Avianca

Not Verified | Unfortunately, what I considered to be the representative airline of Colombia is now a shame. The changes introduced in the planes and service to lower the cost have not reflected a decrease in ticket prices but have had a huge impact on the comfort of traveling, especially on international trips. The most worrying thing is the aspect of food or drinks on planes. Even on the lowest-cost airlines, they offer packets of peanuts or some snacks, and constantly water. In Avianca it is terrible that you have to pay for water or move out of your chair to serve yourself to the bottom of the aircraft. Now, the seats are terribly uncomfortable, there is no way to endure a trip of more than 2 hours sitting, not only because they do not recline but because there is no space to accommodate your legs. Now imagine yourself in a window seat, moving all your companions to go back to the plane to ask for water! I hope Avianca reconsiders and changes again and puts the capital "A" in its logo out of pride and not the lowercase "a" because it became a disgrace.

✅ Trip Verified | A terrible experience. Never again, if I can avoid it. Customer service is non existent! Both airport staff and flight attendants seem like they are doing passengers a favor and are extremely unfriendly. Meals and menus on board have to be paid for, including water. If you do not want to pay for water, you need to get up from your seat and go to the back or front of the plane and ask for it. What kind of airline service is this, after you have paid for a full ticket and it is not that cheap. Passengers with pace-makers and or other disabilities, even with proper identification are disregarded and in my specific case, had to argue with the staff to allow me to embark priority. There is a sense of complete staff incompetence, not knowing English or any other language for that matter very well, with the exception of Spanish!! Regarding and ID travel documents, they mix up dates of issuance and expiration. I have never seen anything like this before. A nightmare that has us land exhausted and disheartened with this travel experience.

Not Verified |  Worst customer service. Attendants at you. When connecting be side my flight was 2 hours late because the plane arriving to LAX was late and there was a TSA issue, Avianca attendant tried to make me pay a penalty fee. Being late was out of my control. They charged me $100.00 for one suitcase and then when I checked it in they charged me another $95 for it being 7 pounds overweight. Never again. I will take any airline to Colombia but this one. Horrible experience.

Not Verified | Absolutely terrible customer service. They are completely unresponsive and completely ignore your requests. I've been screwed over multiple multiple times by them. I only fly with them if I have no other choice.

✅ Trip Verified | Do not use Avianca for any reason. This is the worst airline I've ever set foot on. Their flight was just about the same price as with any other airline that flies to South America, but since they are the only company that will fly you to Bogotá from abroad, you're stuck with their horrible excuse for a service. The planes are junk, with no legroom at all, no amenities (even some that shouldn't be considered that, like simple water, where if you want some, you'll have to pay 5USD for or be forced to go to the back of the plane to get tap water which if you're a frequent traveler, will understand is alright in paper only). It's dirty, and the seats don't recline (this is not hyperbole, they are physically not built to do so), unless you pay for their "business economy" (which is a joke of course). These are 5+ hour flights and they won't even do peanuts or a bottle of water. Their in-flight entertainment has to be through YOUR OWN devices, which I understand is the way all airlines are going, but good luck trying to watch any of their 2 Friends episodes with their bad service and a broken outlet to charge your Ipad. The staff is alright, I guess. They think they can get away with this nonsense by saying stuff like "We know we suck, we're working on it" (for real, read any of their ads), but the reality is that they should have not been bailed out by the Colombian government. Just let them go under. They are the epitome of a masterclass in doing everything wrong. Avoid at all costs. It is not worth it whatsoever.

Not Verified | I have been been travelling for 27 years and Avianca has been by far the worst airline I ever flew with! I took 3 Avianca flights : two were really late, one was cancelled and I had to sleep in a very dirty hotel they paid for. The aircraft is so dirty, the crew never talks to you and never helps you when you ask anything. They didn’t even explain why our flight had been cancelled and we had to wait for hours until they gave us a voucher to go sleep in a very bad hotel. On my way back to Costa Rica, Avianca gave me wrong information about my flights, my board gate and the time of boarding and I almost lost my flight. I ended up having a panic attack because everybody was giving me different information and I thought I would have lost my flight.

Not Verified | Avoid at all costs. This airline chose to be the worst (not to be confused with low-cost) airline in South America. I have flown many regular and low-cost airlines and this is by far the worst - absolutely no space in the seat, which I could survive for a 2-3 h flight, not 5.5h. On top of this, there was nothing - no low price, no hot tee/coffee (even to buy), no food to purchase, no screens or entertainment. I fly a lot (30-60 flights a year, all over the world) and this is by far the worst service I got.

✅ Trip Verified | Avianca is in my Top 3 of the worst airlines of the world. Every second flight is delayed up to 2 hours. Our last flight to Barranquilla was delayed while we were already sitting in the airplane, one of the reasons was that they had to calculated the fuel again to see if it's enough to get to our destination. Food during our flight from Barcelona to Bogotá was poor and for our toddler they only had some ice cold porridge. They also made you enter the planes almost an hour earlier, to just have you wait inside the planes Overall the quality decreased extremely during the last years. I hope a better competitor appears to destroy their current monopoly.

✅ Trip Verified | My flight was moved from November 16th to 17th early in the morning. In the counter only 4 attendants registering more than 200 passengers. I only was ticketing my luggage it took 45 minutes and additionally my seat though reserved was changed from 6C to 22A. I also had to pay my stay for that night in Medellin. I’ve been traveling with Avianca the whole year - more than 30 flights mostly international. Despite my gold status, terrible seats, service in general. Avianca changed into a low cost airline at high ticket rates as they have a regional monopoly.

✅ Trip Verified |   Arrived LAX four hours before my flight so I could eat dinner before traveling. Checked in at kiosk and tagged my bags. That went smooth. Have been now standing in line for over 2 hours to drop my bags. Have moved about half way towards the counter in 2 hours. What a mess. Will for sure not get a chance to eat now and have another 12 hours of travel ahead of me. As a side note, their charges for carry on and checked luggage are ridiculously high. But all the American airlines seems to be doing that now.