www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Got home Sunday from trip #3 to C.R. I flew on my 3rd different airline to C.R. too. Previously I had flown with US Air & Frontier. This time it was Continental with the best fare.

The schedule from here (Seattle) was pretty good. Left SEA late in the night. Transfered in IAH & arrived in C.R at 2pm. The return schedule was good too. Left C.R. at 3pm, arrived in SEA at 2:30am. All-in-all I considered the schedule a pretty good optimization of my time.

The story gets better. The late night flight from SEA to IAH was pretty light on passengers. I had a row of 3 seats to myself & got some quality shut-eye on the 4 1/2 hour flight. The flight out of IAH to SJO was overbooked. They were promising a $500 voucher & a flight that would arrive at 9:30 pm. Not to my liking so I passed. They were doing some shuffling to get folks on the plane & I was upgraded to 1st class to make room in coach! Now I'm not a Continental frequent flier. I can't remember the last time I flew on Continental. I guess the lady gate agent liked my face. Who knows? It did help that I was traveling alone.

On the flight home out of SJO I buttered-up the crew with some airplane trinkets. It helps that I work for a "large aerospace company" in Seattle. As we were preparing to land, the stewardesses (sorry, flight attendants) presented me with a bottle of wine! Sure, it was leftover from 1st class but when was the last time you got a free bottle of Argentine Shiraz from your airline?

Then, once again, the flight from IAH to Seattle was dead. I had a row of seats to myself again so I was able to get some badly needed sleep. I had to go to work in the morning!

Overall I would rate the service from Continental to be superior to that of any of the airlines I had flown on in recent years. I will definately put them at the top of my list when looking for transportation to SJO!

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

I love CO also. With one exception, my last 13 flights to CR (or Brazil) have been on CO. The exception was only to use up miles on USAir, and its first class sucked in comparison to CO.

If you (coming from SEA) make 4 trips on CO in a calendar year, you will obtain elite status and get upgraded on all 4 legs over 80% of the time. At least, that's my experience.

CO, like all the other airlines, has done some cost cutting, some of which are quite unfortunate. For example, they no longer serve ice cream sundaes in first class from IAH to SJO. They will make you a white russian, however.

Ciaociao

Times are tough all over I guess.

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

I forgot to mention the two gringas I had to sit next to on the flight from SJO to IAH. What a pair!

They were both in their mid-thirties, fat a$$ed. Both had inf@nts about 1yo. Both were recently divorced. Both had ditched the k@d with someone while they sauntered off to C.R.!

I had the aisle seat & the one with the window seat had incontinance.

The way these two carried on you would have thought that they were sisters. In a way I guess they were.

Fortunately I had plenty of battery power in my PDA so I cranked-up the Santana & Bob Dylan until I zonked-out.

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

As of last month they were still serving the sundaes in first class with all. the toppings I love those. Dont tell me they cut those out Damnnnnnnn. I used to pour a couple baileys on top those chow down and catch a pleasant nap.

HunterS
As of July 3rd, they no longer serve them on first class flights under 3.5 hours. That includes the HOU to SJO flight. So I got the sundae on June 28 when I arrived, but not on the July 7 return. Such a small thing, but it means a lot to some people. There is a whole string on Flyertalk about CO taking away our sundaes.

Ciaociao

They better not take away those steaks those are the best I have had in airline food. Yeah those sundaes and the whole process of bringing out four courses really puts the finishing touch on first class thats the one thing they should not skimp on. They really must be financially hurting