www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Has anyone used either TACA or else COPA airlines?

They are showing some awesome fares on Kayak.com, from about $205, Miami-SJO, even on fairly short advance booking.

Of course I realize that if they are flying from the US, they are subject to FAA rules on safety, but I was just wondering if anyone has had experience with them ...

They are fine. If they fly into or out of the US they meet FAA qualifications. Most people on this board have flown one or the other at one point.

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[url=http://www.amishrakefight.org/gfy/]

Have flown TACA (called LACSA on some flights) many times with never a problem. No charge for 2 normal checked bags, free food on even short flights, free booze and some very attractive Latinas as flight attendants.

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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

Have flown TACA (called LACSA on some flights) many times with never a problem. No charge for 2 normal checked bags, free food on even short flights, free booze and some very attractive Latinas as flight attendants.

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Why settle for just one woman when you can enjoy them all?

They have started to show up again. Taca went through a brief gay phase where, the flight attendants were mostly homosexual men.

Seriously, TACA is a very good airline. I have flown them all but one of my 20-something trips. Their customer service (on the phone) isn't good, but there are rarely any problems that would call for speaking with them. Their flight crews are very good, the ground crew can be a bunch of morons sometimes.

I haven't used TACA/LACSA yet, but have flown COPA on a number of occasions (JFK-PTY), (SJO-PTY) and (SJO-BOG). IMO, they are a very good airline, two free bags, timely and excellent in-flight service. COPA is affiliated with Continental Airlines and OnePass miles accrue when using COPA.

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Blue Devil

Pura Vida...enjoying life to the fullest...

While I cant really praise them as being a top tier airline like some of the guys on here, I will say they are fine, and I would never hesitate to book with them.

But, they are the only airline to bump me off a flight and tell me I am liable for costs on all the missed connections that occurred.

Then on the one extra day in SJO, they had me run back and forth between the Taca and AA offices all damn day trying to sort things out.

That's not surprising. When things don't go as planned, they can be a pain in the balls. They do things the MUY TICO way.

But things seldom go wrong with them, at least less than with other airlines.

Most airlines, aside from those in maybe Asia have the staff on hand to deal with problems accordingly.

I mean if you have 3 gate agents, and all of a sudden a flight gets cancelled or whatever, those 3 people are suppose to deal with 200+ people and take care of all the small details? Sure you can hope that will happen. Im sure for the most part a satisfactory bandage to the problem is performed, but once you get into the whole passenger A has to be here to catch a flight somewhere else, and passenger B has to be here by XX time tomorrow; things start to collapse.

But you pretty much come to expect all hell to unleash when something gets canceled these days.

Have flown TACA (called LACSA on some flights) many times with never a problem. No charge for 2 normal checked bags, free food on even short flights, free booze and some very attractive Latinas as flight attendants.


change the many to "too many". change the never to "the very occasional"

My biggest pet peeve is their not upgrading me JFK to SJO... it's the ONLY leg I don't get automatically upgraded, even if I qualify for the upgrade.

Copa is great! I fly them all the time from IAD to SJO. Pananma City is a nice airport to change in too.