$136 Find Cheap Flights from San Jose to Costa Rica

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from San Jose to Costa Rica departing on 1/19. Fares are subject to change and may not be available on all flights or dates of travel. Click the price to replicate the search for this deal.
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Cheap Flights from San Jose to Costa Rica

Cheapest round-trip prices found by our users on KAYAK in the last 72 hours
San José
San José1 stop$304
Liberia
Liberia2 stops$375
San José
San José1 stop$304
Liberia
Liberia2 stops$375

Book Cheap San Jose to Costa Rica Plane Tickets

 
Here are some of the best deals found on KAYAK recently from the most popular airlines for round-trip flights from San Jose to Costa Rica that are departing in the next months. While these flights were available on KAYAK in the last 72 hours, prices and availability are subject to change and deals may expire.
Discover the best prices for you by selecting your travel dates on KAYAK.

Recent round-trip flight deals from San Jose to Costa Rica

Fri, Feb 6 - Fri, Feb 13
American Airlines Logo
10:15 pm - 7:44 pmSJC-SJO
19h 29m1 stop
American Airlines Logo
12:23 am - 10:11 amSJO-SJC
11h 48m1 stop
$304American Airlines
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Sat, Dec 6 - Mon, Dec 15
American Airlines Logo
6:00 am - 10:28 pmSJC-SJO
14h 28m2 stops
American Airlines Logo
6:20 am - 8:36 pmSJO-SJC
16h 16m1 stop
$308American Airlines
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Thu, Jan 22 - Wed, Jan 28
Southwest Logo
6:50 am - 7:30 pmSJC-SJO
10h 40m1 stop
Southwest Logo
9:40 am - 7:40 pmSJO-SJC
12h 00m1 stop
$311Southwest
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Wed, Dec 31 - Fri, Jan 30
Delta Logo
5:40 pm - 7:05 amSJC-SJO
11h 25m1 stop
Delta Logo
7:00 am - 9:20 pmSJO-SJC
16h 20m1 stop
$316Delta
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Mon, Dec 8 - Tue, Dec 16
Delta Logo
6:35 am - 10:20 pmSJC-SJO
13h 45m1 stop
Delta Logo
4:00 pm - 8:24 amSJO-SJC
18h 24m2 stops
$320Delta
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Sat, Dec 6 - Mon, Dec 15
American Airlines Logo
6:00 am - 10:28 pmSJC-SJO
14h 28m2 stops
American Airlines Logo
6:20 am - 10:17 pmSJO-SJC
17h 57m2 stops
$348American Airlines
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Wed, Feb 18 - Fri, Feb 27
American Airlines Logo
6:00 am - 10:43 pmSJC-SJO
14h 43m1 stop
American Airlines Logo
3:04 pm - 10:11 amSJO-SJC
21h 07m1 stop
$353American Airlines
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Sat, Dec 6 - Fri, Dec 12
Delta Logo
6:35 am - 10:20 pmSJC-SJO
13h 45m1 stop
Delta Logo
2:31 pm - 10:56 amSJO-SJC
22h 25m2 stops
$355Delta
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Mon, Dec 8 - Tue, Dec 9
Alaska Airlines Logo
6:15 am - 6:07 pmSJC-LIR
9h 52m1 stop
Alaska Airlines Logo
9:00 am - 10:59 pmLIR-SJC
15h 59m1 stop
$449Alaska Airlines
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Mon, Dec 8 - Fri, Dec 19
Alaska Airlines Logo
2:01 pm - 6:20 amSJC-LIR
14h 19m1 stop
Alaska Airlines Logo
7:40 am - 10:59 pmLIR-SJC
17h 19m1 stop
$450Alaska Airlines
Find Deal
Booking Insights

KAYAK's insights & trends for San Jose to Costa Rica flights

Get data-powered insights and trends into flights from San Jose to Costa Rica to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more.

What is the cheapest month to fly from San Jose to Costa Rica?

To calculate monthly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each month over the last year for round-trip flights from San Jose to Costa Rica, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the median of all values for each month.

The cheapest month for flights from San Jose to Costa Rica is August, when tickets cost $391 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are December and April, when the average cost of round-trip tickets is $867 and $707 respectively.

What’s the cheapest day of the week to fly from San Jose to Costa Rica?

The average price of all round-trip flights from San Jose to Costa Rica clicked on KAYAK for each day over the last 12 months.

When flying from San Jose to Costa Rica, you should consider leaving on a Thursday and avoid Sundays if you are looking for the best rates. For your return to San Jose, you’ll find the best rates on Wednesdays and the most expensive ones on Mondays.

How far in advance should I book a flight from San Jose to Costa Rica?

