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!
They will make you a white russian, however. 
