www.CostaRicaTicas.com

FYI

Maybe if we shine a little light on United's Monopoly out of Bush International.

http://www.chron.com/business/article/I ... 514119.php

We are all pulling for Southwest, have been saying this for years.

http://blog.chron.com/houstonpolitics/2 ... r-houston/

_________________
"If you dont think women are explosive,....drop one."

I looked at several options for my trip. Grupo Taca flies from Houston but it's a Central America milk run with several stops/changes and more expensive. I used to love flying them but it appears they have priced themselves out of the market. American takes you to Miami first to save 60 dollars and add about 6 hours plus a plane change. Delta I had plenty of miles to get a free trip but you have to go to Atlanta and leave early in the morning for the return flight. Wound up paying $742 round trip from Houston to fly at the preferred times and have a direct flight. Could have flown Aeromexico from Houston or Reynosa and saved money but had an early return flight as well as a long layover in Mexico City. This is a 50/50 chance your bag actually will show up.

Any trip for me I will always pay more money for convenience. Mainly an afternoon departure especially on the return flight. It's bad enough that you have to spend a long time with our arrogant countrymen after returning from a few days of paradise. I used to hate the return flight. Lacsa Flight 670. Departed San Jose at 3;10 in the afternoon which was perfect. Plenty of time to get up bang 2 or 3 chicas and then make your way to the airport. First leg as San Jose to Tegucigalpa. If you have never landed at that airport it is something everybody should experience at least once in life. This was also before they extended the runway 900 feet. It was almost like landing on an aircraft carrier. A mountain range on one end of the runway and a cliff on the other.

2nd stop would be San Pedro Sula which by now with the chica hangover, several beers and I would have switched to Centenario and Coke anyway so life would be painless. After leaving Sand Pedro Sula the plane would then stop at 8:00 pm in the corporate, over priced, rip off, shithole, named Cancun and the remaining seats would be filled with drunken, loud mouthed American assholes wearing their sombreros and telling the world (whether you wanted to hear it or not) about what a great time they had in Cancun. For the next hour and a half life would suck as it would be impossible to tune these assholes out. Then to top it off once the plane would land in New Orleans you would get to face those Customs/Immigration officers that were pissed off at their career choice, but were Magna C*m Laude in the arrogance training courses they had to pass.

_________________
"If you think that I'm half crazy your wrong, I'm at least seventy-five percent gone. I was born this way and I'll die this way so I probably won't be changing today." - Richie Allbright, South Texas Singer/Songwriter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftvsq3mX0Ow

Thanks to the Chronicle, someone is finally shinning a light on United's little game.
Everyone who flies out of Houston knows that this gouging has been going on for years.
How can United charge someone $414 less for flying Chicago - Bogota than they charge Houston - Bogota when you are charging a fuel surcharge on both flights. This defies logic, with the only explanation being that they have a monopoly on Bush International flights going south. Based on Mayor Annise Parker's statement below it will be hard for the Houston Aviation Dept to reject Southwests request for expansion of Hobby when it means 10K jobs and $1.6B more for the local economy. Screw United and the Horse they rode in on!

I have looked at the legal issues. I have looked at the economic issues. I tend to discount economic studies as always being overly optimistic, but there’s no question in my mind that we have an obligation to allow Southwest to proceed at their expense to construct the new terminals and there’s no doubt in my mind that it will enhance competitiveness in the market and be good for the citizens of Houston.

Well personally I cannot stand Southwest and I don't see there being a big difference in the price. If you save $400 it would be one thing but every time I look for a domestic flight on Orbitz then go to Southwest's website I don't see a big difference. To me it's worth that extra $30 to know I will have a seat instead of that welfare line seating process they have. Aeromexico is the cheapest from Houston but it involves a plane change in MEX.

_________________
"If you think that I'm half crazy your wrong, I'm at least seventy-five percent gone. I was born this way and I'll die this way so I probably won't be changing today." - Richie Allbright, South Texas Singer/Songwriter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftvsq3mX0Ow

SW prices are equal to other companies because the other airlines have to match SW rates. If not, they are a lot higher. That is why domestic tickets from Houston are competitive, but International flights are so expensive.

