{
  "response": {
    "Key": "US-CR",
    "orig": {
      "code": "US",
      "type": "country",
      "country": "United States"
    },
    "dest": {
      "code": "CR",
      "type": "country",
      "country": "Costa Rica"
    },
    "faq": {
      "q0": {
        "question": "Which U.S. cities can I fly from to reach Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "Nineteen cities across the United States offer nonstop service to Costa Rica, led by Miami with 326 weekly flights and a flight time of 3h 2m, followed by New York at 5h 22m, Dallas at 4h 7m, Atlanta at 3h 57m, and Orlando at 3h 10m. Other major gateways include Los Angeles at 5h 42m, Houston at 3h 40m, Charlotte at 4h 16m, Chicago at 5h 6m, and San Francisco at 6h 18m, with additional nonstop options from Denver, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and Seattle, the latter at 7h 4m. Airlines serving these routes include American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Avianca, Volaris El Salvador, and Sun Country Airlines, among others. Travellers typically choose a departure airport based on proximity to home, the frequency of nonstop flights, and fare competition, with larger hubs like Miami and New York offering the most daily options. For those not near a nonstop gateway, connecting itineraries through any of these major hubs are common, though the nonstop flight times above represent the shortest practical travel durations from each departure city.",
        "methodology": "Departure cities and their weekly nonstop flights come from our flight-schedule database, which combines published airline timetables, U.S. government schedule data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and observed flight operations from the EUROCONTROL/OpenSky Open Performance Data Initiative (OPDI). We list every city in the origin country with scheduled nonstop service to an airport in the destination, busiest first.",
        "toolsUsed": [
          "country_to_city"
        ]
      },
      "q1": {
        "question": "Which airports in Costa Rica are the best to fly into?",
        "answer": "The two main international gateways from the United States are Juan Santamaría International Airport in San José and Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Liberia. San José is ideal for reaching the capital, the central highlands, and the Pacific coast, while Liberia serves the Guanacaste beaches and northern resorts directly."
      },
      "q2": {
        "question": "How long is the flight to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "Nonstop flights from the United States to Costa Rica range from 2 hours 55 minutes out of Fort Lauderdale to 7 hours 4 minutes out of Seattle. From Miami the typical nonstop time is 3 hours 2 minutes, while from New York it is 5 hours 22 minutes, and from Los Angeles it is 5 hours 42 minutes. Other nonstop times include 3 hours 10 minutes from Orlando, 4 hours 7 minutes from Dallas, and 6 hours 18 minutes from San Francisco. Nineteen U.S. cities have nonstop service into Costa Rica, with the shortest times generally from Florida and the longest from the West Coast.",
        "methodology": "Flight times come from our flight-schedule database, which combines published airline timetables, U.S. government schedule data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and observed flight operations from the EUROCONTROL/OpenSky Open Performance Data Initiative (OPDI); the typical time is the median scheduled duration of each departure city's nonstop services to the destination.",
        "toolsUsed": [
          "country_to_city"
        ]
      },
      "q3": {
        "question": "Are there direct flights to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "There are extensive nonstop flights from the United States to Costa Rica, served by 19 departure cities into San José (SJO) and Liberia (LIR). Key nonstop pairs include Miami to San José and Liberia on American Airlines, Avianca, Volaris El Salvador, and Sky High, with typical durations of 3h and 3h 6m; New York to San José and Liberia on United Airlines, JetBlue, and American Airlines, at 5h 22m and 5h 23m; and Dallas, Atlanta, Orlando, Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago, each with multiple carriers and typical flight times ranging from about 3h 10m from Orlando to 5h 42m from Los Angeles. Other nonstop gateways include Charlotte, San Francisco, Denver, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and Seattle, with Seattle offering the longest typical duration at 7h 4m. Flight times across all nonstop city pairs span from 2h 55m from Fort Lauderdale to 7h 4m from Seattle.",
        "methodology": "Nonstop service is identified from the scheduled operating flights in our flight-schedule database, which combines published airline timetables, U.S. government schedule data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and observed flight operations from the EUROCONTROL/OpenSky Open Performance Data Initiative (OPDI); a destination with no scheduled nonstop from the origin country is reported as having none.",
        "toolsUsed": [
          "country_to_city"
        ]
      },
      "q4": {
        "question": "Which U.S. airports are usually cheapest for flying to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "Miami and Fort Lauderdale typically offer the cheapest and most frequent flights to Costa Rica, especially to San José and Liberia. Houston and Atlanta also provide competitive options. Travellers from smaller US cities often save by connecting through these hubs rather than flying direct from a nearby regional airport."
