www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I actually had this conversation with the Gate Supervisor the head honcho at the AA Counter in SJO.. The Tall blonde women.. As I stated, the ONLY PLACE I HAVE PROBLEMS flying AA are to SJO. I fly all over the US, other Central American countries, South America Never a friggin problem, but AA out of SJO is like playing flip a coin if the aircraft will start, taxi and take off if it ever arrives that is.

Her answer for some reason they use the OLDEST AIRCRAFT for flights to this country... It used to be even worse when they were flying the old Airbus that never left the aiport, its a little better but still far below their level of service elsewhere. It reall pisses me off.

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I've flown on AA 3 times over the past five years.

Trip 1 NP
Trip 2 Regional jet ORD IND flight cancelled, mechanical problems. Just reduced fleet from 50+ to 44 seats. Next flight bumped 2 passengers for luggage. Supposed to fly out at 6:00AM, left at 1:45 Plus: finagled a day pass to Admirals Club, was worth waiting.

Trip 3: MIA-SJO leg, plane at gate, crew not. Crew arrived began boarding, instrument panel malfunction. Deboarded plane, 3 hour delay. Gajo avion.

I can an extra medical device. When boarding, I'm usually asked or told to put in other luggage. I explained what it is, usually NP. Not this flight. Another attendant cut me off and asked what it is...explained, then inexplicably he decided that my carryon needed to be sized...WTF. So, pissed but compliant, I stuck it in. It was catching abit when pulling it out, so I yanked hard and brought the whole apparatus up off the ground. He kept asking, "Why did you do that?' Uh, I thought it would work"

What's up with their mileage on AA Advantage anyway? I show 4,000+ miles more than they say are eligible for using for rewards.

60+ round trips ATL to SJO or SJO to ATL without a significant mechanical delay on Delta, that I can remember. Only delay is waiting for a gate in ATL if we get there early.

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* These are the "Good Ole Days". Enjoy Them.

* RENT but, "Don't Buy a Home in Costa Rica" until you have lived here for THREE years.

American is a disaster in the air. The aircraft are antiques and they keep rebuilding and rebuilding them. Continental is a great airline currently. But the merger with United is the equivalent of mixing Fiji water (Continental) and toxic pond scum (United). They are going to destroy Continental. The last decent US based international airline around. Glad I am sticking to SEA destinations exclusively for the next few years. I will take Cathay, EVA or Thai Airways over any US based.

Hmmm...what about Korea Air, since those airlines you mentioned are for Asia Destinations and I have enjoyed using them in the past.

I used to be a big fan of both Korean Air and JAL. My regular run was LAX- JKT (Jakarta, Indonesia) and made it many times a year with no problems on both. Recently KAL and JAL have lost their minds on prices and schedules are not as convenient for service to BKK, which will be my regular place for awhile.

On one of my trips last year, I was returning to the States to Tampa thru Miami, on AA. While on the tarmac in San Jose, waiting to take-off, the captain announced that we had to wait due to a mechanical problem. We sat on the tarmac for about an hour. Then, upon arriving in Miami, we had to sit on the tarmac for almost an hour because another AA plane was in our arrival gate, and couldn't move due to mechanical issues.

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

I will take that bet. Easy money

AA fleet consists of 396 various Boeing models and 227 MD 80's. All 34 A300's are in storage.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I never had a delay when I flew them on the SJO/MIA/SJO route. I liked the comfort of that aircraft and am sorry to see them go.

All of AA's are MD80's (read that as old ). Those built by Boeing after they took over McDonald Douglas carry the B717 model designation.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I'm a numbers guy and numbers don't lie:

Of my 13 trips to SJO:

1 on Spirit = No Problems.
2 on Delta = No Problems.
3 on AA = 2 out of the 3 had problems with 1 flight out of FLL being cancelled completely due to mechanical problems requiring an unplanned overnight stay in Miami. Other one was 4 hour delay in DFW until a component was replaced. So instead of arriving SJO at 8 pm, got in at midnight, so basically f'd me out of 1 of my 4 nights in town.
7 on Continental = No Problems.

Been flying Continenatal exclusively for past year and half and don't plan on changing. Sure hope this merger does not f up a good thing.

I have had more problems with AA than others. Flying the small planes into MIA sucks because they ferry you from the tarmac to the terminal in a bus which takes a long time.

But the upside is I would rather be stuck in Miami than Atlanta.

Awesome! Not too excited bout flying AA into Mia then SJO for my trip down. Hopefully dont run into these nightmares on my travels this time around.

AA is very ht or miss...

My experiences in 40 plus Round trips to and from Chicago/Miami/Dallas en route to San Jose and Medellin. This does not include many domestic flights on AA as well. Random guess on the amount of legs I have flown on AA over the past 4 years, I would guess it has passed 175 if you include domestic flights.

1 delay longer than 2 hours, this was on a MIA to ORD flight that we were forced to sit on the plane for the 2 hours while they fixed the plane, we finally took off, made sometime up in the air and landed at home about 1:25 late.

1 delay longer than 3 hours, boarding was delayed due to a plane coming from the east coast in the dead of winter. No a big deal as I just hung out in the Admirals club.

No other issues. I do not count anything delayed under 30 minutes, as the scheduled arrival times are always 30 minutes later than actual flight time to keep their on time records in tact..
I am very lucky I know, but as usual with the airlines, Your Mileage Will and always does VARY !!!

Probably jinxing myself with this post, but it was time to pipe in... I have had very good experiences with AA. If I had my choice, I would still prefer flying Taca (cuter flight attendants) but there routes have declined for my preferred destination...

As far as the planes go, I am no expert on aircraft, but I have always flown either an MD-80 to Dallas, a 767-300 or 757-200 to Miami and always a 757-200 from Dallas to SJO or Miami to SJO and MDE, again with minimal to zero real major issues.



solo mi dos centavos....