Avianca

Not Verified | Will never fly this airline again! Waited 5 hours at the airport, gate ready, deported plane once, reported - now sitting again one hour in the plane and waiting for new pilot. We got here and now they needed a new stewardess! They didn’t know this 2 hours ago? Very disorganized! no leg room, no in plane entertainment, seats don’t recline

Not Verified | Do not fly if alternatives are there. My travel companion was asked to pay $105 for cabin baggage within the specified limits. Also, he had to pay for the Boarding Pass. $15.00. This was on a Business Class. The seats were very worn and used. They gave us a bottle of water and a sandwich. No operating AV equipment nor was the seat charger working. This is unacceptable. On the way back, the check in people tried to charge us again. Incredibly bad airline and customer service.

✅ Trip Verified | I tried to change my flight from Guatemala to Sacramento and they canceled my flight, when the total cost of the flight was $461.00 in total. I tried to make the change and waited for some sort of email confirmation and even called them and spoke to customer support and they said the request was still under review and there was nothing I could do or from them, after I talked to them on the phone I waited a couple of days and decided to call back to find out the status of my request, and they told me that my flight was canceled and the refund had already been provided. I told them that I had already tried to find out about the application and if they had told me that the flight was going to be canceled and that it was going to lose almost all the value, I would have left the flight as it is. But they didn't care about my explanation and hung up. My credit card was charged $461 and only $92.15 was refunded. $368.85 that was what they stole from me, I'm going to contact my credit card to see if they can get my money back but I don't think they can. The online service is operating solely and exclusively for them with all the advantages and coldness of the case.

✅ Trip Verified | They actually tried charging me for changing my seat from 3C to 3D. Even when I said this has to be a system error, they answered that it’s the new rules and if I wanted to change seats I would have a charge. It’s truly sad how bad this airline has become (in all aspects). It’s a shame there is not many other airline options. Any somewhat good airline would be better to the options we find in Colombia lately. (Always travel with other airlines internationally because of how bad local ones have become).

✅ Trip Verified | The was an agent at the boarding gate very rude to me. The flight was delay over an hour without any explanations from Avianca. The new seats are extremely uncomfortable, and they did not offer even a glass of water in a six-hour flight. It was impossible to sleep due to the hard seats. On arrival it took a very long time for the luggage to be deliver. I do not recommend this airline on this route or any other route longer than 3 hours. Avianca has turned into a very bad airline.

✅ Trip Verified | The check in agent made a mistake in copying the number of the passport of my son, it took her 1.5 hrs until she called someone who told her you are missing a number. By the time she could do the check in she said "you can go without your bag the flight is closed". We ask her for solutions and she said leave your luggage. The airline has terrible customer service, no one helps you. Do not fly this airline!

Not Verified | Worst airline I’ve ever used (and I’ve used a lot). In recent months this airline went from decent to so bad I will do everything in my power to never fly with them again. They have the most uncomfortable seats I have ever used, with no recline unless you pay extra, which I did and got me about 6 inches of recline. I have absolutely no room for my legs in front of me. There is zero inflight entertainment (no screen, WiFi doesn’t work). They charge extra for everything (food, checked baggage, carry on). There is no food except to purchase but when I tried to buy a sandwich, they said they had none so I had to stick with purchasing peanuts. Mind you this is a 5.5 hour flight. When I was going to Bogota they asked for my vaccine. I showed them a photo of my 3 doses and they nearly didn’t let me on the flight (wanted the original card from over a year ago) even after I explained that I have entered Colombia multiple times in the last few years with a photo being totally sufficient (which it 100% was on arrival). Needless to say horrible airline. Don’t fly Avianca unless you absolutely have to.

✅ Trip Verified | It terrifies me to think of such a stingy airline, when long ago it was synonymous with quality and generosity. Not a glass of water, not a reclining chair for a 5.5 flight, not a tiny suitcase, not anything. A prestige built for generations was diluted, a company that plunged into the void of shame hurts me. Me aterra pensar en una aerolínea tan mezquina, cuando tiempo atrás era sinónimo de calidad y generosidad. Ni un vaso de agua, ni una silla reclinable para un vuelo de 5 1/2 ni una maleta minúscula,ni nada… Se diluyó un prestigio construido por generaciones, me duele una compañía que se lanzó al vacío de la vergüenza

Not Verified | The worst thing! 10 hours! We bought our ticket with 4 months of anticipation, and we always use this airline so we got confident about food and space. We noticed the prices went high and we thought nothing changed, but it was horribly uncomfortable, the seats wont recline at all, the space between your legs and the front seat are minimum and now you have to pay for your food which is horrible and expensive for no reason. And only 1 checked bag per passenger on international flights.

✅ Trip Verified | This was the worst flight experience in my whole life.   It started with getting an email stating our flight is getting rescheduled 5 hours before departure. Our flight had one stop at SAL, and the new rescheduled flight arrived later than the next one departed. The email stated that I need to either confirm a new flight or “easily manage your change”. None of the links worked.  I've tried to reach out to Avianca's customer support to get further instructions and raise concerns about the situation. Calling the number resulted in numerous minutes waiting and listening to a verbatim, and when finally selected to talk to a representative, call hanged up every time. The bot in WhatsApp is useless the same way: neither way to sort out rescheduling issue nor talking to the representative.  In half an hour I've got another rescheduling message stating that instead of a trip with one stop and about 7 hours long trip it transformed into 31+ hour long trip with 2 stops including one overnight. No questions about whether it fits were asked. No ways to sort it out as well.   Considering that there's no real customer support, my wife and I decided to go to airport and maybe find anyone there to shed the light on the situation. In the airport, we've met the whole line of confused people with the same issues we encountered. The lady on the counter even tried to charge us for not being checked-in and selected seats. Luckily, we've managed to convince her that it's all a big mistake. Asked her multiple times about the logistics of our luggage, and we were told to rest assured that we'll just need to pick it up at our final destination. We arrived at San Salvador by night, considering our next flight will be at 8am next day, we were proposed a hotel, transfer, dinner, and breakfast next day. Asked again about our luggage, got the same answer. When we arrived at the hotel the kitchen was closed and by the time we needed to leave (6am) it would be still closed, so food coupons were useless. Huge thanks to the hotel staff who realized how miserable the situation was, made for sandwiches for us and other people who ended up with the same situation.   The next step was New Mexico, which airport doesn't have a real transit zone, so it's required to leave the airport and then reenter it again. We are not US citizens, it was pure luck that we had US and a Schengen visas, so we could leave airports in El Salvador and New Mexico.  When finally arrived at Costa Rica, we realized that our baggage is lost. When filing a claim for Avianca to retrieve it, we were told that we should have taken our luggage in New Mexico, and we'll get it back the next morning. It didn't happen. Support phone line was useless again. WhatsApp's communication helped after a couple of hours of trying to reach out to them. Luggage should have been returned the next morning at 6am, and it was but to another hotel. Eventually, we've managed to get our luggage back. And after inspection of it, understood that it was looted. The only advice WhatsApp contact provided was to go to avianca.com, that has multiple times proved its uselessness. As a result, we've lost 2 days of our booked property without any compensation, ruined the beginning of our vacation by depriving sleep, lacking basic things that were in our luggage and ultimately looted raincoat from our luggage, that we really needed in our journey.