To calculate weekly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each week before departure over the last year for round-trip flights from San Jose to Costa Rica, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the average of all the values for each week.

To get a below average price on the flight from San Jose to Costa Rica, you should book around 1 week before departure. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 24 weeks before departure.

Good to know

Low seasonOctober
Cheapest flight$136
Best time to beat the crowds but there is an average 38% increase in price.
Most popular time to fly and prices are also 9% lower on average.
Flight from San Jose to San José

FAQs - booking Costa Rica flights

  • What travel documentation should I know about before I board my flight to Costa Rica?

    Any traveler making a trip to Costa Rica for a great vacation does not need to get a visa so long as you don't plan on staying for more than 90 days, but you will need to show the immigration authorities your return plane ticket. You will also need a valid passport when flying to Costa Rica, and your passport needs to be valid the entire time you are in Costa Rica.

  • I am planning on renting a car in Costa Rica. What are the child car seat laws I should know about when driving here?

    Every child traveling in a car in Costa Rica that is up to 12 months old needs to ride in a car seat that faces to the rear. If they are between 12 months and four years old, the car seat needs to face forward. After that, children up to 12 years old need to travel in a booster seat or a booster cushion.

  • Is there any way for me to get freshened up at the San José Juan Santamaria International Airport after a long flight?

    This airport offers showers inside of the terminal building that are free of charge to travelers and make a great way to get freshened up after a long flight.

  • Are there any hotels that have a location right at the San José Juan Santamaria International Airport?

    There are several hotels that have a location right at the entrance of the airport property, and some of them include the Hyatt Place San Jose Airport and the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott San Jose Airport.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from San Jose to Costa Rica?

    KAYAK is a travel search engine. That means we look across the web to find the best prices we can find for our users. With over 2 billion flight queries processed yearly, we are able to display a variety of prices and options on flights from San Jose to Costa Rica.

  • How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket from San Jose to Costa Rica?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight from San Jose to Costa Rica is likely to change within 7 days, so travelers know whether to wait or book now.

  • What is the Hacker Fare option on flights from San Jose to Costa Rica?

    Hacker Fares allow you to combine one-way tickets in order to save you money over a traditional round-trip ticket. You could then fly from San Jose to Costa Rica with an airline and back with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from San Jose to Costa Rica?

    Sometimes travel dates aren't set in stone. If your preferred travel dates have some wiggle room, flexible dates will show you all the options when flying from San Jose to Costa Rica up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

  • What is the cheapest time of day to fly to Costa Rica?

    The cheapest time of day to fly to Costa Rica is generally in the afternoon, when round-trip flights cost $556 on average. Morning departures are around 5% more expensive than evening flights, on average. The most expensive time of day to fly to Costa Rica is generally at night, which is peak travel time and where the average cost of a ticket is $678.

Top tips for finding cheap flights to Costa Rica

  • When people want to fly from San Jose to Costa Rica, they often fly to the San José Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO). Choosing this route, you will find one-stop flight offerings aboard United Airlines and Delta Airlines from San Jose Airport (SJC).
  • One of the most convenient ways to get to the San Jose Airport from downtown San Jose without having to drive your own car is to travel aboard the bus and train lines operated by Santa Clara VTA, which offers service from downtown to the airport in around 12 minutes.
  • If you're looking for a comfortable place to wait for your flight to Costa Rica at the San Jose Airport, consider one of The Club SJC locations at the airport that not only offers plenty of comfortable seating but also quite a few food and beverage options as well as some entertainment options.
  • For travelers planning on driving their to the San Jose Airport and looking for parking options, the airport offers quite a few different choices, with several lots right at the airport terminal building. A more cost-effective solution is to choose Economy Lot One that offers a much lower rate on a per day basis and has a shuttle service to the airport terminal buildings.
  • For nursing mothers traveling from the San Jose Airport, you'll be happy to know that this airport offers five different nursing room locations at gates 8, 18, 21, 24, and 26. Each of these rooms has a very comfortable chair as well as a changing station, power outlets, and a sink.

Reviews of the top 5 airlines serving from San Jose to Costa Rica

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from San Jose to Costa Rica? KAYAK airline reviews give an overall score for each airline based on loads of factors, including comfort, boarding, in-flight entertainment and more, to make your decision easier. See airline scores according to verified KAYAK customer reviews.
8.0
Alaska AirlinesOverall score based on 11341 reviews
8.1Boarding
7.1Food
7.8Comfort
7.0Entertainment
8.5Crew
Airline reviews

No accommodation or credit offered for cancelled layover flight to Eugene from portland

8.0 ExcellentDaren, Nov 2025BUR - PDX
Read more Alaska Airlines reviews

No accommodation or credit offered for cancelled layover flight to Eugene from portland

I love a red eye flight. No lines to wait in. Lots of turbulence on the flight and a very shaky landing.

