Avianca

✅ Trip Verified |Sao Paulo to Pereira via Bogota. It seems like a lot of people here went through the same situation. I should have read the reviews before booking with this company. Bought a ticket in their website in 12/21/2021 for $2692.64 to have my parents fly from Brazil to Colombia. They processed the payment but didn't issue the tickets, three days later they emailed me saying they can not fulfil the tickets from that origin city (even though their website booked it). They advised me to book it from a different city so I went back to the site and booked it and had paid for that flight. So as of today 09/22/2022 after long phone calls (at least 3 a month) and many forms later submitted, usually the same forms again and again because they never have it, I am still out of $2692.64.

✅ Trip Verified | This is the second and last time that I have flown Avianca. The first was in early 2020 and we were upsold at every opportunity, including being told my personal item (laptop bag) needed to be paid for. On this occasion, country hopping across South America, Avianca implement a requirement for proof of an active yellow fever vaccine to board flights from Brazil to Colombia. In the months leading up to the flight, I was bombarded with emails about upgrading my flight but not a single one mentioning that they would be demanding this at the airport. The check-in agents at the airport said they would try to help then slinked off without even indicating that they were not able to or advising on what to do. Eventually I was able to speak to an agent who was incredibly rude but eventually said to call the customer service helpline. I did this, attempting to re-route my flights to stop at another country and on 6 occasions the agent would ask me to hold the line while they looked into the options and then the line would get disconnected. My signal was great and it happened with multiple agents so I know it is a deflection tactic that they were employing. In the end I had to figure out a new plan that couldn't even rely on using any of the flight credits. Horrible airline, staff and aggressive approach to taking your money in any way possible. T

✅ Trip Verified | Worse airline ever, They double charge and don't reimburse. No kind of assistance at the airport and placed me as no show even though i was there for about 2hours arguing because they wanted me to purchase a ticket for my 2months old baby and i agreed but then they wanted me to cancel my ticket and purchase another again and moreover there were no more flights for that time. They charged me 80USD for a carryon and 79 for extra baggage and still didn't put me on the flight. So all that money went down the drain.

✅ Trip Verified | My flight changed drastically I was entitled to a refund, I called and emailed Avianca combined no fewer than 75x to get my money back, but in order to have a refund, I need to fill several forms wait forever for a response and they keep saying I need additional information that I've provided ten times before. This company is awful - the worst ever customer service. I flew them one and I will say it was fine, but any issues/changes, beware.

Not Verified | If you searching for cheap ticket and you see this airline coming up please don't do it, because it will cost you as much as business class! They charged me $230 just for a small carry on and the plane they haven't outlets for phone charges! Forget about this airline please.

✅ Trip Verified | Orlando to Sao Paulo via Bogota. Avianca sells in a very easy lounge service for the clients who will have a long connection throughout Bogotá. My son paid for the service, and there is no information regarding lounge usage time. I arrived in Bogotá at 6:20pm (09/10) and Avianca prohibited me to use the lounge until 4:00am (09/11), because my flight is in the next day at 6:14am (09/11). Believe or not. I called Avianca to get my money back, but in order to have a refund, I need to fill several forms wait forever for a response. This company is not serious. For me this lounge service is almost like a scam. Terrible customer service.

✅ Trip Verified | I paid extra to get a refundable ticket - but when I tried to refund, Avianca took me down this long, complicated form which asked for all of my bank information and a form to verify my banking status. Now, I've never been asked these questions before, typically if a company charges you, they have your information on file for a refund. I tried calling customer service and got an endless busy signal. SO, I guess the machine ate my money. Moral of the story, I would not trust this airline, even with a refundable ticket.

Not Verified | The worst airline. used on April 2022, I had previously pay my baggage fee with my ticket, when I got to the airport they could not find the baggage payment, I pay $ 130.00 the fist time, at the airport they charged me extra $ 305.00, so i ended paying $435.00 just for the baggage, I did a complaint the following week, up to 5 month they have not done any thing, they just contacted me 1 time asking for proof of my payments, I did send the proof of payment, never heard from them any more, I e-mail them a couple of times, they ignore my e-mails and never respond. Do not use this airline, save your self money and time, you will lose money with them.

✅ Trip Verified | One step above a scam. Our first flight out we showed up over 3 hours early to the terminal. The boarding crew announced that everyone needed to get in line and print out their boarding passes, no electronic passes would be allowed on the plane (suspicious already). When we got to the front of the hour long line, the boarding attendant asked us for our Peruvian COVID affidavit (something that can be filled out at your destination). When we said we didn't fill it out yet, they told us we would not be able to board the flight, as the affidavit needed to be filled out >48 hours before any flight (if you check the embassy requirements it needs to be LESS than 48 hours beforehand, obviously since its basically a symptom survey). We showed them the embassy page and they refused to believe us and pretended not to understand. The whole time they were having a side conversation in Spanish talking about how the plane was overbooked. Us gringos must've looked like an easy target, but unfortunately we were all fluent in Spanish. They sent us running all around pretending to help us until the flight took off (yes, 2 hours of sending us on errands), then told us we were out of luck. At this point we got angry and called them out on blatantly screwing us since they overbooked their flight. They originally tried to simply kick us off the plane and out the door, but we managed to make them book us another flight the next day (>48 hours beforehand, huh??). We missed a full day of our trip and wasted hundreds of dollars on missed hotel, ubers, not to mention the hours wasted in the airport. On the return trip, they cancelled two of our 'seats'. They said we had tickets, but no 'seats'. They tried to kick us off the return flight too, and made one of us get an onsite COVID test, even though this person had gotten and recovered from COVID as per the US embassy requirements. Even after getting their COVID test done on site, they were told they had no 'seat' and would have to shell out hundreds of dollars for first class if they wanted to board the flight. This friend had to resort to crying to manipulate the shady Avianca agents into letting her sit in her assigned, purchased seat. I spent hours on customer care the night before, each time getting to an automated line in the end that would 'call back in an hour', then the callback would be silent, tell me it couldn't understand me, and say 'try again in an hour'. Some sort of time-wasting bot to avoid having actual customer service. I tried both the Spanish and English Customer service lines. Luckily, I didn't 'need' to get a COVID test, but they did harass me and request tons of random personal information at their desk as well as ask me for multiple unnecessary affidavits (which I filled out this time, expecting a repeat of their antics) before reluctantly giving me a boarding pass. In the terminal for our return flight, I tried to request assistance in unloading since our layover was very short, and the boarding assistant tried to CANCEL my flight, since i 'seemed worried about the layover'. Then she wouldn't hand my ticket back until I had re-proved I had my affidavits and COVID test etc. They also came around the terminal and checked a ton of people's bags due to limited cabin space (not completely unusual, but added to the stress especially given our layover). TLDR: Borderline criminal airline, avoid at all costs

✅ Trip Verified | First came the surprise that I had to pay around $15 per person for checking in unless I checked in online so I told the agent I would check in online. When I tried to do this it said the action was closed and didn’t give me the option to check in so I had to pay the check in for my girlfriend and myself and then the agent told me I had to pay for small carry on bag which is the first time in my 20 plus years of flying I ever had to pay for a carry on. To top everything off I compared how much my friend paid for his checked luggage at the counter that was 50lbs and told me $19.33 while I paid around $22 for a small 10kg bag. After finding this out I went to talk to a supervisor and told me there was nothing he could do. By far Avianca is the worst airline I have flown with. If it’s not for their outrageous fees and charges for things other airlines don’t charge it’s their terrible customer service with their unwillingness to help.