plane schedules

[el duende grande]

I was looking at the new normal for plane flights to/from US. Pretty sad with the cutbacks. Price up a little for february, but that is not the biggie.

With United and American only laving early afternoon flights, it gets nasty on the other end, especially in my case when there have never been nonstops to vegas. Per now projecting for February, afternoon flight gets me to vegas at midnight, bad time to expect the relatives to pick me up so I best get a hotel. Return flight is a red eye, leave vegas at midnight, the saving grace is I would arrive mga at early afternoon in time to get an expresso home. Copa is weird , too.

Lot of inconvenience built into these horarios. I hate redeyes.

I always knew mga was a pricey place to fly, but I checked the same dates for sjo and they were 200 bucks cheaper! Not implying it is worth going thru CR, just checking the prices. Lotta economy to running full flights. Also checked RTs to Cd. Mex. Up a bunch from last year.

[drlemcor]

I have flown exclusively through San Jose Costa Rica the last 3 times that I've gone to Nicaragua. The prices are much cheaper if you are willing to be a bit flexible in your travel time frame. Even after I add in the cost of a hotel in San Jose and the cost of a Ticabus ticket from San Jose to Managua, I save 3 to 4 hundred dollars traveling through Costa Rica instead of flying directly into Managua.

[Jonh]

At least Las Vegas hotels are cheap, probably cheaper than the Managua Best Western from what I've heard.

[el duende grande]

I'm an expat returning loaded to the gills with Stuff, so adding an extra border and bus and taxi rides makes no sense. Also, age and health make my 15-18 hour trips from AZ to N. Nic a big enough burden. Somebody less burdened might benefit from a few days in CR as you point out.

Just spent a week vacation in San Jose. rumors of high prices seem to be true at least in restaurants, consumer shopping, and supers. Still, nice to see San Jose after so many years. 2 thumbs up on the Argentine steakhouse across from the national Theatre and the childrens museum has a buttload of dinosaur robots.

I have always avoided Copa because the return trip is a red eye, but now everybody is a redeye they are back in view. One advantage to Copa incoming is customs and immigration are in Vegas, not midflight in Houston. Plus from my limited experience I really prefer foreign carriers.

[RGV AG]

I looked at flights from my usual departing point in Texas yesterday and they are basically 45% higher now on UAL than they were earlier in the year. UAL has throttled back their schedules. I then looked at flying the same route to LIB and it was $720 cheaper into Liberia. The CDMX option is now much higher too. This is going to further hamper a potential Nica tourism rebound.

As a quick aside, I will tell ya'll of something that happened on Saturday. I have gotten two Nica's jobs at this facility I am tied in with in Haiti. One is a 28 year old woman. She has been here since April, the 22nd to be exact. She went back for several days last week and was returning to Haiti via flight to the DR. When she was clearing salida immigration in Managua, she was pulled aside and questioned for about 30-40 minutes. They took her picture, noted all her information and demanded proof that she was working in Haiti. It scared the piss out of her and from what she relayed my interpretation would be a return to/implementation of Cuban or old communist block population control. I have heard of others having the same done to them, but this is the first actual person that I know has gone through it to that extent. The guys asking the questions were plain clothes thugs according to her, they went through her purse and phone as well.

No fucking thanks to that bullshit. These kind of repressive controls when left in the hands of uneducated "indios" usually lead to a problem of some sort. Just like the killing of the Brazilian med student and the rough handed deportation of the American consular officials a while back. One of the 3 guys deported in that fiasco was doing nothing more than having a beer with the two guys that had been out asking about the canal. He was actually a C-TPAT inspector for the DHS that was certifying Free Zone plants in Managua. The grabbed him too, and it left several Free Zones in the lurch with their customers and cost them extra money.

[bill_bly_ca]

Scare Canada has had a points plan since the mid80's that I have been a member of since the late 90's

For the longest time, they would only push Continental/Now UAL flights through IAH.

Last check showed the top choice as Avianca/Copa through either Elsalvador or Panama. 40,000 points and $270ish (CDN) for taxes and feed. I still have 160,000 AC points.

Funny on the Copa . Before the SHTF we had trips out on Copa - We went to a travel agent because of the complexity (3 out on one day, two back another, one out two weeks later and 2 backend June) - The flight was actually a little cheaper than individual flights I priced. It was stated noncancelable, nonchangeable. Then Apr 19 happened. Maria and Andrea went on the 22 of may (Willy stayed home, but we were sure that some exception would be made) but No Copa said "You loose" Maria and Andrea came back on the 7th of June . They changed Maria's Ticket to June 7 at no charge. The Agent took it upon herself to get me the money back - First of July they called me in and handed me a check for 80% or Willie's flight and 90% of mine. Apparently when you buy a flight through an agent in Canada a small portion of the transaction goes into a "Whoa, thats not right" plan and gets payed out on a case by case. The check was from the agent.

We gave her a gift certificate for the mall where the agency has their storefront. If I had bought online I most certainly would have been SOL.

[el duende grande]

gotta loveit. Just did a check for the same dates in expedia for feb. next year. sjo/mex $300, mga/mex $566.
I think the airlines are making up for half full flights by uping the price. They probably don`t want to drop the route, so they are muddling thru.

mga/bogota 575, sjo/bogota 334 to 365.
not a travelers paradise this mga.