My husbands family is from Guayaquil and we go often fly JFK.

My best suggestion is to fly LAN as they are much nicer than AA or CO. They also fly direct and are generally cheaper. They have cheaper fans on their website than the orbitz or travelocity.

We fly AA only for the miles and my husband works at the terminal so we get some benefit. I rather pay the difference and fly LAN if only for the sake of convience and the well mannered crew. The flight from JFK is only 5 h15m.