{
  "response": {
    "Key": "US-CR",
    "orig": {
      "code": "US",
      "type": "country",
      "country": "United States"
    },
    "dest": {
      "code": "CR",
      "type": "country",
      "country": "Costa Rica"
    },
    "faq": {
      "q0": {
        "question": "Which cities in United States can I fly from to reach Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "Major US departure cities for Costa Rica include Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and Orlando. Non-stop flights operate from many of these hubs to San José or Liberia. One-stop connections via Panama City, Mexico City or Miami are common from smaller cities. Travellers choose based on proximity, non-stop availability and price, with Florida airports often offering the cheapest and most frequent options."
      },
      "q1": {
        "question": "Which airports in Costa Rica are the best to fly into from United States?",
        "answer": "The best airports to fly into from the United States are Juan Santamaría International Airport in San José and Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Liberia. San José is the main hub for onward domestic flights, buses, and access to the central valley and Pacific coast. Liberia serves the Guanacaste region and northern Pacific beaches directly, with fewer but convenient domestic connections."
      },
      "q2": {
        "question": "How long is the flight from United States to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "From Miami or Houston to San José, non-stop flights take about 3 to 4 hours. From Los Angeles or New York, direct flights are around 5 to 6 hours. One-stop itineraries from other U.S. cities typically add 2 to 4 hours. Return times are similar."
      },
      "q3": {
        "question": "Are there direct flights from United States to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "Numerous non-stop flights connect the United States to Costa Rica. Major gateways include Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, New York, and Los Angeles, with service to San José (SJO) and Liberia (LIR). Airlines such as American, United, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, and Spirit operate these routes. Flight times range from about 3 hours from Miami to over 5 hours from the West Coast."
      },
      "q4": {
        "question": "Which airports in United States are usually cheapest for flying to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "Miami and Fort Lauderdale are usually the cheapest US airports for flights to Costa Rica, offering frequent low-cost and full-service options. Houston and Atlanta also provide competitive fares. Travellers from smaller cities often save by booking a separate domestic flight to one of these hubs first."
      },
      "q5": {
        "question": "Which airlines fly from United States to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "American, Delta, United, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Spirit and Frontier offer direct flights from the U.S. to Costa Rica."
      },
      "q6": {
        "question": "When is the cheapest time to fly from United States to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "The cheapest months to fly from the United States to Costa Rica are April, May, and June, with shoulder-season deals also appearing in September and October, while December, March, and January are the most expensive — avoid the Christmas–New Year and Easter holiday windows. For the lowest fare, book 9 to 12 weeks ahead (roughly two to three months before departure). Midweek departures and early-morning or late-night flights tend to offer the best value, and nonstop service is widely available from gateway cities like Miami, Orlando, New York, Dallas, and Houston.",
        "methodology": "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. 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. The US departure cities with nonstop service to this destination, their weekly flight frequencies, typical flight times, airlines, and red-eye availability are compiled 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 identify every US airport with scheduled nonstop service to the destination, group them into their metropolitan areas, and rank the cities by scheduled weekly departures; the typical flight time is the median scheduled duration, and red-eye availability is flagged from scheduled local departure and arrival times."
      },
      "q7": {
        "question": "How far in advance should I book flights from United States to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "Book flights from the United States to Costa Rica about 9 to 12 weeks ahead for the best fares, though you should book even earlier for peak periods like December holidays when prices spike above $750.",
        "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 from United States to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "For tourism, US citizens do not need a visa for stays up to 180 days in Costa Rica. Other nationalities residing in the US should verify requirements based on their passport, as rules vary and can change."
      },
      "q10": {
        "question": "How easy is it to travel within Costa Rica after I arrive?",
        "answer": "Within Costa Rica, domestic flights, shared shuttles, public buses, and rental cars are common. Arriving at San José (SJO) gives the most options, while Liberia (LIR) is best for the northwest Pacific coast."
      }
    }
  }
}