I had unexpectedly encountered the building on a walk through the financial district in the early 1960s and was enthralled by its multiple changes of planes and its fanciful sculptural embellishments.
COLONIAL TOWNS AND WATERFALLS GETTING THERE Flying to Belo Horizonte from the New York City area requires a change of plane in either Miami or São Paulo.
U.S. Airways, (800) 428-4322, goes to Nashville from La Guardia Airport at 6 45 a.m. and 12 55 p.m. and makes stops but no change of plane.
Croatia Airlines has a fare of £302 from Heathrow on the same dates, though this journey includes a change of plane in Zagreb.
The journey is long (at least 17 hours from London or Manchester, including a change of plane) and expensive: around £750 return in the lowest of seasons.
I bought an open-jaw ticket through www.onetravel.com that routed me from J.F.K. to Veracruz, with a change of plane in Cancún, then returned from Oaxaca, with a change in Mexico City.
Only nonstop or direct flights -- those that stop on the way with no change of plane -- will be available for unaccompanied children under most of the policies, which the airlines said would be in effect indefinitely.
TWA, (800) 221-2000, flies direct from Kennedy (stopping in St . Louis but no change of plane) and has connecting service from Newark and La Guardia Airports; a round-trip ticket purchased seven days in advance is $239.
Getting to other cities With the single exception of Qantas's daily link from Heathrow via Dubai to Melbourne, to reach other Australian cities from the UK requires at least one change of plane.
It takes two planes and 12 hours to get there from Heathrow, with a change of plane in San Francisco, where, using the Clift hotel as a base, my boyfriend and I find the secondhand shops on Haight are a pleasing hors d'oeuvre.
