Surprise and Delight - São Paulo

In business school, I had a professor of marketing whose favorite refrain was "surprise and delight" your customer.  Today, after a long US-based saga of travel, I was surprised and delighted here in Brazil. So much so, I have to sit down and write about it before I do anything else. But let me set the stage.

My last blog post was about the new Terminal 3 at Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo. It is a lovely building. You can see it from the outside here--this is a photo taken from the ramp to the parking garage where I had left "the Beast" (BH's ginormous Volvo) on Saturday night. That post was the last happiness in air travel for this past five days...until this morning. 

We flew United to Newark (delayed half an hour out of GRU, for no apparent reason), got stuck in an hour-long immigration line (because BH is B and not US, I had to go through the non-resident line. Not good.) and missed our connection to Boston by 20 minutes. The United helpers told us the rest of the day's flights were full to Boston but that we could fly to Providence instead. So off we went to Providence. Well, all of us except for one of our bags. And paid $200 more for the rental car because we were picking up in one airport and dropping off in another. I must say the PVD airport is very nice, though. I'm thinking about using that one more often.

BH is staying in Boston until Saturday. So it was just me returning to the airport on Tuesday night. There were two brief downpours at 4 pm which meant that my flight was delayed and I would miss my connection in Washington DC. I decided to stay the night, leaving my bags to be sorted and sent to meet me in Newark the next day. All this is to say that I did not have nice flight experiences in the US. Though United personnel were surprisingly fun and happy.

So, I was now taking a flight back on the eve of the World Cup start. Yes, it kicks off at 5 pm today. I was worried about lines at the airport, protests, traffic, everything. The plane was absolutely chock-a-block--Mexican fans, Spain, Costa Rica, Ecuador, US, you name it. As we landed (on time!), the flight attendant gave her usual announcements and then said she was cheering for Portugal. Then the PA was quiet for 30 seconds then the first officer came on and said "Go USA!"and then from somewhere, who knows where, 2 minutes later came "Viva Mexico" from the PA. Fun and funny.

We came into Terminal 3 again. Delightful. Still has a number of workers around doing last minute stuff (no holiday for the weary airport workers). There was zero line for Brazilians and residents (me). I literally walked up to the police and handed my passport over. There was a perhaps 20-minute line for foreigners but tons of windows open. Maybe less. By the time I had walked from the plane, spent 1 minute at immigration and walked to the baggage carrousel, all the bags were out. Unbelievable. 

This guy is thinking "what? I can't believe our bags are already here! wow!"

They ran everyone's bags through the x-ray machines, but all three lanes were open and efficient. Then I walked out to the garage from the walkway on the second floor, and put my key in the ignition exactly 39 minutes after stepping off the plane. An all-time record for days that I have had luggage (always, really). I did look down on the walkway and there was no line for taxis (a friend spent 2 hours in the taxi line on Monday). Tons of taxis. No traffic. Home an hour and fifteen minutes after landing. Spectacular.

So let me sum things up this way:

1. If you can fly any of the airlines that are currently assigned to Terminal 3, do so. These are: Air Canada, United, Lufthansa, Eithiad, Emirates, Turkish, Swiss, TAP. Do not be loyal to airlines if you are all "I'm an AA super-platinum all-star"--it doesn't count for crap if you come into the Terminal 1 or 2 mess. Fly the friendly skies. Trust me.

2. If you are a resident of São Paulo and going for a short trip, do the math on leaving your car at the parking garage. It may be cheaper than taking the taxi back and forth. And no taxi line and you can use your sem-parar. It does not get easier than this. Yes, you have to hoof a 1/4 mile from the arrivals gate at Terminal 3 but it's pleasant and easy.  

3. If you do have to take a taxi and the line is ginormous at Terminals 1 or 2, you may want to ask the officials at Guarucoop if there are taxis at Terminal 3. Then walk there. It may be worth it.

4. Might want to consider coming in on Brazil game days after all. No traffic. None. 

Traffic on Marginal: Brazil flags and military police cars

5. Prepare for the worst, and celebrate the best. I was ready to spend hours in lines. I spent no times in any lines. Surprise and delight, professor Carpenter...I get it!

