www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I did some searching and the general consensus seems to be that Taca runs a pretty tight ship, but thought I'd just ask again to see if anyone has some recent experience.

Looking at booking a trip and they've got a great price, and the shortest travel time I've seen so far as well for a flight from ORD. The concern I have is the two connections are through San Salvador on the way down and Guatemala on the way back are both pretty short. They're only 1 hour 20 and 1 hour 15 respectively.

As I understand it, on the way back home, I'll have to re-clear security at GUA before boarding the flight back to ORD. Am I cutting it too short with 1 hour 15? If I miss it, I'll be stuck overnight. Not that I'd be upset about missing another day of work... but sleeping in the airport/scrambling for accomodations doesn't sound entertaining.

I'm assuming the flight down to CR will be simpler and I won't have to re-screen? Worst case scenario, there are at least more flights the same day.

best airline to-from ord for reasons you probably read on this board, especially if you can search my posts. coming back you will have plenty of time. they need that flight in chicago for the next morning. in june, we left sj on taca an hour plus late due to a rainstorm. the gate assured me i'd be ok, i did not want to spend the night in guat, said i'd rather go back to the gulch and leave the next day. the taca flight to chicago was there in guat waiting and it waited for another flight from somewhere. i did not have to go thru major security screen, they have int'l arrivals roped into the same int' departure area, in the duty free shops area. two officers did a quickie look see of your carry-ons at a 4 foot table, not shoes and belt and wand and all that.

on the way down when you change flights, if you have time, and you probably will, small terminal, buy your duty free booze and what else you want there, no problem at all bringing it into cr, and you'll save that much time avoiding doing that when you get to sj. i always buy a few bottles of booze for my hotel room, dirt cheap for top shelf stuff.

the q is why you can't get a non-stop from chicago/ord. such a pain in the ass to the point i am thinking about changing destinations after making that trip for 13 years. the older you get the harder that long 8 hour travel time gets plus the security bull and all the rest. up till about 7 years ago, you could get a flight only non-stop to sj on one of those charter vacation company's that sell all inclusives, i forgot their name, like apple vacations or something, if they had room and you didn't mind waiting to book a few days in advance for air only. that was cool, a little over five hours. i checked about 6 mos ago and there's another co doing all inclusives non stop out of chicago and they will do air only, but it goes to the liberia airport which won't work for me.

I heard there used to be direct flights a few years back. It's too bad there aren't any. They'd offer another level of convenience and certainly save some time. I think this is the first flight I've found that's under 8 hours of travel. Thanks for the info. I think I'll give it a shot.

On Taca, 1:15 is not a short layover, because they are rarely late. (The connecting flights from JFK usually have a 0:55 and 0:50 layovers in El Sal and I have never come close to missing it in about 20 flights.) Plus, the security you have to go thru is just a carry-on check for liquids. It's not thorough at all (I've snuck a small bottle of water in my bag many times) and only takes 30 seconds. Not the whole take-off-your-shoes deal. It's quick and done as you are boarding. I don't remember GUA, but in El Sal, the gates are very close together, so you won't have to go more than a few steps to catch the SJO flight. Anything over an hour, you should be good.

To add, Taca tries to be on time, but they will not jeopardize safety. A couple of years ago, I was on the flight out of JFK in the afternoon. It was pouring rain, and lightning. They didn't let us board. At the same time a couple of the American carriers took off in lightning. We left 2 hours late, that is the latest that I've ever been with Taca. It's my preferred airline (due to service and the nonstop out of JFK), but over the past 18 months, I have found much better fares on other airlines (sales).

Orange quote:

".... It's my preferred airline (due to service and the nonstop out of JFK), but over the past 18 months, I have found much better fares on other airlines (sales)."

No nonstop out of DC.......but have noticed that TACA fares are higher now. USAIRWAYS seems to be the way to go when flying from DC, though I really do like TACA.

Thanks again for all the feedback!