American Airlines questions

[omegaet]

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

Denise, just so you don't feel singled out by these airlines and their schedule changes.....
we just received an email with the second change of scheduled departure/arrival time for our upcoming MIA-LIS. Now you understand why we rate access to airline lounges so important....time for a second glass of wine and maybe a warm shower (and that's before the departure).

No big deal, just means time for breakfast before we connect onward to FNC and probably one of their famous cross wind landings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ4qR1x45-M&feature=related

omg....better skip breakfast and request a second barf bag....probably wear out a set of Komboloi if we have one go-around!

[bonniejoy03]

I finally could use those BA "Avios" points for LAN. I only needed about 9000 for one way for two people from Santiago to Mendoza and then 15,000 one way for Bariloche to BA for two. I was elated that the Avios miles were able to be used. They really are good for short distances. Plus-the cost of flights in South America is quite high......so.....even a small amount of points can help!!!

[jmbklj]

I finally could use those BA "Avios" points for LAN. I only needed about 9000 for one way for two people from Santiago to Mendoza and then 15,000 one way for Bariloche to BA for two. I was elated that the Avios miles were able to be used. They really are good for short distances. Plus-the cost of flights in South America is quite high......so.....even a small amount of points can help!!!

Yes, absolutely! Those Avios points can be wonderful for the right situation.