I truly appreciated the kindness and attentiveness of the staff and flight attendants. They did their best to be prompt with departure times to San Diego and back to New York! Alaska Airlines ... you are awesome!!

Flight from PSP delayed ~2hs and missed connection. Terrible service providing acommodations & food (no rides - just the hotel van every 30 min, which you have to call). 12 dollars in food for a 9 hour delay. 30+ minutes to get everything sorted out.

You need a n/a category. Too short a flight for food. I love flying on Alaska from Santa Rosa Airport!

I didn’t order food so can’t really say how it was. Overall, it was a great experience.

I've never flied them before but liked them. Weather was bad so a little scarey but they did a great job landing.

If they actually let me fly. I was rerouted to United and there was no Alaska airlines reps at all. Then the lady who worked the delta counter told me to go away and figure things out myself. Horrible experience.

I recently traveled with my service animal, and before boarding, a gate agent kindly arranged for me to have an empty seat next to me to give my dog more space. However, once on board, a male crew member spoke to me in a rude and loud tone, insisting my dog stay on the floor or my lap—even after I explained what the gate agent had approved. His tone and behavior were unprofessional and made me feel uncomfortable in front of other passengers. I understand and respect airline policies, but I would appreciate if this could be reviewed to ensure better awareness and sensitivity toward passengers traveling with service animals. Thank you for your understanding.

I received the perfect seat. The cheese tray was delicious. Thank you!

San Diego airport is brand new, spacious, airy and very smooth checkin at SW baggage drop.

Crew could have been friendlier, maybe I'm spoiled by SW crews. In flight wifi was good. Would be nice to have more food offerings on a 4 plus hour flight

Ever since Southwest starting charging for bags, passengers don't want to pay to check their bags, so the gate agents have to beg people to check their roller bags now because there's "not enough space". This was a terrible business move by Southwest.

Sacrament staff are always polite and helpful. Airport is easy to maneuver and boarding is straightforward.

As always, the entire Southwest experience was wonderful, from online booking to flight to baggage retrieval. Very grateful.

The weather could have been better. There was a 40 minute ATC delay in SFO because of marine fog and a micro cell storm delayed landing and take-off at Nashville. The gate was changed 5 minutes from boarding from gate B3 to gate C23 at Nashville airport.

The cabin was quiet for the redeye flight. The area was clean. The staff was great. The 787 Max was in good condition. Drawbacks were that the seat widths were tight for some passengers. The seat padding was at best average and for a long flight uncomfortable.

Delayed flight. Nicest crew member was a SW pilot flying seated next to me who kindly move to seat the final passenger. Flight extra delayed. My cup of refreshment of ginger ale was so packed with ice it was literally 2 sips.

No trays in our seats, we sat in first row, purchased a business class fare. Had to hold our drinks and snack in our hands. No plugs for our cell phones. Had to pay for it a drink cocktail each. Seats so uncomfortable.

Flight wasn’t even full, but too many carry-ons caused us to run out of bin space. New bag fee has folks who would usually check their bags carrying on. Watching Southwest morph into Spirit/Frontier is so sad to watch

Our flight from SFO to MSP was right on time on 11/15/2025. No delays. As we approached MSP at about 8 pm, we circled in the air until 8:40 pm so I don't call that efficient for MSP. I think the captain should announce the delay and why. (as if we all don't know that we are just circling around the area, slowing down, speeding up, slowing down.) Thank you. Marilyn Fischer

Staff were friendly and happy. Delta could make sure passengers that don't have the app know of changes. Without Kayak I would not have known about the change of gate or the delay. Kayak was faster to notify me.

The flight used a B767 with a very old interior from before 2014. The entertainment system did not work at all during the flight despite attempts to reset the system. It was like they flew this route just to be competitive.

Delayed flight (1hour) plus a long layover after an overnight flight with no backup plane available.

Flight delayed for two and half hours and then canceled altogether due to mechanical issues. No mechanic onsite to fix so had to send one from LAX.

My husband upgraded our seats and I don't know if it was due to the type of planet was or if they didn't upgrade our seats. We were supposed to be in I believe comfort seats and they were just as tight as any other seat- no leg room and we are very tall people but at least it wasn't extremely cold. My husband did put in a complaint about our seating because he paid extra and if we would have known that the space and the tightness would have been the same, we just would have gotten the emergency row emergency row seats that we normally get. We love Delta but both our flights coming home we're not good. Oh I forgot to mention that on our flight to Hawaii our luggage wheels got broke and we had to purse new luggage on vacation then we never had this problem so we didn't know protocol and reported it after we got home only for them to tell is we only had 24hrs to report the damage. Not sure what was going on with Delta this vacation trip.

