www.CostaRicaTicas.com

flying out of lax on an overnight flight to sjo. basically i have two choices of airlines to fly out of: 1) aa and 2) spirit. which one would you guys recommend?? i flew on aa before but not spirit so need some input.
i will be checking in a small luggage. do anyone know if either airline charge a check-in fee??

I would go with AA.. For international flight there is no baggage fee.. I think Spirit fare might be cheaper. but they charge for baggage. so i would do some research as to the fee they charge and see if the fee + ticket is more or less that the other airline...

_________________
"THE TRUTH IS' EVERYBODY IS GOING TO HURT YOU. YOU JUST GOTTA FIND THE ONE WORTH SUFFERING FOR"
Robert Nesta Marley

Whichever one is cheaper, if it were me

Spirit charges a fee for bags and a fee if you want to select your seat, fees vary by seat (aisle vs window, etc) You can avoid the seat fee by just having it assigned at the counter, the normally ask if you have preference to aisle or whatever and will give it to you if available.

Spirit also charges for all water, soda and snacks.

I had never had a problem flying spirit other than long check in lines at FLL.

Bill

I would look at TACA.

They have either a non-stop, or one stop (El Salvador for an hour), that leaves LAX at 1:00 AM, arriving at about 9:30 AM. Leaving they have a flight about 4:30 PM, arriving 11:30 PM. No baggage fees, meals, and drinks. It gives you extra time on the ground in CR.

If you take AA you will probably be going through Dallas, and it is very, very often late. It is their only flight to CR in the afternoon so they wait for other planes to connect before they take off. My flight arrived CR 3-4 hours late (one of which was spent in the plane in DFW before they deplaned us), and arrived at 11:30 PM. by the time I got to the SL it was almost 1 AM, so it shot a day of my vacation.

I don't think I ever paid more than $550.00, but you need to keep a daily eye on the fares. Much better eye candy from a flight attendant stand point also.

_________________
It's not the size of the wand that put the rabbit in the hat, it's the magic in it!!!

whichever one flies non-stop.. or at least shortest duration. so you have less time thinking: are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?

_________________
Enzo

Now in High Definition!

just checked fare price on taca's website and i got ~$570 including tax for a nonstop flight. i like the nonstop part but not the price. AA is offering 1 stop flights for $443 including tax.

last week us airways was offering flights from lax - sjo for $409 taxes included but i didnt pull the trigger.

my trip is not til the first week of march...should i buy my fare now or wait and hope that fares would drop??

It put money on it rising oppose to going down.
LAX seems to have a hate on for flying to CR. The price you quoted seems to be very in line with what most people end up paying.

The TACA flight with the El Salvador stop can be high risk.
There are a few horror stories of being stranded in El Salvador.

_________________
It is cheaper to pay now and get it over with.
It is also easier to get them to leave.

I hate Spirit. I refuse to fly them. They fee you to death.

I hate a fee for this and a fee for that too but in the end I have made a number of cheap trips to SJO thanks to them including the one I leave for this coming Tuesday.

Bill

Have you thought about flying Continental. They've got a red-eye out of lax which will get you to Houston about 6am, then at 9am it off to San Jose for a noon arrival. I've done this out of Vegas many times, Continental treats you right!

_________________
"cuz I'm a back-door man" Jim Morrison-1969

Carnavon--No offense but unless you are bringing stuff that isn't allowed in the cabin or coming down for multiple weeks, why are you checking a bag? Laundry service is available at hotels relatively inexpensively and as you'll find you don't need nearly as much "stuff" as you'd think. The old adage about "Pack 1/2 the clothes and 2X the money" is surely true here. You might want to give that a rethink--it makes baggage fees a moot point. No recommendations on the carrier though.

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

update people: bought my ticket yesterday with frontier airline for total of $409 including tax. they dont charge fees for check-in bags on international flights...at least thats what they claimed on their website...
the bad part though is that my flight arrives early in the morning like around 6:30...so by the time i arrive at my hotel i probably wont be able to check-in right away.
so i guess i might just drop off my luggages at the front desk and go out and explore san jose for a bit.

I've booked Frontier back for the first time. They do have a nice website, and summerize all of the rules on your itinerary...not searching the fine print.

Other avenues to seek out of the West is smaller airports. They have subsidized flights which sometimes can be cheaper than out of the major airports.

I use www.kayak.com or sidestep.com and if the prices are too high and I'm within two weeks of departure, I put my itinerary up for bid at www.compete4yourseat.com It actually came in $16.00 under the cheapest web airfare in December.

These days you need to use every tool in the bag and Whosear mentioned 3 of the best. That's www.sidestep.com Also check www.FareCompare.com especially valuable for their email alerts if your free to buy/ fly on short notice.

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED