Avianca Airlines

I have had the worst experience with this airline. The customer service representatives don’t listen completely to your complaints before responding. I had to file a complaint with the BBB. Their email responses to the BBB were just as bad as the phone responses. They do not honor their own policies and now To change a flight I have to pay about $ 500 more than I would if I just purchase new tickets.

Porque no volaría con Avianca
Es increíble que en un mercado tan competitivo donde la facilidad de uso, relaciones humanas y satisfacción del cliente son los diferenciadores para cualquier empresa con éxito, aun existan compañías que por una razón u otra menosprecian al cliente hasta tal punto que este básicamente debe implorar para obtener un servicio que sobre todas las cosas es pago con su dinero.
Mi experiencia con Avianca ha sido desastrosa y eso que no he volado con ellos aun. Me siento una persona promedio por lo que nunca pensé que esto me podía pasar, pero me sucedió.
El día domingo 18 de Octubre realicé una compra por su pagina web (reserva #4R8A2Y) para viajar con mi esposa a Panamá desde Santo Domingo, haciendo escala en Bogotá. Como tiendo a viajar mucho por motivos laborales, y aunque en mi compañía existen personas que se encargan de agendar los vuelos siempre me tomo la molestia de hacerlo por mi parte. Busque la mejor opción en
que al parecer era Avianca, existía una diferencia de precios de $ 100 dólares mas en la pagina de Avianca que lo reflejado en Google, no lo vi como una alerta, «debi».
Realicé el proceso de compra a través de su pagina Web, seleccione mis mejores opciones. Para mi sorpresa no podía elegir los asientos «por restricciones de tarifa», puse mi información de pago y llene un formulario «para validar mi información». Concluido todo recibí un mensaje en mi correo diciendo que en 8 horas obtendría mi ticket ya que estaba en validación mi caso. Hasta aquí todo bien.
Desde aquí es que comienza mi odisea, calvario para que me cobren y me emitan mi ticket.
Pasaron mas de 20 horas luego de recibido el correo de la pagina web, llame al centro de contacto para preguntar si había algún problema ya que no habían enviado el ticket ni ningún mensaje indicando el estatus de mi caso, me informaron que debido a «x» situación mi ticket se había demorado mas que el promedio pero que habían puesto mi caso con prioridad. Eso fue el lunes 19 de Octubre.
El martes volví a llamar ya que me habían dicho que en transcurso del lunes recibiría el famoso correo, me dijeron lo mismo y que recibiría el correo en ese día. Ese fue el martes 20 de Octubre.
Llego el miércoles y no tenia correo de Avianca, decidí llamar nuevamente para preguntar por lo mismo, me indicaron lo mismo, me pidieron paciencia ya que mi caso se estaba trabajando. Decidí esperar y darles el beneficio de la duda. Ese fue el miércoles 21 de Octubre.
El jueves llame y un agente diligente me comunicó con un departamento donde validaron mi tarjeta y me dijeron que sin falta ese día recibiría el famoso correo. Me indicaron que todo estaba bien y me pidieron disculpas por el retraso. Ese fue el jueves 22 de Octubre.
Paso el jueves y llego el viernes. Llame, misma historia. Me indicaron que sin falta ese día quedaría todo resuelto. Viernes 23 de Octubre.
Llego el sábado, no tenia el correo en mi bandeja. Me indicaron que todo estaba validado y ok por lo que ese día me llegaría el correo. Pedí hablar con un supervisor para expresarle las dificultades que he tenido, a mi solicitud el representante respondió sorprendido y supuestamente me informó buscaría alguno, luego de unos segundos me indicó que no había ninguno de turnos que llamara dentro de dos horas o en el transcurso del día.
Pregunté por un departamento o alguien que escuchara mis quejas y me refirieron a un formulario web para tales fines. Llene el formulario y aun no me han dado respuesta. Sábado 24 de Octubre.
A todo esto aun no me llega el correo, ninguno indicando el estatus de mi compra. Durante todos los días estuve revisando mi reserva víà la pagina de
, en ocasiones salía con el estado de que no fue encontrada o mas bien podría haber sido cancelada, en otras solo se podía visualizar el itinerario de salida, en otros solo mostraba un error.
Cada vez que llame tuve que navegar por el IVR hasta 3 veces, siempre mi llamada era atendida por ventas y ellos no me «podían ayudar» según ellos, les explicaba que cuando marcaba seleccionaba la opción 1 para español, 4 para soporte pagina web y 1 para
pero me decían «no fue así, marcó a ventas», dejando entrever que yo era un simio y no sabia discar unos simples números en el teléfono.
El mismo sábado me canse y escribí retando públicamente a Avianca a través de su cuenta en Twitter de que resolvieran mi caso y al menos dieran respuesta, haciendo yo una apuesta de que no resolverían y pasarían al menos diez días para que me contestaran. Me contestaron el domingo 25 de Octubre.
Exprese mi caso como pidieron a través de un mensaje privado, indicando todo lo sucedido.
El lunes 26 de Octubre me llamaron para darme noticias de mi caso, «aleluya»… ¿o no?
Me indicaron que lamentablemente por problemas en facturación mi reserva había sido «cancelada», ya no había cupo en el vuelo que había seleccionado y que el disponible para mi fecha de salida llegaría prácticamente a media noche

I had flown Avianca Airlines several times from JFK-​Bogota a 6 hours flight and connecting flight of just a little over and hour. Flew on a B787, which is the newest fleet Boeing for Avianca. Comfortable wide seats with lot of leg room. Individual screen with a variety of entertainment for kids and adults. Breakfast was another story. Scramble eggs with a funny looking sauce, a cup of peach yougurt, not too sweet, but tasty, a bread roll with coffee or tea. Lunch was a cold sanwitch with cold drinks. No Thank you I pass
I only have one lateness of a couple of hours do to weather conditions in Bogota. Avianca was nice enough to give me and my husband a voucher in the mount of 15.00USD each for food. Only 4 stars rating because they need to improved on the food. Personally, not a bad airline in comparison to others with deplorable reputation and you know who you are. Amen

If I could I would give them a zero. Worst airlines I’ve ever flown. They lost my bag even though it was a direct flight a I checked in two hours before the flight left. The food gave me food poisoning and I spent a layover throwing up. Old planes and a delay on every single leg of our flight.

I have a voucher with Avianca/​TACA which they do not want to help me honor. I called their call center and they said the system was not working. To go to the Avianca/​TACA in DC. Thanks to this negligent ADVICE, I was involved in a serious car accident. I have been on the phone for over 3 hours of my life trying to get the voucher and get a flight. It would be SO SIMPLE if I could just buy online using the Voucher NUMBER. Apparently, it’s less expensive to have a lawsuit on your hands THAN TO FIX YOUR PURCHASE SYSTEM ONLINE!

Avianca has given me the worst travel experience in my life. And no one responds to the claims. They cancel flights, have me waiting on airports of a day, all they can say is sorry but with no solutions, no reimbursement, only excuses and not consider that we are paying customers.
Worst Airline in History!!!

If I could give this airline a zero I would. Buy if you wear. This airline is all about charging Excess fees for luggages or anything that they can get pick on. Traveling this morning. I weighed all of the bags and they were perfect. This clerk first started with stating that my bag was oversized. The bag was not a luggage and it was baggy. This woman tried to measure a bag that was certainly not measurable as if you squeeze it to the left or right the size would be different. She also stated that I was not allowed to have three. bags. I was sitting in first class and thank God that I printed out the baggage rules otherwise she would charge me for those bags as well. charge me $ 130 for the bag that she clearly could not measure. then to top it off I have one carry-​on and one computer bag. She told me that I had to check into carry-​on because I’m only allowed to have one bag to enter the plane. She charged me $ 175 for the other carry-​on bag that clearly was not oversized and it was a standard carry-​on that I have used over 50 times with numerous different airlines and no issues. Thank god I charged it on my american express because in 48 hours from now I will be doing a chargeback. This is by far the worst airline in the world. Always late. They always try to charge extra for baggage issues or anything that they could find. Screw them. They lost my business moving forward.

TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE. Do not ruin your life with this airline. My flight at 7am was cancelled to 5pm. They are rude they let people skip. You argue and they just turn around and leave. Horrible people horrible service. I will never make the horrible mistake of choosing this airline again. Angry people everywhere and I do not blame them. Had to take this to make a stop to Colombia to head to Ecuador. Horrible.

TACA Airlines es la peor aerolínea volar jamás los skys. su servicio al cliente es dirigido por idiotas, incapaces estúpidas. No tienen las políticas de ajuste en línea o en sus entradas. Sus aviones y la gente carece de la tecnología adecuada para volar en cuzco correctamente. En nuestro vuelo a Lima, vimos los asistentes de vuelo que duermen en las filas, manteniendo mantas y almohadas y siendo tan inútil como posiblemente a los pasajeros. NUNCA VOLAR CON ESTA GENTE.

Make that –28 stars, I have not even flown on Avianca yet but their customer service really really really blows. If you ever call them and end up buying a ticket over the phone — don’t. Their customer service people deceive and lie. Ew.

