Avianca

✅ Trip Verified | Every step of the way the make the flight as uncomfortable as possible to provoke costumers to upgrade. They purposely have seats that don’t recline at all or have a headrest in economy, bus seats are more comfortable. On the flight I asked for a pillow or blanket to use as cushion on the bench seats and they charge 11$ for that. They don’t hand out any beverages on an international flight at all. No entertainment systems they supposedly have a streaming website but it won’t load, just says server not found. But the worst is the hidden fees. On an economy flight international you apparently have to reserve a 50$ carry on ticket 48 hours in advance. If you don’t they will charge you 120$ at the gate. This is a hidden fee and I didn’t see any hint of this until I was checking in online in the 24 hour window to do so (24 hours to late to adjust the ticket) and if you flight have a layover you have to pay this fee each time. They will not have pity on you and demand the money or offer you to ditch your luggage. Even single step of the way they are trying to get more money out of you. Do not fly this Airline thinking it’s economical because the hidden fees add up fast and you will not actually save money. Buy yourself the comfort of a regular airline. There was even an airport waiting area fee attached to my ticket!

✅ Trip Verified | In terms of service and quality of the staff, Avianca is one of the worst airlines I have ever used. I used it multiple times for different travels within Colombia and Costa Rica between July and August 2024. The personal is very unfriendly, passive aggressive with the passengers and not very caring of special situations. The personal at the front desk of the lounge is rude and judging. I am about the believe that Avianca trains their personal to behave in that way and treat passengers poorly. They don’t offer a glass of water even during international trips. I am highly disappointed with the poor service offered and hope Colombia will have more options for airlines in the future so people can choose from.

✅ Trip Verified |   We had to pay 177$ CND for a carry on. Never i had to pay this with any airline. Its clearly an hidden fee. I will not travel with them again.

✅ Trip Verified | I bought a flight on Avianca and due to health problems I was not able to travel on the indicated date, however, I wanted to use my return flight according to my itinerary and it turns out that the airline completely canceled my round trip flight and did not provide compensation or flexibility responses through your customer service in the call center. I can understand that if you do not show up for your flight and do not manage the change, you will lose it, but if the airline cancels your return without even notifying you, it means that they are stealing from me because I will not be able to use the service. Compré un vuelo en Avianca y por problemas de salud no logré viajar en la fecha indicada, sin embargo, quise utilizar mi vuelo de regreso según mi itinerario y resulta que la aerolínea canceló completamente mi vuelo redondo ni dando respuestas de compensación o flexibilidad a través de su atención al cliente en el call center. Puedo comprender que si no te presentas a tu vuelo y no gestionas el cambio lo pierdes, pero que la aerolínea te cancele tu regreso sin siquiera avisarte significa que me están robando porque no podré hacer uso del servicio.

Not Verified | I have flown with Avianca for many years, and I have enjoyed its services in the past being an Elite member. However, the new Avianca is not my cup of tea. They have cut almost all benefits for Elite with (still) expensive tickets; even when there are benefits, they are not working. For example, priority luggage delivery rarely works, and often, the luggage is delivered one of the last ones even though it has been marked as "priority." Food (when offered) is barely edible, the planes are old, and I happened to fly the same plane a few times this year between Bogota and Madrid, with a toilet not working already in March. I flew the same plane in July, and the toilet was still not operational. The customer service is a nightmare. Long talks and inefficient. I was overcharged twice for luggage and am still waiting for compensation. Their website often does not work properly, and when one calls them, the customer representative would say, "We are out of the system", "the system does not work", "call again": It has been a pity how, under the lemma "The skies are for everyone", avianca has become a low-cost airline with prices of legacy airlines. There are many more options for almost all the routes served by avianca. I am now avoiding this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Future passengers : avoid this company, which allows itself the luxury of refusing passengers for false reasons. It's truly impressive how your outdated passport scanners managed to turn a simple boarding process into a bureaucratic nightmare. Because the company is old and doesn't meet technology standards : they REFUSED us on the pretext that we didn't have the required documents to enter Canada. In fact, we have all the documents we need: you can scan our passport and find out everything you need to know! My 2 cents : Invest in some equipment that belongs in this decade so you can actually read your passengers' information properly.

Not Verified | Without doubt, the worst flying experience I’ve ever had. 120 minutes waiting to drop bags. 46kgs of baggage paid for between 2. Only brought one bag which had 25kgs. The troll of a hostess first said we had not paid for baggage. Then, when I showed her the tickets, she said needed i to pay 100usd for the extra 2 KGs. What a sham! What other airline would do this. She was shameless and rude. Clearly looking to gain from us and get a nice 10% finders fee on the luggage charge. How Avianca are still operating is beyond me. Terrible inefficiencies, delayed flights. rude staff, no food on long hauls, etc. The start of a holiday is the airport and the flight. If airlines ruin this it sours the whole holiday experience. I have a few more flights with Avianca on this trip and expect the exact same garbage. I will never fly with them again. I’d love to speak to a customer service manager to explain how poorly the individual staff member acted and how bad the entire experience was.

Not Verified | I bought 3 tickets, May 2023; My mom passed away on August 6, 2023; My sister and I are flying in October 2023; I requested a refund for a ticket that belonged to my mom, I have more than 20 emails and today is July 25, 2024 and they still haven't reimbursed me for the flight; They take advantage of other people's pain, thieves with a license, and the seat was occupied by someone else, the line lost nothing. Compré 3 boletos, mayo 2023; mi mami falleció en agosto 6 2023; volamos mi hna y yo en octubre 2023; reclamé la devolución de un boleto que correspondía a mi mami, tengo más de 20 correos electrónicos y hoy es Julio 25 2024 y aún no me reembolsan lo del vuelo; se aprovechan del dolor ajeno, ladrones con licencia, y el asiento lo ocupó otra persona, la linea no perdió nada.

✅ Trip Verified |   This airline has gone from bad to horrible. Many low cost are much better. The seating is horrible packed in like sardines. It has become a bad low cost airline and is very expensive for what you get. 5 hour international class no business class. Business class is the same uncomfortable seat but with the middle seat free. No beverages

✅ Trip Verified | These observations apply to Avianca, flights 202 and 203, between Medellin and Orlando (I have flown on Avianca before from Bogota, and I get the distinct impression that they treat their passengers boarding in Bogota much better. Unfortunately we chose row 11. Row 11 does not recline. However, row 10 does. (Think about that before choosing a row 11 seat on this A320.) The designers did not take this into consideration when deciding on how much legroom to give the passengers seated in row 11. Apparently none of the economy seats recline (those are the ones beyond the 10th row). So rows 12 to 30 do not suffer from reduced legroom when the passengers in front of them recline their seats, because the passengers in front of them can’t recline their seats. Avianca does not serve a meal on this flight, we talking about an international flight, that takes off at 10 AM and lands at 2PM (as in: “lunchtime”). Sure, this is becoming a common theme with airlines, but most offer food for purchase. Avianca did offer some snacks and sandwiches for sale, but only stocked enough for the first 9 rows. By the time the attendants got their cart to the 11th row they were out of all the sandwiches and croissants. Keep in mind that this A320 has 30 rows… The movie and TV selections were very limited. I usually fly AA which by comparison offers a wide selection of entertainment. On this trip we connected with a United flight to Cleveland, which, even with a delay of 2 hours on the tarmac due to weather, was still more comfortable than our Avianca experience.