Avianca

✅ Trip Verified | I've flown all different airlines around the world, from the USA, Europe, Africa, Caribbean, and South America. Avianca has been the worst experience I've ever had. I booked through Expedia and was automatically given an XS fare due to it being the only fare available. I've never flown this airline before, and had no idea about how the fares worked. I figured I could pay extra to upgrade my fare eventually like any other airline I've flown. Several weeks on the phone with Avianca customer support, and almost every agent I spoke to did not speak English at all, or well. I was unable to get any help from their support team. Emails never received a response. Due to the 24 hour window for refund expiring, I was locked in and had no choice but to take this flight. $1082 total for 2 tickets, on a 1 hour and 30 minutes flight, which did not include checked bags. I paid $70 online for the discounted checked luggage, and upon arrival at the airport was told I could not board unless I paid the full price of $161 for our checked bags. I explained that I paid already, and showed the transaction in my bank. They refused to listen, so I had to pay the extra $161 in order to board. The supervisor gave me a receipt and told me to get a refund once we landed. Once we landed we did as instructed, but we were told that they do not give refunds. After speaking to another supervisor she said I needed to get the refund through my bank. We came to colombia due to a K1 Visa. The embassy took long to process the visa and we could not reschedule the flight due to the XS fare. The $500+ ticket was wasted, and to make matters worse, I purchased the $70 bags online for this flight. $500+$161+70 thrown away for no good reason at all. I chose to fly back with Wingo which provides flight flexibility for $21, and includes checked bags for a similar price. This has got to be one of the most corrupt airlines in the world! Save yourself the nightmare and stress, do some research or pay a little extra. I chose to do some research and am now paying much less to fly back with a better airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Avianca went from being the best airline to worst than Spirit or any low cost airline. The only flight I've ever missed in my whole life (30+ years of flying several times a yr) because their check in took 2.5 hours. They also have hundreds of dollars of hidden fees, from printing your ticket to preventing you from taking a carry on bag. I've flown Spirit and Frontier dozens of times and know all about hidden costs so I always plan accordingly. But Avianca engages in false marketing, as their ticket says you can bring a carry on bag in economy but at the gate they will slap you with $120. Their tickets are not even cheap to start with. You could not pay me to use Avianca again.

✅ Trip Verified | They charged my debit card three times Finally, the transaction went through and they issued a plane ticket At 12 am they sent an email they have cancelled my ticket. Transactions went through and I am currently in a fight with my bank to get my funds back for the ticket they charged and cancelled.

✅ Trip Verified | They will offer the cheapest flight options but they are extremely cunning and deceptive with their hidden costs. You will end up paying more! Guaranteed! I paid a fare of approx $225 pp but ended up paying an additional $150usd because I was a foreigner and only nationals can pay the fare that I had. The irony is, an Avianca agent booked this for me with my credit card and at no point did they mention any of this - to add insult to injury, I had to pay another $15 usd to print out my boarding pass when their website was not allowing me to process my online checkin. I showed the agent on how I was able to fill out all the online information to process my web checkin but when it got to the last page, the screen just hung and froze. She just shrugged her shoulders and said that I have to pay $165 usd. Either I take my chances and keep trying or I pay the fee to board the flight. At the gate, the agent said that I was on an S category ticket and had to pay for my carry on. I showed him that I was booked on M and he made me search for validation and ended up saying that I could not board without paying an additional $100 usd for my luggage. So the total fare ended up costing approx $600 usd which would have been better off paying much less with a more reputable airline such as Latam or Viva.

Not Verified | After securing a place for my carryon in the above compartment, i sat in my seat and waited for take off. About 5 min later the stewardess took my carryon down and handed it to me. She replaced my carryon with another persons suitcase. When I pointed out that i already had a personal item below the seat in front of me and that the bag she handed to me was my carryon. She told me they have no space for carryon and walked off. I was left holding my carryon on my lap for the duration of the flight. My carryon gymbag is smaller than some of the other carryons on the flight. However my ticket assures that i would be able to stow that item. I am beyond annoyed and irritated with not only the i convenience of holding my bag but the rudeness of the stewardess. This was an uncalled for situation

