A Costa Rica transportation tax for a Des Moines to Newark flight – HUH?


I swear, this do-it-yourself online plane-ticket reservations stuff is so confusing. Yesterday, I finally settled on taking a Des Moines to Newark flight on United in April after weighing various other options to get to NYC. (LaGuardia was more expensive; the flight to Newark is direct! etc.)  The ticket was $359 when I first spotted it. (Not cheap, I know.) An hour or so later it was suddenly $396. I wondered why. So I looked at the fine print and saw that the ticket price was still the same ($338) but the additional taxes/fees had increased from $21.60 by $37. So I looked at the breakdown of the taxes/fees and saw that it included a $15.75 “Costa Rica transportation tax.” Say what?

Then all of a sudden the original $359 fare popped up onto my screen so I just grabbed it – no questions asked. Grrrr

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