American Airlines questions

[[email protected]]

I have never used AA before so this questions is posed to those who use AA frequently - especially Omegaet who uses AA from Miami.
I have my November flights to CR booked on AA and was just notified of a schedule change.

The change is the Miami to San Jose portion - originally it was leaving Miami at 11:30am which is perfect since we have a 3:15pm local flight on Sansa from SJose to Quepos, howver, the change now is we do not leave Miami until 12:30pm which will only leave us 1 hour when we land in SJ to get to our local Sansa flight - Luckily Sansa is in the same airport so we do not have to go to another terminal - although it is way on the other end of the terminal (I believe). We went to CR in March and when we arrived in SJ, it took 1 1/2 hours to get through immigration! This time we arrive on a Sunday and I hope immigration does not take that long.

The only other option we have is to change our flight from Miami to SJ to an earlier flight that leaves, I think, around 10:15am, however, this causes another dilema - it would only leave us about 1 hour for connecting when we arrive in Miami from Philadelphia and I think we would probably have to pay to change to the earlier flight.

So all you AA flyers - do they have a decent on time record? Do you think 1 hour in SJ to get through customs and get our luggage and then get to the local flight is enough time? Or should we change to the earllier Miami to SJ flight (and probably pay at least $150/pp change fee) and do you think 1 hour transfer time from Philly plane to SJ plane in Miami is enough time?
I hate when this stuff happens! The local flight on Sansa is the latest they have (3:15pm) so no option to change this one.

thanks for any ideas

[omegaet]

I do fly MIA-SJO several times a year...although recently I fly the dreaded Spirit FLL-SJO.

You can check Global Flight Status and Airport Information to give yourself an idea of how well the specific flight and the route does in general. At the time of day you are scheduled to fly, there really isn't a huge number of flights in and out of MIA ....so your departure should be close or on time. My experience with SJO shows very few delays....as a matter of fact, the flights often arrive ahead of schedule.

Immigrations can be a slow process (especially when multiple international flights arrive in close proximity)....I don't recall ever just breezing through there....many of the workers do suffer from a mild "Mañana Syndrome" often present in that part of world.

btw.....if American has initiated the 'change' in schedule from the original flight time you booked...then you probably have a pretty good chance of getting your flight changed to an earlier departure without a fee, if you say please, please to a res rep or a supervisor. Careful before you use this option, should you experience a delay departing Philly, then you may still be in the soup!

Just one more f.y.i......it is not uncommon to experience flight schedule changes the further out you book flights. Airlines are frequently making changes based upon load factors, use of different types of aircraft and an assortment of other factors. Our last two trips to South America must have involved at least three or four of these changes in conjunction with continuing service aboard LAN (we had booked the flight about six months out)......and we have already experience flight changes on our upcoming September journey to Portugal.

Learn to drink a sip or two of red wine before opening emails from airlines with whom your have booked reservations (OK, maybe not before breakfast).

Good luck.

[kyshel]

I'd put my money on the short domestic connection instead of int arrival in SJO. You said it's all AA, yes? Bags checked thru? The only major risk is misconnected bags in MIA. AA would have no responsibility to get your bags to the anywhere but SJO.
You should press AA for the earlier flight with no penalty since it effects your onward travel.

[danielboldea]

AA is usually very good with rescheduling a flight to an alternate time/day at the preference of the passenger if a schedule change occurs. How about requesting a flight a day in advance and spending the night in San Jose rather than starting your vacation with so much stress? I believe that if your stopover is less than 24 hours you can even check your bags through to your final destination. Good luck and enjoy your vacation!!!

[[email protected]]

Thanks for all of your suggestions - hard to decide! I would like to keep it the way it is and hope that immigration on a Sunday is not too bad but you never know!

Sansa advertises that they have free taxis right outside immigration for international arriving folks that have a Sansa flight to catch so not too worried about this part - it is the arrival in immigration part that is tough - if many other international flights are arriving at the same time than our goose is cooked so to speak. I guess I will try and change to the earlier flight MIA to SJO and beg for no "change fee" which is a bummer since I wanted to check out the Admirals Club in MIA - our original flight gave us 2 hours in MIA to "lounge out" now when we arrive we will just have an hour to get the connecting flight. I am wondering why they made the change from a 11:30am departure to now a 12:30 one - maybe they were not selling enough seats and wanted to see if a later departure would sell more? This is actually the 1st time I have ever had a flight time change that has the potential to screw up connections!

Leaving the day before is not an option due to work schedules, etc.

[bonniejoy03]

Hi D....I would try to fly out the night before, stay over night in San Jose and fly Sansa on schedule. AA should be able to change without a charge. The flight times are just too tight. Another concern is if either AA or Sansa changes their schedule again. (aren't you leaving in November?) I would rather fly out the night before. We always did this as opposed to trying to connect with Natureair or Sansa.

[Mountie]

[email protected], I used one of the AA Admiral's Club in MIA when I departed for my last trip to Lima, Peru. I thought it was nice, but I wouldn't worry about changing a flight just to spend some time there.

[[email protected]]

So last night when I got home from work I 1st called Sansa and they assured me that unless there is a bad storm that my 3:15pm flight would not be cancelled - since I am leaving on 11/4, there is a chance of rain since it is still technically rainy season in CR but I have been to CR before in October/early November and the weather was perfect - so not too worried.

2nd call was to AA and I was pleasantly suprised by the excellent customer service - I have not experience customer service as good as this in years (Continental always had good customer service at least for me but since United took over - it is awful). The woman I spoke with re arranged our flights - we now have 1 1/2 hours in MIA after we arrive from Philly and we get into CR and have 2 hours before the local flight so this should work out fine. No charge for the change. It would have been so much easier to leave the day before but this was not an option we had for this trip. So we take the local flight to Quepos, pick up the rental car and drive to Dominical - looking forward to it since this is a new part of CR for us and we get to go to Corcovado which I am really looking forward to! The LL hotel Cuna del Angel has great reviews on Trip Advisor and they have been so responsive to my emails -after looking at pictures, I requested a particular room and they booked me into the room we wanted, they hooked me up with a rental car agency and we got the car for a great rate for 3 1/2 days and they are taking us to Quepos for lour local flight on our departure day - for a decent rate.
So now we can sit back & relax and enjoy the pleasures of trip planning!

[omegaet]

denise, sounds like you have worked out all of the bumps for your Costa Rica visit.

If you miss the AA Admiral's Club (there are two in North Terminal D) on your southbound, maybe you will be able to use one on your northbound.

You can be sure when you return you will be processed through the new and vastly enlarged Federal Inspection Service Center at MIA.

New Federal Inspection Service MIA

[[email protected]]

The new inspection center at MIA looks interesting - this will also be the 1st time using global Entry so I do not forsee any problems unless of course there are staffing issues or the global entry network is down ;-)