We had reservations from JFK New York to Lima Peru (via El Salvador) on September 14^th. After the Avianca/​TACA staff in El Salvador changed the flight status on the computer monitors to «Boarding» for more than 20 minutes, with passengers lined up with luggage, Avianca announced that the flight had been cancelled. The official reason we were given is that the pilot did not show up for the flight. We spoke to an Avianca/​TACA agent who seemed to understand that we had a once-​in-​a-​lifetime trip to Machu Picchu/​Machu PIcchu Mountain planned for 9/15−16^th (with our tickets on another airline, hotel reservations and tickets to Machu Picchu already purchased). He said he would work with his manager at TACA and Lan Peru to get us on the next flight out to Cusco ⁹⁄₁₅. He then told a group of fellow passengers that there was no availability with other carriers to Cusco. We went to the Intercontinental Hotel later that night, where we were required to purchase internet at our own expense because TACA would not cover the $ 3 USD cost. We verified that there were over 20 seats available on the afternoon flights from Lima to Cusco on LAN airlines. I went downstairs in the hotel and spoke to Mr. Alvarro Vigil of Avianca/​TACA airlines, who identified himself as a manager, and he told me not to pay the additional cost to LAN Airlines for the Cusco flight because TACA would take care of it. The next morning, September 15^th, Avianca/​TACA still did not have a pilot for the flight, delaying the newly scheduled flight by more than two hours. We spoke to multiple agents at the El Salvador airport who told us that «everything would be taken care of,» «not to worry,» «TACA would get us to Cusco.» A female agent took our boarding passes for the flight. We asked repeatedly for our new boarding passes and were told that «TACA is taking care of everything, do not worry. We are getting you on a flight to Cusco and will give you new boarding passes when we have done that.» Finally, a few minutes before we were scheduled to board the delayed flight, an attendant called us up and said that «we would have to appeal to the conscience of the TACA staff in Lima» in order to be put on a flight to Cusco, that TACA in El Salvador could not do anything, but they would «call to let the TACA staff in Lima know of our situation, not to worry.» We did not like this answer because it was completely the opposite of what every Avianca/​TACA staff member told us in El Salvador, so we waited to speak with Mr. Vigil again. Mr Vigil smiled and nodded when I expressed my concern that TACA was not honoring what every staff member and «manager» told us would happen. He replied, «When you get to Lima, your bags will be automatically transferred from TACA to Peruvian airlines and you will not go through immigration until you reach Cusco. You will be fine — you will arrive at 1 PM and have 30 minutes to make it to Peruvian. Don’t worry.» I did not believe this (our flight was leaving two hours later than planned so it was a physical impossibility to arrive by 1 and Mr. Vigil knew that) and asked, «What if we don’t make the flight?» He said, «If you don’t make the Peruvian flight, we will work with LAN to put you on the last flight to Cusco.» I replied, «Are you telling me the truth?» He appeared surprised but then smiled and said, «Yes, I am.» The TACA staff told us there would be TACA representatives on the ground immediately in Lima to help us all get to our connections and answer questions and have boarding passes printed to hand out to us as we handed in our boarding cards to board the flight to Lima. A representative we had worked with earlier stopped us saying, «Don’t worry — I am calling Lima, everything will be fine.» This sounded too good to be true and it was. Arriving in Lima, there were no TACA agents until after we received our luggage. When we asked about what to do and told him the flight we had come from, he said, «You need to go speak to customer service, I cannot help you.» Another TACA staff member instructed us to go upstairs to the TACA office for help. When we got upstairs, the TACA representatives told us to go downstairs. When we went downstairs, we were instructed to exit the airport, then come back into the airport and get in the long ticket line. After waiting in the long ticket line for TACA, the TACA agent instructed us to go to the black desk for help and pointed at the other side of the airport. When we went to the black desk on the other side of the airport, the TACA desk there was closed. We had to exit the airport again and by this time, the last flight to Cusco had left from Lima. TACA made us wait 4 more hours at the airport, charged us $ 90 and did not honor any of their managers’ words in El Salvador. Don’t fly with TACA or through El Salvador if you can help it, they don’t care for their customers. Travel insurance is a must!

A return flight from Peru, by way of Colombia, found me in a seat on an Avianca plane, flying just over two hours to Bogota and then just a bit over five hours on a connecting flight from Bogota to NYC. Though I was set up to expect the worst, I was pleasantly surprised by Avianca on all accounts.
In air travel today, we’ve been set up to expect less. Less leg loom, less food, less-​than-​friendly service. Avianca, on the other hand, excels on all accounts, which leaves little wondering as to how they’ve stayed in business for so long. First, the seats are equipped with individual TVs loaded with games, TV shows and very current movies, as well as music that you can program into your own personal playlist. With plenty of legroom, my only criticism is the headrest, which juts out kinda far and makes even a reclined position more awkward than other airlines.
Meals were plentiful and substantial for airline food, as they served full meals on both the Peru — Bogota, as well as Bogota — NYC. I’ve taken many flights to California from NYC, a 5 – 6 ride, and got little more than a pack of peanuts and complimentary soda.
Service was quick and friendly and the flight relatively smooth. Although there was a slight delay leaving Colombia, we still managed to arrive in NYC on time. An overall great value in flying to South America.

