Sao Paulo - the end of another trip to Brazil (#122)

[mvan1]

I left Sao Paulo this morning after another great trip to Brazil.

I already reported on some of my visits to the two rent boi saunas in Sao Paulo.

At the Sao Paulo airport (GRU), my former sauna garoto that I previously mentioned from my prior trip was still working at the airline. He remains happy with his job at a U.S. airline.

My former garoto friend took a break to give me a little "tour" of the new terminal. He wanted to show me some of the problems with the new Terminal 3 at Sao Paulo's international airport.

A couple of us forum members, in a previous thread, remarked about how nice the new Terminal 3 looks. At that time, we had no idea that the new terminal is plagued with ongoing problems.

One example of a problem at the new terminal is with the conveyor belts that take passenger luggage to the back area for later transportation to the aircraft. My former garoto friend said that the conveyer belts often do not function correctly and that a lot of checked luggage is late arriving for a departing flight and that a lot of bags often do not make the same flight as the passenger. He said this is a major problem.

During the “tour” of some of the places in the new terminal, my friend also showed me the seating area near the departure gates that have big signs boasting about electrical recharge receptacles at certain seats. He jokingly asked me to try to recharge my telephone in any one of the many receptacles found in the seating area. Sure enough, the first outlet did not work. He had me try several more, and they did not work either. Then we finally found one that had power. He said the inoperative charging receptacles is but one small problem at the new terminal.

The "tour" also included his showing me the new airport lounge that many of the international airlines use (AA, Delta, United etc.). He said that each of the U.S. carriers is in process of building its own lounge in Terminal 3. TAM already has its own lounge.

After the little airport tour, my friend went back to work and I remained in the airport lounge before going out to the gate.

While in the lounge, I had been drinking a lot of water and various beverages. Of course, taking in a lot of water, one must eliminate the liquid that forms in the kidneys. So, I went to the lounge restroom. I looked around and did not see any urinals. I thought how strange it is for a new and fancy airport terminal lounge not to have any urinals. Therefore, I entered an empty stall and used it. The stall door closes after you enter the stall. When I finished, I reached for the handle on the stall door to exit, but the handle came off in my hand. Needless to say, I was surprised and was sorry that my friend was not available to show him one more thing at the new terminal that did not work.

I thought it would be a simple matter to put the handle back in the slot and the door would open. Not so! The door would not open. I pushed and shoved on the door but it would not open. Eventually, I used a small pair of scissors I had with me to attempt to pick the lock but the door still would not open.

I could hear people coming in and out of other stalls but they apparently did not have a problem with the door on the stalls they used. When I called to people that I heard, of course, they would not answer a person calling to them from inside a bathroom stall. After several minutes of my being trapped in the stall, I began to pound on the door and holler in English and Portuguese. The door was much too high to climb over it.

Eventually, I began to kick at the door but it still would not open. Finally, after about ten minutes, someone from the lounge facility came in because of the noise and realized the door was broken and would not open and that I was trapped in the stall. That person tried to push open the door from the outside but the door would not budge for him either. That person finally called maintenance and the door had to be removed by the hinges in order for me to get out.

Lucky for me, I had plenty of time to catch my flight.

One has to wonder about the competency of the engineers and designers of the new terminal.

The flight home was on time and was not affected by the weather in the East coast. We had a great crew, which is not always the case on long flights.

Despite that bizarre restroom incident, my fine feelings for Brazil remain intact. In fact, I already have my next flight to Brazil booked for six weeks from now.

Bottom line, don't use the restroom in the airport lounge in Terminal 3 unless you have a lot of time to spare before your flight leaves. If you are flying with AA, you can alternatively use the TAM lounge that does have urinals in its restrooms.

[Ojibear]

Sounds like government corruption is behind all the problems there. The 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics was one of the worst examples of corruption in Canada. The construction industry in Quebec has very close ties to organized crime.

Finally this corruption is being investigated. The Charbonneau Commission, officially the Commission of Inquiry on the Awarding and Management of Public Contracts in the Construction Industry, is a public inquiry in Quebec, Canada into potential corruption in the management of public construction contracts.

[mvan1]

Sounds like government corruption is behind all the problems there.

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I suppose corruption might be a small factor in awarding some of the countless airport contracts to incompetent contractors.

However, I don’t think the broken door in the restroom or the inoperative recharge outlets and the delayed luggage has anything to do with corruption.

I think the problems at the airport are merely poor design and lousy workmanship coupled with a lack of pride in accomplishment by the workers that installed the equipment.

The new airport is very modern. It is also quite glitzy. It has the latest gadgets available at an airport. It also has a huge number of foreign companies (stores, businesses, shops and restaurants) represented at the airport, including a lot of “fast food” restaurants that were not seen in Brazil until the opening of the new terminal.

Combine the above factors then realize the new terminal project was started and completed in less than two years time. It is no wonder there are so many non functioning gadgets and facilities at the new terminal.

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