      },
      "q5": {
        "question": "Which airlines fly to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "American Airlines, United, Delta, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest, Frontier, Spirit, Avianca, and Volaris operate nonstop flights from the United States to Costa Rica. American Airlines and Alaska Airlines are members of the Oneworld alliance, while United, Delta, and Avianca belong to Star Alliance and SkyTeam respectively. JetBlue, Southwest, Frontier, Spirit, and Volaris are not aligned with a global alliance.",
        "methodology": "Airlines are the operating carriers scheduled on nonstop services from each departure city, taken from our flight-schedule database, which combines published airline timetables, U.S. government schedule data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and observed flight operations from the EUROCONTROL/OpenSky Open Performance Data Initiative (OPDI).",
        "toolsUsed": [
          "country_to_city"
        ]
      },
      "q7": {
        "question": "How far in advance should I book flights to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "For flights from the United States to Costa Rica, the optimal booking window is 9 to 12 weeks before departure, when average fares drop to around $611, though peak travel months like December and March often require booking even earlier to secure reasonable prices.",
        "methodology": "This booking-window guidance is built from the same real flight prices found by Priceline users searching this route, re-grouped by how many days before departure each price was seen (from the departure day out to about 180 days ahead) across the route's price history. At each booking lead time we report the 25th-percentile price — the cheaper end of what travelers were quoted, rather than the rock-bottom minimum (which can be a fluke) or the average (which is pulled up by expensive last-minute fares). The buy-or-wait advice then applies a risk premium that grows as departure approaches, since seat availability shrinks and prices become less predictable; using that adjusted curve we flag windows where waiting is likely to save a meaningful amount (at least $20 or 5%) versus windows where booking now is the better call. Isolated single-day recommendations are filtered out, so the advice only reflects a window that holds for several days in a row. This 'good deal' estimate shows a representative best price for each departure date across roughly a 12-month window (about 3 months back and 9 months forward). It is built from real flight prices found by Priceline users searching this route, accumulated into a price history for each departure date. Rather than weighting all of that history equally, we apply exponential time decay so recent prices dominate — a price seen yesterday counts almost in full, one from about a month ago roughly a third, and prices from a few months back very little — giving a figure that tracks today's market instead of a stale long-run average. Clear price outliers are removed before any calculation, departure dates with no observations are filled in from nearby dates, and the resulting curve is lightly smoothed so it reads as a clean seasonal trend rather than day-to-day noise."
      },
      "q8": {
        "question": "Do I need a visa to travel to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "United States citizens do not need a visa for short tourist visits to Costa Rica. They are permitted to stay up to 180 days.\n\nThis is general guidance to help you plan, not official immigration advice — entry rules can change and can depend on your nationality and circumstances, so please confirm the current requirements with the relevant embassy or official government source before you travel.",
        "toolsUsed": [
          "article_lookup"
        ],
        "references": [
          {
            "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Costa_Rica",
            "title": "Visa policy of Costa Rica",
            "favicon": "https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/costa-rica/entry-requirements",
            "title": "Costa Rica entry requirements — GOV.UK",
            "favicon": "https://www.gov.uk/favicon.ico"
          }
        ],
        "preopenedReferences": true,
        "stageOnly": true
      },
      "q10": {
        "question": "How easy is it to travel within Costa Rica after I arrive?",
        "answer": "Domestic flights connect San José to coastal and remote areas, while buses and rental cars are common for shorter trips. Arriving in Liberia gives quicker access to northwest beaches, while San José offers more connections countrywide."
      }
    }
  }
}