Avianca left much to be desired. First of all, unless you are fluent in Spanish it is very hard to communicate with anyone at the check in counter, so make sure you have a translator in your group. The flight itself was fine, but everything else was awful. I guess all in all the flight itself is the most important part though, prompting the 2 stars instead of 1.
A group of us flew to Bogota from JFK and the flight down was ok, everything made it with us since it was a direct flight. However, on the return trip we flew from Cartagena to Bogota to JFK and that’s where everything went wrong. Somehow they completely lost our baggage for 3 – 4 days, some people’s items were stolen from inside the bag, one person’s bag was basically dismantled and taped back together, and some people never saw theirs again.
I highly discourage people from using Avianca unless there is no other choice.

Took Avianca down to Colombia a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed the experience…
Avianca is the oldest airline in South America, so it has some history. My personal preference when flying internationally is to fly locally — rather than going with the american carrier — this way the trip really starts when you board the plane. You start to get a feeling for the country you’re about to visit — in my case this typically involves sampling the local beer.
From JFK to Bogota, we flew in an Airbus and my aisle seat was plenty comfy, plus I enjoyed the personal TV with inflight entertainment system. I watched Modern Family and Glee for the first time. Saw The Hangover, yet again, love that flick. (As an added bonus, international airlines don’t edit out sex scenes.)
By the time we reached Bogota 4 hours and 55 minutes after leaving NYC, I had drank my first couple of Club Colombias and read a bunch of stories about Colombia in the beefy inflight mag. I was ready to explore a new country.
Once in Colombia, I took a couple of domestic flights with Avianca and they played out without any major problems. But a Biblical rainstorm did cause some confusion at the Pereira Airport and I was shuttled from waiting room to waiting room without much information. But hey, this is Colombia, it’s to be expected. Eventually made it back to Bogota safe and sound.
Back in NY a week or so later, I was ready to sign up for Avianca’s frequent flyer club, cause I know I’ll be going back.

Had a flight that left really early (8:00am) so thats probably why check in for us was a breeze. No wait, no line through security. We ended up being at our gate SUPER early.
Our flight was to Lima, via Bogota, and our airplane to Bogota was a pretty sweet Airbus. Really new, really nice. I barely noticed the 6 hour flight due to the variety of in-​flight movies, tv shows and video games offered on the screen/​tv thing. Food was ‘eh’ but when is airline food ever really good?
Flight from Bogota to Lima wasn’t as great. Smaller plane, no tvs (not a big deal, but i’m just saying) and same «eh» food. But it got us to our destination on time, so no real complaints.
Overall recommended.

My brother, sister in law and myself headed down to Colombia to visit inlaws via Avianca from JFK to Barranquilla. We arrived four hours before departure and the lines were insufferable. We waited three hours before we got up to the check in counter. Another forty minutes was spent on the TSA line. After taking off our shoes, belts, emptying our pockets and getting our cheeks ready for probing we barely made the flight by 15 minutes. Once on the plane however the service and food was pretty good even though the plane wasn’t the cleanest thing I’ve seen
For some strange reason Avianca decided that an MD-​90 aircraft, a medium range narrow body was the way to go for a five hour flight that is not only fully packed but judging by the amount of people that were bumped off a Boeing 767 would have definitely been the way to go. I was also miffed that I wasn’t allowed to choose my seat when I purchased my ticket over the phone (Avianca’s website needs major work) because I didn’t purchase first class.
The flight back was a bit unnerving. It was packed to the rafters. No leg room even though we were on a 767. The food wasn’t as good coming back and the movie absolutely sucked. I think it was a Diane Lane movie dubbed in Spanish.
A few warnings. If you go to any place in Colombia besides Bogota you will probably wind up taking Avianca. Airlines such as American and Continental will not fly outside of Bogota as of yet. Buy your ticket from Avianca directly. My brother and sister in law went the Expedia route and suffered big time when we changed our flight itinerary. Their tickets didn’t show up on Avianca’s computer (in Pereira, Colombia), the agents didn’t speak English and even though I had a tri-​band gsm I couldn’t get in touch with Avianca’s NYC office to straighten everything out. They wound up buying an additional one way ticket which I payed for and had to go through more aggravation when my AMEX was declined. Again, I couldn’t get through to AMEX because I had no signal and the agents wouldn’t allow me to use their land line.
Do not play games with the police at any of the Colombian airports. As in don’t pretend to be a bad ass Gringo and come off like a wannabe gangsta. Most of these guys are either right out of high school or in their forties or older and don’t get payed very much. If they even think you don’t take their jobs seriously they will make your search miserable. Heaven help any poor asshole who decides to try and smuggle anything illegal out of the country whether it be drugs or historical/​cultural items.
Colombia itself, especially Cartagena and Pereira is quite beautiful.