Greetings fellow travelers! Now that we're all suffering airline woes, I have a question. Which of the lines that fly from the eastern U.S. to SJO do you think is best... i.e. has the most comfortable seats, most leg room, fewest add-on fees, employees who treat you like a human being, affordable fares? Mission impossible? For domestic flights I love Southwest. Would that they served CR.

The answer will be very subjective, plus there might be other considerations too.

My FF program is through American, so that's the only choice for me. I got started with them because of their frequencies to Costa Rica: 3/day from Miami, 1/day from Dallas and 1/day from Fort Lauderdale, so AA offers a lot of routing choices. No one covers Latin America like AA does, and my travel takes me around the region too. I have status with AA, and so can frequently upgrade on DFW-SJO. Status shields me from any baggage fees too.

Many travelers hate connecting at MIA, espeically on the return when they have to go through immigration and customs. That's why I try to fly via DFW if possible. Continental gives you Houston or Newark as hubs, Delta gives you Atlanta, USAirways gives you Charlotte, and TACA gives you San Salvador as options. (TACA codeshares many routes with United.) I know travelers who are perfectly happy with those airlines.

We flew American from SFO to SJO via MIA a few years ago. The flights to and from Miami from SFO were hell. Cramped seating, full to capacity flights, coughing passengers, delays, etc.

But, the flight to SJO from MIA was just the opposite. Wide Body plane, comfortable seats, pleasant staff, on time performance. It seems that AA is more concerned about their competition in international travel than in domestic.

Last year, I flew to St. Martin and had a similar experience. I hate flying AA from the west coast to the east coast. I have used DFW for flights to and from South America and much prefer it to MIA and the flights seem nicer too from and to SFO.

I like AA myself and use them as I have my FF with them. I too have found the service much nicer MIA-SJO and back. On the return they even give you a little bag with a light breakfast. I'm lucky in that my flight from here is only 50 minutes to Miami. I've never had any issues in Miami other than I find the a/c kept at a freezing level.

We're also AA FF, last time we flew through Ft. Lauderdale, what a difference! The transfer going down was a pleasure, plus, believe it or not, the plane was not full!

Coming back we cleared customs in Miami, oh, how I loathe that airport! But, it's better than not being able to fly at all!

Just did AA MIA-SJO

Nightmare with 7 hour flight delays

for which we were given a $10 voucher

for a meal.

Not even the first apology.

Horrible service on old poorly

maintained planes.

Far prefer TACA

For me cheaper better newer planes

best of breed on

many CA routes these days.

We flew TACA and our only concern was that the plane was more suited to 3-hour domestic flights than 5-hour international flights--it was on the small size.