Archive > The Amazing Race 18 Spoilers and Speculation
AR18 Transportation Primary Options
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Transportation from Zermatt to Rio
Zermatt is 6km above Tasch, so teams somehow got local transportation (it looked like a tram leaving around 739am) to bypass the Zermatt rail station and go direct to Tasch. The train from Tasch to Visp left at 0751am and arrived Visp 0847. The connecting train left Visp at 0857am and arrived Zurich Hbf at 1058. Next would have been on one of several short connecting trains to Zurich Flughafen similar to departing 1107am arriving at 1116am. Then there was a minimum 5 hour delay until the first of the best flight combinations to Rio departed.
Flights choices Zurich to Rio are:
LX656 ZRH CDG 1640 1755, connecting with JJ8055 CDG GIG 2100 0455+1
AF5109 ZRH CDG 1945 2110, connecting with AF442 CDG GIG 2220 0635+1
LH5777 ZRH FRA 1625 1730, connecting with JJ8069 FRA GIG 2015 0447+1
TP927 ZRH LIS 1905 2055, connecting with LIS GIG 2330 0650+1
LX092 ZRH GRU 2240 0645+1, connecting with JJ8081 GRU GIG 0940+1 1041+1
I have no idea why teams would have passed up the earlier Swissair flight connecting through Paris to reach Rio at 0455 and a Lufthansa flight connecting Frankfurt to reach 0447 but maybe the earlier flights were full (although I sort of doubt it). It looks to me like World Race Productions told them which flight connection to take, the Air France connection through Paris arriving Rio at 0635 the next morning.
For those who believe based on the purchase of their final tickets at the Iberia Air ticket counter that the connection may have gone through Madrid, let me offer you this:
The only nonstop flight from Madrid to Rio on Dec. 10 OR 11 was IB6025, scheduled to depart and 1200 and arrive at 1940.
apskip:
It appears that teams get to Sao Paulo airport by late evening on 12/12. Why this is the case is totally unclear, since there were several good flights from Rio (GIG) to Miami:
JJ8056 2208 0352+1
AA904 2225 0348+1
From Sao Paulo (GRU), here are the flights:
AA906 2352 0509+1
JJ8090 0005+1 (12/13) 0539+1
AA930 0336+1 0936+1 (departed and arrived 90 minutes late)
AA998 1043+1 1526+1 (major delay due to reported problems with pilots; teams were switched to AA930)
However, the times do not match at all and the episode stated that the flight was AA998, which left at 0110 and arrived 0630. Unfortunately, that flight experienced a huge delay, so I understand that passengers, particularly Amazing Race teams, were switched to AA930. There was no way they could arrive by 0630 given the later departure and the delay for AA930. It actually arrived 90 minutes late at 0936. Shame on CBS/World Race Productions for trying to put one over on us!
One final piece of "evidence" is that Miami airport was shown as totally light as teams landed. Sunrise on Dec. 13, 2010 was at 658am. At 0630 it could not have been brilliant sunshine.
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