6. Vai Brasil!

If you build it, they will come - São Paulo

I have been one of the ardent critics of São Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport, affectionately known as GRU, officially known as Cumbica. By the way, did you know that Cumbica means "fog" in the Tupi language? Now think about why you would put an airport for the world's fourth largest city in a region where flights are often delayed by fog. Yes, now you have figured out Brazil planning.

In any case, it's been years since my flight has faced a fog delay and been diverted for hours to dinky Campinas airport. Wow, I need to get over that, right? So, Cumbica until recently has been dark, dank and depressing. For you fellow Tri-Staters, think of the People's Express airport in New Jersey in the 1980s. Low ceilings, a couple of sad stores and a few places to get a stale pão de queijo. I try to spend as little time as possible in GRU, which is often not possible since I have more than once spent an hour or two or more in immigration (entering AND leaving), customs, federal police and airline check-in lines.  Not a fan.

Recently the new Terminal 3 has opened at GRU, and I'm still trying to figure out why we have heard so little about it. The only thing I recall the media reporting was the hours-long delay to get luggage from the first flights and other doom and gloom. As far as I can recall from those first few reports, there was no "wow!" And guess what? There should be WOW! It is definitely WOW! (can we change the airport letters to WOW now?) 

It is, in word (or two), world-class. As my husband pulled up to drop me off with our huge piles luggage (repatriation is a bitch), you could already see we had entered a new era. I could already tell that I do not ever want to fly into Terminal 1 or 2 again. I am not loyal to an airline; I am loyal to a terminal.

If you have ever been to Cape Town's airport (the new one, wise guys, the one built for their Cup), we have built Cape Town. Maybe a bigger Cape Town. Huge, airy, filled with windows and polished steel, awesome. I believe only six airlines have moved in so far, so there is plenty of wide open space for the guy who wants to shrink-wrap your bags to find you.

My actual check-in experience was not great--it took us over an hour to get through the winding line. But I can probably blame that on the Friendly Skies who were working with a canceled flight and limited check-in folks. Maybe they were learning to use new computers. But this I can safely say: your wait will be MUCH more pleasant than in the other terminals. It's pretty, this Terminal 3. Yes they put the flight-delay sign behind towering palm trees so you have to crane around the fronds to see if your flight is on time. Yes, the signage on the airlines leaves a lot to be desired. But all in all, HUGE thumbs-up.

Unless you're elderly or with mobility issues. Once you're past security (easy and empty this time) and the federal police immigration (actually emigration, but they don't listen to me), you have to walk, and walk and walk and walk. And here I'm going to compare again to a South African airport--this time Johannesburg. The inside shopping mall/gates set up IS the J'burg airport. But with more expensive shops and fewer elephant and giraffe doo-dads. More Michael Kors and Dudalina (what a horrible brand name) shops and Fuleco staring out of plastic wrap. 

Keep walking. Oh, then stop for a refreshment at Bar 365 or something like that. Find that it costs $5 reais for a pão de queijo (yummy) and more for an empanada (yummy but they're out of hot sauce). Forget the teeny piece of chocolate unless you get a bank loan.

Keep walking. Wander in circles around silver giant boxes in the middle of the tundra, errr, terminal. Those are the bathrooms. You just can't find your way in. Why they didn't put entrances on both sides of the boxes, I will never know. 

Keep walking. Oh, great, we're at the second gate, in spite of just walking 5 km. Plenty of place to sit does not mean that a single Brazilian WILL sit. No, they will get in line even though we board by group and they're in group 4,560. You will never change this about a Brazilian: they like lines. And Orlando. Someone has to-- so it's convenient that those two cultural things meet in one mousey place.

All in all, I give high marks to the new GRU-WOW terminal. My major advice would be get there early--they're still working out the kinks. And now it's not get there early because customs and "emigration" will take forever. No, it's because you are going to be competing in the GRU-WOW 5 km sprint to your gate. 

I am returning to GRU-WOW on Wednesday morning so I will test it again on the day before the opening of the World Cup. Weirdly, I can hardly wait.