Crew was excellent. Comfort seats not as nice as other kinds of planes.

It was a great flight and the stewards and stewardess were all kind and accommodating!! The seats were comfortable and entertainment screen excellent!

There are 4 flights in consecutive gates with about the same departure time. Two flights were boarding at the same time. One was delayed or boarding would be happening at the same time. I am not sure what Delta and LAX need to do to have a better layout at the end of Terminal 2

There was a security issue at the airport and we were unable to land. We circled endlessly and then landed at another airfield for fuel. We then circled the airport again, almost landed but didn’t fully touch down before circling again. I am thankful to the crew for keeping us safe- the issue was the airline and staff at the airport getting us seats on our connecting flights. That part was hours of searching for someone and getting in double my steps.

This was an older airplane. The cabin was constantly warm to hot throughout the 10 hour flight and there were no vents to personalize air flow. Also since it was an older plane, the material and comfort of the chairs were very uncomfortable. I left my flight with major soreness on my tailbone.

Older aircraft, no meal, only food was for purchase. Not impressed United.

Not pleasant trip cross country when the entertainment and WiFi system not working. No entertainment for entirety of route. Staff was rather nonchalant in that they dismissed the problem due to age of plane. It would have been nice to know this up front so I could have come prepared to read or download movies before boarding Coincidentally or not, there was a similar issue with the entertainment system on my previous flight I took on my fist leg of the trip. There are no seat TVs, so you must rely on the app when it works. United can do better. Also, what use it it to pay for boarding group 2 when half of the passengers are in the same line as you?

My experience on this United Airlines flight was highly uncomfortable, primarily due to two issues: Cabin Temperature: The temperature on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was unacceptably high, feeling consistently around 80 degrees throughout the flight. This made sleeping impossible and significantly detracted from the experience. Seating Arrangement: Being stuck in a middle seat for a six-and-a-half-hour overnight flight compounded the discomfort. Moving forward, I will always purchase a seat assignment to avoid this situation.

Premium Plus is a really good idea for longer flights

Same as last comment. Food sucks. Quality. Not surprising most people have no clue about nourishment Clearly

The flight attendants were great, I joked with one I can’t remember her name, a blond, really sweet. I thought it was run well very professional. This was great i survived Spirit, I know for which I speak.

We were in business class. the angled seats in that class do not have a real window view & the placement of the controls are bad. But we knew that. But the food options were mediocre. The taste was fine, but the size was for a child. It’s just really feels like United is skimping on everything. Even when we were in the Polaris lounge they did not have diet sodas. They said they were out no Coke zero no Diet Coke, etc. I do not think the portion of nuts they serve on the plane could get any smaller. Really a minimal service and offer for what you’re paying for in business.

I was in first class. The outlets at my seat did not work. The plane was shabby and run down. I had prepurchsed a day subscription for internet that was not redeemable. I had to repurchase the internet for my flight and then it didn’t work anyway. Quite disappointed in what was supposed to be the launch of a great vacation.

We had to deboard 2 times due to maintenance issues. They changed the plane, and then we got deviated to LAX due to maibtenance issues on the other plane, had to sleep at LAX and los a full day.

The flight was smooth, the pilot kept us informed about delays and we arrived more of less on time

The flight was flawless and we even arrived between 20 and 25 minutes early!

Always seated jammed in rear of aircraft Admirals Club food at DFW terminal D was absolute worst food experience and I pay $600/year to eat this dried out junk

Mostly good. Flight was crowded but Airline personnel were very friendly & accommodating. It would be good to have savory snacks rather than just sweet Biscoff cookies.

It was a red eye flight, so no meals were provided, but it was fine with snacks. The seats felt cramped and almost too narrow.

Very crowded flight but what can you expect these days?? Crew was accommodating.

The seats in economy were appeared to be quite thin and lack sufficient cushioning to be comfortable. Perhaps it was my seating position but the plane seemed notably load.

The entertainment package was vast and the selections were very current. Keep updating it was great.

The seat was so hard my tailbone was aching The crew was kind of a b**** because I made a joke that I didn't care if they close the door I total c*** when she was trying to f****** act like she was mad at me because I said that The flight was bumpy. Sure you didnt have control over that.

4 hours late, including over +1 hour waiting in plane to take off. Baggage left behind too.

Everything you need to know for your flight from San Jose to Costa Rica

Information on your arrival and departure airports