We just completed the 500K run thru Central America. It was easy thanks to all the help
here!
Just a few items (which are mostly repeats):
1. itinerary: MIA-MGA TA514 (as NICA) , MGA-SAL TA514 (separate seats,tickets and
boarding pass), SAL-GUA GU960, GUA-SJO CM400,
SJO-PTY LR653, and an earlier CCS-AUA Aeropostal flight.
2. Our TA514 flight from Miami was late, so we arrived in SAL at 6:35 for the 6:25 GU960
departure. GU960 was loaded and waiting for us at the next gate...That felt great.
3. CM400 on Friday was a new plane as opposed to the "old" plane that many flew on. In fact, all the flights were on newer planes than I usually fly on in the U.S. - Great service/nice clean planes.
4. GUA departure tax. This has been discussed several times and we avoided it. If you are staying less than 24 hours make sure the immigration agent writes "Transito 24 hours" on the stamp in your passport and point it out to the airline agent when you check in to leave. You can avoid the $20 tax that way. The immigration agent was a bit confused when I showed him the post-it note with "Transito" and our departure tickets. But there was an nice supervisor right there that explained it to him. Of course, we spoke
no Spanish ;-(
5. Panama... They stacked us up at immigration and made everyone buy the $5 tourist cards from the airline and fill them
out. I saw it mentioned here but they didn't mention it on the flight or anyplace until you showed your passport.
6. I had a lot of trouble getting the LP FF#
on the boarding passes. The Miami agent didn't want to but finally changed all the MIA-MGA-SAL-GUA flights to have the LP+# instead of TA+# and GU+#. Copa and Lacsa refused saying it was exactly the same to have CM+LP# and LR+LP# . I had called reservations etc many times to get the record
straight for the number. The LatinPass membership book seems to imply that 5981...
is a special number that each airline will
forward directly to LatinPass but no one verified that for me , so I hoped to have the
LP# on each document.
It was a great trip and we met many helpful and friendly people. The hotels were great (well the hotel in Florida on the return was
the worst...terrible restaurant and ... ;-) )