More than 25 airlines servce São Paulo and Santos out of Europe. Among them, you find all reputated European airlines, but also Brazilian and discount airlines.
Air destinations São Paulo-Guarulhos (2015):
Many flights are cheaper on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, according to our experience. It may be more economic to stay over a week-end and discover São Paulo or the near-by beaches.
All major Eurpean countries offer direct flights to São Paulo, either with the renowned Brazilian TAM AIRLINES (member of OneWorld), or with the European airlines: BRITISH AIRWAYS out of London, LUFTHANSA out of Frankfurt (sometimes also Munich), KLM out of Amsterdam, SWISS out of Zurich. All long-distance flights of these airlines are over night with about 12 hours duration, with the exception of KLM. The flight to São Paulo starts around 10 p.m. and arrives during São Paulo's early morning. The arrival times in São Paulo typically vary, following the opposite summer times on the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Landing until 05:30 a.m. local time, you can avoid the most intense rush hour. Most of the flights back start in São Paulo around 6 p.m. and reach Europe during the second half of the morning. The drive to the airport São Paulo-Guarulhos is typically before the intense afternoon rush-hour.
The other major airports in Europe offer indirect flights to São Paulo. We have found comfortable connections with LUFTHANSA, SWISS, TAP, TAM AIRLINES, KLM, BRITISH AIRWAYS - and less comfortable ones with AIR FRANCE or IBERIA. Stop-overs in the U.S. are typically little comfortable: The distance between the U.S. and Brazil is represented disproportionally on some world maps – however, it is almost as big as the distance between Europe and Brazil: the flight time from São Paulo to Miami and Orlando is 8 hours, to Atlanta, Houston, New York and Washington 9-10 hours. Even 11 hours to Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, and 13 hours to Los Angeles.
You can save fees when paying your flight with miles: a Brazilian law impedes the airlines to charge fuel fees for flights departing in Brazil. So: book the outbound flight and the return flight separately and save the fuel fees for the return flight – with Lufthansa Miles & More about 250 €. If you use miles to pay your flight, observe that a business class ticket is not only more comfortable, but it costs only about 40% more than an Economy flight paid with miles.