www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Once again..correct.

dapanz1

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Paradise= Sitting outside the Bodega in Panama City about 1 am. Drinking cool Balboas with cool friends and blazin' hot Colombianas. I want to be there..RIGHT NOW!

Correct. I just verified it with AA. They partner with over 20 airlines (incl. TACA), which basically means that you can book Taca flights through AA using your AAdvantage miles.

AA Is awesome. I have the Gold AA mastercard. Not sure what whats my ratio. I'm sure the 1-1 ratio is best but, i'm probably getting 1-2 ratio since its gold. I pay 50 annual fee and try to charge as much as possible. I've gotten 2 free plane tickets in 4 years. Taca is now part of the one world alliance. Which is a collection of some of the better airlines.. I love Cathay. They charged me about 30-35 bucks taxes etc and 35,000 miles for the tickets to SJO from Newark. Too bad my cell phone contract isn't up yet or i would get the Tmobile/aa program for AA miles program they have now.

Les,
You are right. The gold card is 1 mi/$1 and $50 annual fee. I have the bronze which is 1 mi/$2 and no fee. I am upgrading to gold. Also, when they approve you for gold, you get 12,500 miles right off the bat. No fee first year either.

I really envy you guys with businesses you can charge 20,000 miles a month! I get about 2000 miles a month using it for everything. Wish the mortgage companies would accept it.

I've heard of some apartment communities accepting charge cards for rent that would be a nice bump.

That is good information on the gold card from bronze, I'm calling to upgrade now.

Just saw this thread. This use to be my gig.
AA's Advantage program is one of the more frustrating frequent flier programs. One of the good things is their extensive partner list who are usually less strict about mile redemptions (while American runs an extremely tight inventory of reward seats).
If you're a high spender, one way to get around the limit is to use two cards with two different issuers (say one AA card and a Chase Continental card...use one for the first twoo weeks in the month and the other for the last two weeks). Airline cards are particularly good if you're also a frequent flier in that particular airline. Most airlines allow a percentage of your purchases to count towards elite status which is a valuable perk on some carriers.
If you live in CR and are not a frequent flier, I would recommend MultiPremios or GanePremios. They have a lower miles target for US destinations (Miami is from 16,000 to 19,000 miles).

Dragon,
That's great advice!

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

I am flying in December via my AA miles, $22.84 for taxes. Tickets are running in the price range of $500-$600 out of miami.

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GG
"Last time I said no......I misunderstood the question!"

Just wanted to add that I had a friend that banks online and he gets monthly AA miles for it. He has direct deposit going to his online bank. That gives you a one shot 5000 miles just for signing up for the direct deposit. Then for every $1000 you put you get 100 aa miles. He put $15000 bucks into the account and he get 1500 miles per month. Thats what he claims. Can anyone verify this. I've been reading the forums at flyertalk and most seem to agree thats how the program works. Thats like:

5000 miles one shot direct deposit miles
18000 miles for a monthly for 1 year balance of $15000 in the account
----------------------------------------------------
23000 thousand miles on the first year.

Not too bad. Worth those miles to start with, it means more than likely you're getting a free ticket to SJO. Especially if you have the AA Credit Card also and spend maybe 5-10k on it. Unfortunately from NYC it cost 30-35k miles to fly to SJO but, i'm sure in MIA is might be 20-25k miles. There might be a limit to how much you can earn from this offer but, I havn't found one yet. It is wise to at least maintain $2500 buck in the account. If under they going to levy a $15 monthly fee for a account under $2500.
http://www.aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/ViewM ... ersContent

I'm sure many of you vets already do this, but here's a suggestion to build up your FF mileage:

-use the card to pay all your recurring monthly bills, you can set it up with the companies to set up automated payments:

I use it to pay:
-car lease
-car insurance
-student loans
-cell phone bill
-utilities
-cable

I'm looking at like 1200 miles/month, that's without any other spending.

I totally agree.
Paying the monthly balance, in full, eliminates any finance charges. And with a few additional expenditures, it adds up quick. IMHO, it's just smart money management going this route. YMMV!

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

I spend about a average of 1000 a month on my AA gold. I also get loyality AA mile from Td waterhouse that gives me very little miles but hey its still miles. TD waterhouse gives me about 1000 miles a year. With the Bankdirect offer also which gives you 100 for every 1000 dollars. I would be able to get a AA award faster. I know the interest rates on this program isn't the good but, lets face most banks don't really give awesome rates either. Regardless the case with all credit cards always pay in full if possible. I remember when I was younger I dragged on this credit card bill for about a year. Missing payments, paying not in full. I wound up paying just about the same amount in interest, penalities and finance charges as the original charges i owed. If I put 10000k in bank direct and spend about 1000 a month on my AA card. I'll get around 2k miles a month. Not too bad I must say. I'm sure many are saying with 10k cash I can invest in CDs,mutual funds blah blah blah but, this is a bank if you want your money they would close the account for you anytime. Not the same for CD's and some of the other funds or bonds. Soon I will sign up with T-mobile when my AT&T contract ends. Signing up with T-mobile gives you around 14k AA miles if you sign up for a family plan. I've been trying to follow the flyertalk.com forum for a while. Their lingo is confusing. Alot of people swear by the starwood AMEX card and say that latin pass is good. I'm always looking for ways to lower my plane ticket. If I could pay my mortgage with my Credit card it would be awesome. I know if I get the AA citibank debt card I can but, thats like another 50-100 bucks a year to enter that program also. I'll be happy if i can get 2 free plane tickets a year to CR around 70k in AA miles. Pura Vida.

Damn I talk too much. Hope this helps.

Hola orange. I flew to CR from St Louis twice this year for 30,000 miles and $30.45 each trip with AA. Check out aa.rewardsnetwork.com to build miles quickly. It costs nothing and you can receive 10 miles for every dollar spent on dining plus extra miles for hotel stays and many other bonuses, In addition to the $1=1 mile from your credit card. You can register up to 3 credit cards to receive the miles. Through dining and hotels I received approx 20,000 FFM's this year. Contact me if you have questions.

kenj8

Glad to hear you can get up to three credit cards.I applied for my third last week to try to get the new 20,000 mile bonus AA is offering.Speaking of airmiles the first quarter dicounts just came out offered by Citibank.Numerous Latin America destinations for 22500 miles including Bogata,Cali and Medellin,Colombia,Lima Peru where I am headed early next year,Quito ,Equador,Carcas, Venzuela and several outhers.rbc100

Not San Jose though....