murphybrown

Hello,

I am considering purchasing airline tickets for our family trip to CR through Spirit Airlines due to the lower fares and more options for times.

The reviews on some sites were downright horrible, though and I am therefore wary of booking through them.

Our return flight choice leaves after one in the morning which seems weird, but, actually works pretty well for us since we'd be checking out of our place in MA and then driving to the airport that day.

Has anyone had any experience with them or are there other lines that you recommend?

Many thanks!

qwovadis

I fly www.spirit.com a lot they are the best CA/SA econo

for me have been into SJO a bunch from FLL their hub.

Even get FREE flights with FF miles CC with them.

Usually fly their first class the Big Front Leather Seats

cheaper than coach on the others lots of room best way to go.

New Airbuses usually nice planes usually on time

Every thing does cost extra but you do not have to buy it.

Usually pack a medium to large wheeled bag slide

under the seat in fron of me at no cost.

Overheads seat reservations and food only with credit card

costs extra...still like it best value flying down there.

www.taca.com my second choice better if cost is no object.

all the other majors are good my least fav is www.aa.com

old fleet expensive always breaking down

usually lots of delays on their SJO pickups comong up from SA

Happy Journey,

murphybrown

Hi,

Thanks so much for the info. I'm glad to learn of your experience. We are cool with a no frills flight, just not something unsafe or the possibility of being stranded. Also glad you mentioned disliking AA as that was high for us in the list of likely choices. We will take only one bag on and eat a ton before boarding! Thanks

hsmithcr

I recently flew a round trip from SJO to FLL and back to SJO. The flight from SJO was 1 hour late leaving which caused some consternation for those who had another connection. Some people I spoke to who were familiar with Spirit had made sure they had plenty of time between flights.

I was pleased to note that there were a large number of ticket agents working for check-in which kind of surprised me for a low-budget airline. Not sure if this is always the case. The check-in line was moving well.

I was amazed to have to pay for a seat ($10 each leg) and for carryon ($20 each leg). I usually travel carryon so I didn't even consider the expensive checked baggage option.

So I planned for a 10-day vacation in Florida, using a bag that would fit under the seat - free and the measurements are provided by Spirit. On the way back to SJO, there was so little room between my seat and the seat in front of me that I could not put my bag under the seat even though it met the measurement requirements. So I just stuck it in the overhead bin, mentally daring someone to challenge me. No one did.

The flights were uneventful and arrived at the estimated time. Of course, there is no free food or free drinks and there is a very limited selection. You can only pay with your credit card, no cash.

To fly Spirit, I would say look at everything carefully. Add it all up before you buy your ticket. Do the math for the $9 fare club to see if it is worth it. The flights I chose were not bargains for the $9 fare club.

My flight was originally priced at $363, which was quite a bit cheaper than Taca's $440. However with all the add ons, it ended up being about the same price as Taca, which I would have preferred about 100 times over. Unfortunately, my son (who I was meeting for this vacation) already had a flight into FLL so I didn't have much choice.

Would I fly Spirit again? For a short flight such as this - about 2 hours and 45 minutes - I would fly Spirit if the price was right. But in looking at Spirit flights many times, I have never found them to be a bargain in my case. If I had a choice, I would fly Taca even if the ticket was a little more.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

Qwovadis, I don't understand this comment about AA:

"usually lots of delays on their SJO pickups coming up from SA"

American doesn't fly between Costa Rica and any other Latin American country. It's only MIA-SJO-MIA, DFW-SJO-DFW, and (seasonally) JFK-SJO-JFK.

jeanned

We are also considering spirit as it is almost 1/2 the price of delta... delta has the advantage of being half priced..

jeanned

meant to say "delta has the advantage of being non stop" okay it is getting late!!

hsmithcr

Once again -- check to make sure you go through the whole process with Spirit... taxes and fees, paying for your seat, paying for your luggage, etc before you can know the "bottom line" price. I hope it is a super deal for you but just be careful.

hsmithcr

JeffCostaRica - I don't understand your misunderstanding with qwovadis. American Airlines most assuredly flies from South America to San Jose. I just went to the website to look at flights from Buenos Aires to San Jose, for example.

Qwo has spent a lot of time flying around South and Central America and I would certainly trust his feedback.

TiltedFlipCurves

Well, there's two forms of flying to/from that may be getting confused here: (a) codesharing and ability to hub through a given airport, and (b) a single physical flight route in which the same aircraft takes off from South America, lands at SJO, and then continues on to the U.S. I'm not sure whether qwo was referring to (a) or (b), but (b) would seem to be more relevant, unless AA would actually commonly hold a departing craft for inbound connecting pax, which would surprise. Also, route maps change over time, though less flexibly on international routes than within the de-regulated U.S. On the current AA website route map, it doesn't look like any of AA's flights from SA stop at SJO, but I can't be sure that the information is being presented to show physical connections. There are other ways to determine those, like starting with the flight no. of the flight you're considering booking.

hsmithcr

Tilted Flip Curves: If you go to the American Airlines website, you will see flights available from South America to SJO. Jeff said, "American doesn't fly between Costa Rica and any other Latin American country." Just trying to clear that up. All that other stuff you wrote about - a and b and b b and so forth is just confusing to me.

tully

I believe what Tilted is trying to say is that technically you can fly from anywhere to SJO, SA, Europe etc, but the flight is not coming from SA. It is coming from Miami. (EZE-MIA-SJO)

Personally I prefer AA. My big worry with Spirit is that they do not have a codeshare with other airlines. So if they cancel your flight, you are stuck waiting on the next flight; whereas AA or CO or DL will put you on another airlines flight if need be.

TiltedFlipCurves

tully translates me about right. Plain-English version: I don't know exactly what Qwo was trying to say, but it sounds like he was raising a concern about delays on AA flights originating in South America, then stopping at SJO en route to the US. The concern seemed to be that the first (SA-to-SJO) leg was often delayed, thereby delaying the subsequent departure from SJO for the US. Maybe AA once had routes like that, and maybe Qwo had bad past experience with such routes, but so far as I can tell it doesn't now. But I can't be sure from the maps I grabbed what the routes actually are. Anyone who needs to determine where the craft used in a flight they might board is likely to have started from can trace the typical route out from other information sources, using the flight number as a key. I take your word for it that AA has flights from SA to SJO, but unless those same craft are the ones that continue on to the US, the only way for delays on the inbound craft to cause delays on the outbound-to-US flights would be if AA held those flights. Which maybe it does, but they don't do that very often in the US, so I'd be surprised.

Now that I've clarified my words, perhaps Qwo will return to clarify his own words and experience.

steph270

We have flown on Spirit to SJO three times without a problem. That being said, Spririt can be a real pain with all of their new regs and fees...for us it certainly wasn't a matter of being cheaper as much as was convenience. We live 10 minutes from ACY vs. 45-50 min from PHL and the flight gets us in SJO before lunch We have never hit a delay going there but have experienced delays once we reach Fort Lauderdale on the return home 2 of the 3 times due to weather.

lajennjenn

I have. From LAX. Great deal!! No frills (not even water if I recall correctly) but I didn't have any issues re safety or lateness. This was Fall 2008.
Have fun!