That being said, I am with you, I pay the extra $30 - $50 to fly on the other carriers.

Captain

I'm not sure where your getting you $30 from. From my experience it's more like the 30 to 40 percert higher as referenced in the Chronicle article.

Tom Parson, CEO of Bestfares.com, said the cost to fly non-stop from Dallas to Boston jumped from $178 to $558 late last year after Southwest pulled AirTran service out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. When JetBlue Airways announced it will launch service to Boston from DFW on May 1, he said, the fare dropped to $258.

"Where there is no competition, you'll see airfares 30 to 40 percent higher, and (the destination) may be only 200 miles away," Parsons said, noting that the calculation is independent of fuel prices.

Every time I plan to fly anywhere domestically I always look at the prices on Orbitz then compare the same trip on Southwest. The prices are comparable every time I check it.

For example I just punched in some random dates, leave Houston on 8/29 to Phoenix returning 9/15 costs $356

https://www.orbitz.com/book/bookingpath?execution=e1s1

Same dates from Hobby to Phoenix $409

http://www.southwest.com/reservations/p ... Name=&cid=



Tampa to St. Louis random locations and random dates June 20 - June 27

Orbitz $332
http://www.orbitz.com/shop/airsearch?ai ... umAdult=1&

Southwest (cheapest available online only fare) $321.20

http://www.southwest.com/reservations/p ... Name=&cid=


May 15 May 30

Atlanta to Las Vegas I just just picking places that Southwest flies and random dates.

Orbitz $351.20

https://www.orbitz.com/book/bookingpath?execution=e2s1

Southwest $511.60

http://www.southwest.com/reservations/p ... Name=&cid=


Corpus Christi TX to Houston Hobby/Intercontinental on Orbitz, (Southwest doesn't fly to IAH)

July 15 to July 20

Orbitz $154.10
https://www.orbitz.com/book/bookingpath?execution=e3s1

Southwest $186.10

http://www.southwest.com/reservations/p ... Name=&cid=


There is where I am getting my information. If you care to explain to me how Southwest is cheaper I am all ears? They used to be a little cheaper but every time I need to go somewhere Orbitz usually either beats their price or is so close it's worth it for me to fly a nonstop route or bypass an inconvenient airport to change planes. They are ahead on their no baggage no change fees but every time I had to change a ticket on SW the only tickets that was available were were the higher priced fares that were equal, greater than to or close to the change fees. I consider them the Airborne Greyhound Bus Line.

_________________
"If you think that I'm half crazy your wrong, I'm at least seventy-five percent gone. I was born this way and I'll die this way so I probably won't be changing today." - Richie Allbright, South Texas Singer/Songwriter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftvsq3mX0Ow

August 1 to August 6

Fort Lauderdale to Boston

Orbitz $271.69
https://www.orbitz.com/book/bookingpath?execution=e4s1

Southwest $456.80
http://www.southwest.com/reservations/p ... Name=&cid=

One thing that I also would like to mention is that I am always selecting the cheapest internet only prices from Southwest and they are 9 dollars cheaper on 1 random flight and quite a but higher on everything else.

_________________
"If you think that I'm half crazy your wrong, I'm at least seventy-five percent gone. I was born this way and I'll die this way so I probably won't be changing today." - Richie Allbright, South Texas Singer/Songwriter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftvsq3mX0Ow

Capitan


You totally missed the point of the article, and Houston's gripe about United. All of the prices you quoted are for domestic flights which is not the problem. We are not saying that Southwest is cheaper than United, but that because United offers 95% of the flights to Latin American out of Bush International Houston' prices to the Caribbean, Central and South America are much higher than they are out of NY, Chicago, Miami, etc.

