www.CostaRicaTicas.com

fyi

This could be great news for the Houston croud. Now maybe United can't charge $800 for a flight to Costa Rica.


http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas ... 414923.php

Everyone who lives in Houston needs to write their city councilman to support SW.
It could not be more clear that UA ( which now uses its virtual monopoly to give us crap service and sky high fares) is trying to keep out any competition in the Latin American routes from Houston.
Houston city council needs to know it is cheaper to fly to SJO from Chicago or LA than Houston due to lack of competition in Houston.

You guys don't have jetblue there either correct? That's who I always fly to CR and they always average 350 roundtrip nonstop from Orlando.

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Not banned yet...

You guys are right--Houston needs a wake up call. $800 for 3 hour flight is a complete ripp- off. Orlando is only about a 1/2 hour longer flight and we pay almost double. I second--- price war would be great.

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JetBlue has flights to the Caribbean out of Houston but nothing to Central or South America.

It would be nice if there is a price war, but I do not see one for a while. Even if they approve this, SW is only planning trips to the Caribbean. While that would be nice for a trip to the Dominican Republic, it would not change the monopoly to the rest of Latin America.

I think the only way Houston would get cheaper flights to CR soon, is if TACA started flying direct to CR, but since they have a code sharing agreement with United, I do not see that happening either. The only reason I think there is still a possibility for this, is that they already flight to El Salvador non-stop, so an extra flight to CR may not be too problematic.

I do not believe having TACA enter the Houston market would have much of an impact on fares. If you look at the cities were they compete with other then low cost carriers you will see, other then an occasional special, their prices are about the same or higher. For example in May, as of now, they are about $100.00 higher then AA from MIA to SJO.

They only way to force down UA fares from Houston is for a low cost carrier like Jet Blue,Spirit or Southwest to enter the IAH/SJO market.

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Pura Vida
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Alex Levine

I agree with your comment, but TACA is the only one with international gates at IAH at this time. All of the other options are probably years away. At this moment, any competition, even TACA, would be helpful.