And just like that, we’re going to Costa Rica again (on miles!)

Don’t forget to enter our drawing for a $100 travel gift card! See this post for all the details.

In March 2020, my family of five had an awesome five nights in Costa Rica, right before the pandemic shut everything down. All of us loved our experience in Costa Rica, and it’s been on our list of locations to repeat.

I’ve been stalking the airline websites the past week, and I’m happy to report that I’ve booked us flights on miles!

Getting from Dallas to San José, Costa Rica on Miles

First, let me say that if I didn’t have miles, we probably wouldn’t be taking this trip. Round-trip nonstop flights to San Jose from Dallas regularly run $700-$1000. That’s just for a 4-hour flight, and that’s an insane price. Connecting flights are more reasonable, usually starting at $400-$500. But still, when you multiply that times 5 people, it’s more than I’d want to pay.

The only airline that flies nonstop between DFW and SJO is American. My husband and I have a stash of AA miles thanks to recent credit card sign-ups from (like the Barclays Aviator card and the Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select card).  

I really wanted to use miles for the nonstop flight that is offered once a day. As many of you know, American Airlines doesn’t have award charts anymore, so the price in miles is variable. I’ve seen the flight for as low as 10k miles one way and as high as 85k miles for Economy seats. That’s quite a spread!

Due to our school/work/travel schedule, we only had a few days we could pick to start this trip. I found 5 seats on the nonstop flight for 22,500 miles + $22.68 in taxes for each ticket. It wasn’t the lowest possible price in miles, but it also wasn’t the worst. To me, that price was worth it for the nonstop flight from our home airport. We’re halfway there!

Getting Back Home from San Jose to Dallas

I don’t have our flights yet for our return to Dallas. I’m waiting a bit for all the airlines to come out with their schedules. Best case scenario, we find reasonable price for the nonstop trip back to Dallas. But, we have a few other options, including:

• Using AA miles to fly with an included stopover in Miami
• Using AA miles to fly nonstop to Miami, and then getting cheap cash tickets from Miami to Dallas
• Using United miles to fly nonstop to Houston, and then getting cheap flights from Houston to Dallas
• Using British Airways Avios for an AA flight (if AA releases award space)
• Using Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles to fly on Delta nonstop to Atlanta, then getting cheap flights from Atlanta to Dallas
• Using United miles or Avianca Lifemiles to fly home with a stopover at San Salvador, El Salvador on Taca International Airlines

The last option is already available for around 22k miles. But, I’d rather not add an International stopover to our itinerary. Plus, the flight leaves at 5 a.m. So, I’ll wait to see if better options come along.

Plans for this Trip to Costa Rica

I haven’t nailed down how we will fill our days on this trip. But after our recent whirlwind trip to Europe, my kids have requested a more laid-back vacation. We are renting a house in the Manuel Antonio area. So, relaxing in the jungle, lounging on the beaches and watching monkeys and sloths are on the agenda.