I'm completely new to the whole awards travel concept - and trying to figure out the best way to fly to Costa Rica. Departure airport is Little Rock - which is known for not being able to get anywhere from. I have lots of SW miles (probably enough for a Companion Pass by the time we fly) - but they don't fly to Costa Rica. Thought they might could be used to get me to another departure port that would use the minimal amount of award points to get to CR (LIB). This will help me narrow down which other airline I need to start accumulating points for.

Is there a site somewhere that allows you to search by arrival port - and it show which airlines, departure ports and how many points it might take? Or do I just need to pick some options and start searching through them all?

I'd LOVE first class for at least 2 of us - kid can do coach with the rest of the family

Start with searching the web for the arrival airport website. Usually you can see the airlines that service that destination.
From there you can search the carriers websites for miles required and routings.

To to "travelocity" or other booking sites and they will tell you most of the airlines that fly to your destination.

I've flown into LIB and can tell you that American and I believe Delta fly into LIB. AA has the best scheduling options though IMHO

it looks like some carriers don't fly every day....i looked at week end dates & saw aa,dl,us & ua flights from lit.....

edit to add....on what carriers do you have rdm?....if they fly from lit, the mi cost should be the same as from mia, so no need for the wn pts...

reread the op....so this is for in the future....

ua,dl, & aa are the prime suspects for awards....ua & aa have 1 ways which might help....jet blue flies there, might be able to use wn to get to them...

how many tickets do you need?

what time of the year will you go?

aa is 35k for the cheapest rt....

you could check prices from wn cities on the east coast to see if it makes sense to buy tickets from there...

or, see if y'all can churn cc's for 35k for each of you....

Hi, and welcome to FT slickmouse.

I believe you want to get to LIR and not LIB, if you are referring to Daniel Oduber International airport in Liberia, Costa Rica.

Try this link to see who flys there:

http://www.liberiacostaricaairport.net/