Price Increases

cahuitalas

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May 22, 2017
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My husband and I use American Airlines exclusively because of their pet policies and have been flying to/from Costa Rica @ twice a year for the past 10 years. We are about to book our flight for January 2018 and are having serious sticker shock. Flights are running at least $250 per ticket higher than last year at this time. Anyone have any thoughts as to what is going on?
 
Shop around on Kayak, and you'll see some better deals on other airlines.

I just did a couple random dates and city pairs, and found both DL and UA are running on average about 30% less than AA.
 
Depending on your origination airport, you might look at going through MIA to SJO. AA has 4 or 5 flights/day on MIA-SJO whereas DFW now has only 1 flight/day which is almost always full. Be careful about looking at Aeromexico "operated by Delta." I was shocked at the length of the stopover in MEX on almost every flight. It varied from 3.5 hours to over 8 hours.

However, looking at options through MIA or DFW, AA does in fact appear to be the most expensive. If I'm reading Travelocity's page correctly, AA is the only airline offering non-stop service from MIA or DFW. All other possibilities involved at least 1 stop (usually Mexico City) and (in most cases) a change of aircraft or even a change of airlines. Avianca had a MIA-SJO flight that had a 12 hour 45 minute stopover in Guatemala City!!!:eek:
 
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Nonstops on the non-US carriers are going to be limited. Costa Rica's quasi-national airline LACSA was absorbed into TACA, which is now part of Avianca... As that fustercluck of a merger has settled down, the long-thin nonstops from various national capitols to the US have gone away in favor of connections over the old TACA hub in San Salvador.

It all depends on where you live, but as it appears today, a connection over ATL or IAH will save you a couple hundred bucks and maybe even some time. I'd avoid any layover involving MEX, but SAL might not be so bad. TACA and Avianca were/are both decent airlines.

http://www.avianca.com/en-es/travel-information/before-your-flight/network-of-routes.aspx#tabs-5
 
given that airfares have fallen apprx. 50% (inflation adjusted) since deregulation, i'd say i sympathize with the sticker shock, but be grateful it's 2017 and not 1977.
 

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