lhgreenacres

We just returned from six nights at Bosque with my fellow fodorites. The trip was absolutely incredible but I am going to let JaneNicole do the trip report when she gets back. I did want to share an amazing airline story which is so rare these days. On our last day our Sansa flight was supposed to leave at 3:30 pm. We had a 7:15 international flight back to Los Angeles. Sansa had changed the flight to 4:00 pm and when we got there I was not too worried. There were continued delays and they told us that the plane was not going to leave until 4:45 pm. I started getting nervous thinking we were going to miss our flight. The kindest man at Sansa in Puerto Jimenez contacted Taca and they arranged for our departure tax to be paid and pre-checked us in on the phone. The plane did not arrive until after 5:00pm and then stopped in Golfito. As we left Puerto Jimenez I heard the famous Costa Rican words, "No problema". Well, I was hoping "no problema" but was very concerned at this point. If you can believe when we landing they had a car waiting to drive us over to the terminal and all the paperwork was taken care of. We checking in quickly and then went to the gate where the plane was already boarding. I had to post this because I was so impressed at the service that was provided. Sansa definitely seems to have some issues with reliability but they were terrific how they handled the situation.

hipvirgochick

Wow! Now that is what I call over and above the call of duty. Exemplary customer service! I've had good luck with Sansa as well and last trip when my flight was cancelled they made sure they got me on the next Nature Air flight, at a Loco fare no less, and refunded my airfare with them.

Welcome back. Can't wait to read the trip report!

tully

That's great that you posted a good story, so often only people point out what went wrong. I've always had good experiences on Sansa as well. I've heard their new terminal is almost complete? A little bigger?

Just out of curiosity, what day did you leave? Plumboy was due down there Friday, hope they got down there all right.

Looking forward to hearing all about it - of course!

lhgreenacres

We left on Thursday, March 12th. The terminal is complete and it is definitely much nicer. We even did not get charged on the way down for our much over-weight bags and on the way back just a small charge. I am still not sure how the charges work but it was very minimal.

volcanogirl

I'm glad you had a great experience!

xyz99

I don’t know if Sansa has a new management, or new customer support, or what…but here is an update to my old double charge story last year:

- We were double charged last year, in June, when booking the flight to Puerto Jimenez
- We tried numerous times to get the refund (even after Sansa admitted in several emails that the refund will be processed in 2 weeks) – nothing happened, and the credit card was useless, too (that’s a different story)
- Karen, from Bosque del Cabo, also contacted Sansa numerous times, without success
- Finally, and I give all the credit to Karen, Sansa refunded the money a couple days ago

I am happy it’s all over.

The other thing they still need to improve is letting their customers know when flights are canceled or rescheduled for a different time. Our 7 am flight from Quepos to Puerto Jimenez was rescheduled for 11:45 am. Needless to say, we were at the airport before 7, had to call a taxi to take us back to our hotel in Manuel Antonio, so had to pay 2 extra transfer fares (back to the hotel, then back to the airport), and also, by then, it was too late to let BdC know – the driver was already on his way to Puerto Jimenez, to pick us up. He too, had to come back later that day.

Oh well, other than that, the trip to Costa Rica was fabulous – would go back in a second

Cattail

Wow! Now I'd like to see our airlines behave like that!

My husband and I had a similar, though not as dramatic, experience with Sansa. Knowing we were confused, a man at Puerto Jimenez airport (the same one you dealt with,lhgreenacres?) made it his mission to deliver us, and our luggage, to our plane safely. He even told my husband to finish his lunch and the plane would wait, lol! Hmmm, maybe this explains why the planes at Sansa are so often off-schedule - hungry men?

janenicole

I'm back! Sigh. Will post a trip report after I get through piles of laundry, stock my empty fridge, and give my girls some extra attention. Of course we had an awesome trip.

lh, we miss you guys terribly! Nice to hear a good customer service story after our little problem with Sansa, and that a potential issue turned out ok.

When we went to check in at Sansa for our 9:30 flight to PJ, they informed us that our flight time had changed to 2:15. What?! Because I was such a nutcase to get everything booked for our trip so far in advance, they told me that since I booked the flight in green season, that flight number for high season was at a different time. Which made no sense to me since the itinerary listed flight times and the date.

Fortunately, we were able to purchase an 11:00 flight on Nature Air, and Sansa has told us they will refund us. Time will tell, let's hope so.

Mixter603

Hey LH, did you tell Carol about that? You know that "never would have happened if she was on the trip."

Our Nature Air flight left promptly at 7am on Saturday morning. However, there were two stops (Golfito and Quepos) that were not listed on the schedule. It wasn't a problem for us as we still had three hours until our flight left for Newark.

Janenicole, we're all anxiously waiting for that trip report. Don't forget to mention the earthquake.

lhgreenacres

Mixter 603- You are too funny. The unfortunate thing is that you are absolutely right. The whole time I was waiting for that plane I kept hearing Carol's voice in my head (Carol is my mom who usually travels with us, but did not this time. I did ask Sansa when the earlier flight was and it was at 12:30 pm so we would have missed that last great hike and that amazing butterfly. It was all worth it anyway. I hope JaneNicole gets on that trip report soon. I can't wait to see what she has to say.