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Needless to say, I like a good lounge before kicking back and enjoying the best an airline has to offer ( in this case United’s New Polaris on their 772 to Chicago). Star Alliance has a great reputation when it comes to branded lounges, and I was excited to check out their lounge before hopping on our flight home.
Details:
- When: November 2018
- Where: GRU ( São Paulo ) Terminal 3
- The lounge is located just beyond duty free, upstairs, in Terminal 3
How to get into the Star Alliance Lounge São Paulo GRU?
- International First and Business Class passengers
- Star Alliance Gold in any cabin, but on an International ticket
- Priority Pass, Lounge Key, Lounge Club, and Diners Club all have access; however,
- Saturday to Weds – 7am to 3am
- Thursday and Friday 7am to 3pm and 9pm to 3am
The coolest part is that you don’t have to be flying in a Premium Cabin or carry Elite status…just have a priority pass. Here’s a list of credit cards that give comped memberships, most with guest privileges
First Impression
The lounge looks quite sleek and I like the open air feature. Often times airport lounges can feel stuffy, but I’ve found the ones that open to the terminal to feel far more spacious. However…it was jam packed. Like crazy, people everywhere, where do I sit, the food is sloppy, packed.
This is where capacity controls are necessary, and usually I can’t stand it when a lounge turns down a Priority Pass member for being overcrowded – the Korean Air lounge at LAX is a great example of misuse ( the lounge can be empty and they say no). This wasn’t that instance. If you’re a Star Alliance Elite or Biz/First passenger…your lounge experience is not peaceful.
With that said…it’s quite nice 😉
Seating:
There were several styles of seating to choose from, but most had people sitting at them and I wasn’t going to be that weird guy photographing strangers holding Miles for an extended period of time ( I know, even I have limits ), so I quickly snapped some shots.
Food
The main dining area is in the back of the lounge, but there are small setups you can pick off, and a bar halfway between the entrance and the rear dining. Neither Dave nor I felt like battling for food or a place to eat it and skipped all but a quick cookie and water. We ultimately ate at Bleriot, free of charge, with our Priority Pass.
Shower:
While I didn’t use the showers, I did ask to see them, and they looked fantastic. The fell right in line with the lounge in general, sleek, new, fresh, and I’m sure would be great to utilize.
Overall:
While we didn’t spend eons of time in the lounge, or make use of most of the features, it wasn’t because it didn’t look great, or the food didn’t smell great, or the mixed drinks weren’t enticing. It was just so packed that we weren’t compelled to fight off the crowd enough to enjoy it. And that’s a shame, and management should take action to avoid situations like this in the future. The lounge is such a great part of the premium cabin experience, and for a great looking lounge to be so overpacked that I chose to avoid it is a huge miss. I will say that the Priority Pass restaurant Bleriot was great and we found a table quickly.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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