my bag across to at least the first flight on LH, so please correct me if I'm totally wrong in which case the earlier flight becomes the obvious option.

[jhm]

The earlier flight would mean a 5am wake up call

You'll be in bed so early ?

[KeithMEL]

You'll be in bed so early ?

Very good point... but there remains the long connecting time at GRU.

[Kiwi]

According to LH website check in cut-off at GRU is 60 minutes. 1:15 therefore seems inadequate.

[jhm]

Plus you're travelling IIRC during the X'mas period so if you do miss your award flight, other flights may perhaps be rammed full ? Unless you don't mind being stuck in GRU for days!

[KeithMEL]

Rebooked on the 6am JJ departure now. Seems like that 7am LA departure I was staring at earlier was actually a codeshare operated by JJ, but when I hunted for the same JJ flight it doesn't seem to exist as a 7am departure. Same arrival time at GRU though...

There goes my chance of trying LAN's new 767 cabins.

[Kiwi]

I guess you'll be on the lookout for somewhere at GRU to sleep (+ a wakeup call)

[KeithMEL]

I guess you'll be on the lookout for somewhere at GRU to sleep (+ a wakeup call)

I do hope JJ will be willing to check my bag straight through (PNR has been annotated to maximise the chances of this happening) so I'd hopefully get a capnap or two at a lounge somewhere, or I'd have to go landside and set up camp in front of the LH C/I counters till they open...

[Kiwi]

I do hope JJ will be willing to check my bag straight through (PNR has been annotated to maximise the chances of this happening) so I'd hopefully get a capnap or two at a lounge somewhere, or I'd have to go landside and set up camp in front of the LH C/I counters till they open...

If they can't through check, won't you need a visa to transit landside (or amend your visa for Rio to a multi-visit visa)?

[SQflyergirl]

You'll very not likely make it. Immigration at GRU in the morning is difficult to say the least.

As for visas as Kiwi mentions above - you don't need one as a tourist, if you're holding a Malaysian Passport.

[KeithMEL]

I'd neglected to mention that it's an international-international connection. EZE-GRU-MUC. Availability on LH EZE-FRA was nil on the dates I could do (have to get home to MEL in time for Christmas Eve). But either way no visas required with a Malaysian passport.

Anyhoo - thanks for knocking some sense into moi to go for the much safer option.

[dcflyer]

I've seen some really horrible lines for immigration at GRU. If you were connecting out of the same terminal it might be doable, but dealing with GRU it's better to be safe than sorry.