Now lets look at International flights. Here are "United" quotes for a week long trip to Bogata out of five different US airports.
These are all major cities so filling the plane should be no problem. Why is the flight out of Miami $360 cheaper than Houston?
Why is flying out of Houston the most expensive trip in the bunch. It is much closer than New York, Chicago, and Atlanta yet the price is at least $100 higher. The answer is that United has a lock on the Houston market with respect to International flights going South and is trying to keep Southwest from offering International flights out of Hobby.

IAH - BOG = $897
ORD - BOG = $646
EWR - BOG = $666
ATL - BOG = $787
MIA - BOG = $537

I did not at all miss the point of the article but was saying that Southwest adding a route won't likely help.

Captain

I'm not sure where your getting you $30 from. From my experience it's more like the 30 to 40 percert higher.


My point was in reference to this which clearly is aimed at Southwest 30 to 40 percent cheaper than the other airlines. Not true, and I understand the No Competition part also. The Houston monopoly I also understand and agree with but if you take another carrier i.e, American through Miami or Delta through Atlanta often it is cheaper than United (which was Continental on most of these routes). Therefore they only have the monopoly on the direct flights so someone on a limited budget would most likely not fly them anyway.

My employment as well as my other travels total over 100,000 miles air travel per year. I am not someone who only looks at air fares every 6 months when he plans a trip to go chase pu*sy, lol.

I was merely demonstrating how Southwest adding a route to Costa Rica or any other country is not likely to help any. Also some of those airports in Central and South America are pretty tricky. I personally would not have any desire to fly with one of the pilots that fly for Air Greyhound.

_________________
"If you think that I'm half crazy your wrong, I'm at least seventy-five percent gone. I was born this way and I'll die this way so I probably won't be changing today." - Richie Allbright, South Texas Singer/Songwriter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftvsq3mX0Ow

Time will tell but I'm willing to bet the cost to fly to sjo from houston will be noticeably less than what it is now when southwest gets the new terminal built and starts flying that route. Continental used to have reasonable fares in years past and good specials even though they had the same virtual monopoly that united has. Its interesting if you compare a typical united fare from iah to ewr which is about 3 1/2 flight time with iah to sjo which is about 3 1/2 hours flight time. You see the difference in pricing that competition makes. The plane burns the same amount of fuel flying south to north as it does north to south. The difference is they can gouge the houston market because they dont have a domestic competitor for direct flights. I will be glad to see any airline open up direct service from houston to central america.

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Wingman? I don't need no stinkin' wingman

+ 1

_________________
"If you dont think women are explosive,....drop one."

Hey Bea... er um Captain, check the prices on flights out of Austin. Typically $100 or more less than direct from Houston, and only adds about 1 hour of flight time. The flight goes throughout Houston, so I always wondered if they would let me book from Austin, but catch byte flight in Houston lols.

Anyway, I am fine with SW (I've always been a bag of orange slices and a cold sammich kind of redneck anyway), and if them making international flights out of Hobby only lowers the prices to 2010-2011 standard then I be happy to sell you my United miles and switch all my business to Southwest. Fact is, since the merger, flights to SJO have increased by a minimum of $250, and as much as $500. That's damned rediculous if you ask me.

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I can't deny it, with that smile on her face. It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase!

Yea flights are wierd. When I lived in Merida I was working in Louisiana. Would fly from New Orleans to Houston to Merida. That flight was $523. They moved me to Western Louisiana so Houston was actually closer and then taking only 1 plane instead of 2 the flight was $603. Go figure? Sometimes it is cheaper to do international flights originating from Corpus and connecting in Houston also. But in all reality I would rather pay an extra 100 bucks than spend 6 hours driving (as in drive to Austin) plus I can stay at a hotel in Houston and get free or discounted parking. It is so much easier to just check in get on a flight and know your bag is with you. You should try some of these overseas flights I do. This time I go from Ghana to Germany to Houston to Corpus. What are the odds of that bag making it, lol?

_________________
"If you think that I'm half crazy your wrong, I'm at least seventy-five percent gone. I was born this way and I'll die this way so I probably won't be changing today." - Richie Allbright, South Texas Singer/Songwriter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftvsq3mX0Ow