✅ Trip Verified | I a purchased for 2 flight tickets from Miami to Medellin (round trip). A few weeks later I had a great job opportunity that was preventing me to go on the trip, I called Avianca support and I was told that the ticket was non-refundable and that no changes could be made. They also gave me the option to do a form online but that it would be of no use. However, I made the request form and submitted. The representative told me that I was going to get a response in the following days, a few days went by and I had no response. so I had to call once again to see what was the status on the request. I was told one more time that there was nothing they could do and that I had to take that flight, so I decided to cancel my business plans and go on the trip. On the day of the flight, when I got to the airport I went to do my check in and was told that my ticket was refunded and that I was unable to flight. I called Avianca support once again, and the representative told me that my booking was still valid and that there was no issue with the ticket, so I decided to go over to the front of the cashier at the airport and passed the phone over to the employee that was doing checkins, she told me that my ticket was in fact refunded and that’s when the person on the phone realized that my ticket was not in the system. I proceed to ask the representative about the refund and he stated that it was deposit on my account on June 8th, so I went and checked my transactions to make things worst , I was only refunded the amount for the taxes. So, out of a $386.57 ticket I received only $127, with no confirmation of my refund, never even received any emails with the prove or receipt. At the airport all I could do was ask for help, but to no surprise I got no concrete response on how I could solve my issue. I had to go online my self and pray that there was still a ticket available on that flight. Ironically enough, there was just 1 more ticket available.. probably the same one that was “refunded”. I had to spend $429.80 for a one way trip from Miami to Medellin. And not to mention the return flight ticket that I had to purchase for another $465.99 for the return flight to Miami, which I find only fair for Avainca to take full responsibility for.

✅ Trip Verified | Worst customer service. I originally booked to go to El Salvador on August 4 and head back to MIA on 08/09 and purchased only 3 baggage, 2 for my husband (going and coming back) and only one for me (to go to El Salvador) which was purchased on May 19 a couple days later. But Avianca changed my flight so we had to change the new date to go to El Salvador to July 29. Once the changes were made, we noticed a week later none of the baggage were added. So I called customer services several times in one day because the call would always drop. After the 3rd attempt, they were able to find only the baggage that were purchased for my husband but not mine. They did an internal investigation and concluded it was never found. I sent them proof of purchase from my bank statement to an email they provided "[email protected]" and no response as of today. I called several times and there excuse to me to keep calling back because there system is currently down. I will never use Avianca again. I will say one thing positive, the cabin staff were very friendly and helpful and did provide beverages and sandwhich, no charge. But I do not recommend Avianca at all!

✅ Trip Verified | Terrible service with AVIANCA, I bought some flights for my parents, they were canceled by the airline on 02/15/2021 and to this day they still do not give me the full refund. I sent a claim and they answered me about 2 months later with an advisor and then with another, in the end only the tax refund was made. I sent another claim and it took me another 2 months to see a response and they tell me that it has already been returned to me! and they send me a photo of what has been returned to me... being that I claimed the entire amount. Does it really seem like they don't even read my emails and I get these kinds of responses months later? They tell me that I should have done it a year after the flights and so I did, they have problems with their website and they never have access to the requests. The only thing I am requesting is the return of what I have already paid. Pesimo servicio con AVIANCA, compre para mis papas unos vuelos, fueron cancelados por parte de la aerolinea el 15/02/2021 y hasta el día de hoy siguen sin darme la totalidad del rembolso. Mandé un reclamo y me contestaron como 2 meses después con un asesor y luego con otro, al final solo se hizo la devolucion de los impuestos. Mandé otro reclamo y tardé otros 2 meses en ver respuesta y me contestan que ya se me devolvió! y me mandan foto de lo que se me ha devuelto... siendo que yo reclamaba la totalidad. De verdad parece que ni siquiera leen mis correos y recibo este tipo de respuestas meses después? Me dicen que debi de hacerlo un año despues de los vuelos y asi lo hice, tienen problemas con su web y nunca tienen acceso a las solicitudes. Lo unico que estoy solicitando es la devolución de lo que ya he pagado.

Not Verified | Beware of the size of your personal carry on. At the counter they will pass the measurements but boarding the plane they become extremely picky, and charge you $120 for every single item; even kids toys. What a rip off.

✅ Trip Verified | There are too many issues that my family of 7 had experienced across different legs of our family vacation. First, they will move your itinerary and charge you additional fees for luggage. They will also charge you an additional $150USD each way for purchasing an XS or S when you’re a foreigner and that it’s only reserved for nationals. Their website will not allow you to check in online and cause you to ask the ticket counter to print a boarding pass and charge you $15usd to print, they will stop you before you get on the gate while other passengers are waiting in line to board the plane holding you hostage and demanding that your fare does not include carry on luggage. We had to show them validation of payment before they were able to release us. When they change your flight itinerary and you can no longer travel due to the flight change, they will not give you a refund or offer an alternative because their call centre agents don’t pick up the phone. After waiting three hours to speak to an agent, they’d either hang up or transfer you to another agent that can speak English where you’d have to wait another three hours to get an agent. By the time you’re done waiting, you’re just so exhausted that you cut your losses and purchase a new ticket without seeking reimbursement. I can go on and on with over 25 different issues. Hidden costs, no customer service, lack of integrity, small print disclaimers on completely bs items, where we paid almost triple the original fair due to these hidden costs.