Avianca

✅ Trip Verified | San Francisco to San Jose via San Salvador. My girlfriend and I booked a flight from San Francisco to San Jose, Costa Rica on December 22nd. The flight was canceled for mechanical reasons (after we boarded the 5:45am flight and sat on the airplane for almost 2 hours). The next flight they could get us on was more than two days later. This was unacceptable for us so we booked on another airline and asked the gate agent for a refund. She said we have to request a refund from the call center. So we were on with customer service for over an hour and they said we had to request a refund online but their system was down so we would have to wait. We have been trying for 5 days to request the refund but the site is still not accepting requests. Meanwhile, we are in Cost Rica (via United Airlines) and I get an email saying it is time to check in for our return flight. Huh?? The email included an itinerary saying that we flew to Costa Rica on Avianca airlines on December 24th, which we certainly did not - we were never told we got rebooked on that flight, never got any email saying so, never got a check-in reminder, etc. And now nobody from customer service will speak to us. It is my opinion that they just “re-booked” us on another flight without telling us in order to avoid having to pay a refund. This is a terrible airline with unacceptably terrible customer service

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Guatemala City. The cabin staff were friendly, seats were comfortable and clean. Food and drink was provided, and blankets, pillows, and headphone. The flight attendance offered more spacious seating to a larger lady since there were empty seats. They offered me a direct flight at a sooner time since it was available instead of my later flight with a lay-over in El Salvador.

✅ Trip Verified | Managua to Toronto via San Salvador. We have only flown twice with Avianca and we are not fluent in Spanish. The costs mentioned are for two people. 1st Trip - 2nd portion delayed until next day. They did provide a hotel for the night. However we missed our $80 shuttle and the 1st day of our vacation ($$?). 2nd Trip - 1st portion delayed and type of plane changed last minute so we could not check baggage. We had to depose of personal items that could not be in carry-on. The delay caused us to be late for the 2nd portion and miss our connecting train ($120) and so we had to arrange alternative transportation last minute (flights cost $520). We also missed 24 hrs of family time the day of Christmas Eve. We interacted with perhaps 12 staff during our trip, asking for Avianca to change the final destination to where the train was intended to get us to. Two were sympathetic and the remaining ten were incapable or incompetent. They would tell us to stand in one line only to be later told that we had to go to another line until finally we had to catch our flight. Avianca will not take responsibility when they fail to fulfill the contract made when purchasing a ticket.

✅ Trip Verified | Houston to El Salvador. Our flight was at 355pm and it is now 545pm. We have been stuck in this plane for hours and nothing looks promising. This is unacceptable and it's a horrible situation to be in. I hate this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | La Paz to Bogota. Late again. They delayed for about two hours and didn't give any type of compensation for this (not that a bottle of water or a snack matters to me, but shouldn't a reputable airline do the minimum to show that at least they care?). I was notified by email that the airline would be departing late, so I arrived later to the airport accordingly as the departure time was around 2 AM and wanted to rest a bit more at home. When I reached the airport about 2 AM, counter was closed already and wasn't sure what was going on. I was standing in line and no body came to assist me until I walked to the counter. I was told the staff finished their work and couldn't check my bag, so they offered to send me without my luggage or the next day. Either option was not workable for me as I don't live there and had to take three other flights after this one. I was upset as they didn't put a real effort in helping me and only gave me nonsense options. I talked to another person in the counter who didn't help much in the beginning, but after some begging, she reluctantly called in and thankfully the police agreed to check my bag. I was put in high stress as I had to figure out what to do in case the police wouldn't check my bag. My next flight after AV was with Lufthansa, which was late one hour, but they apologized at least three times throughout the flight. I didn't hear any apologies from AV and they wanted to send me without my bag (do you realize how ridiculous this sounds?) I hope they step up their customer service game (ground service) The plane was actually a nice one as it is still a new one with decent entertainment system. I visit LP a few times a year and find the BOG connection convenient. I will still give them a chance as they are part of Star Alliance. But if problems persist, I will need to take another airline.

✅ Trip Verified | São Paulo to Fort Lauderdale via Bogotá. I booked Avianca cause it was cheaper then flying American or LATAM Brazil. So my flight from São Paulo to Bogota was scheduled to depart at 12:45 AM, so I got on the plane, I flew business class, but when I sat down on my seat (1A), they didn’t serve a single peanut for the whole 5 hour flight to Bogotá. The seats, which were in business class barely reclined and were not comfortable. And this is the 1st airline I’ve flown on that didn’t let me use their in-flight entertainment system or the stow-away TV. So I wanted to use the tv before takeoff, but there were way too many ads that you couldn’t skip and before takeoff the flight attendant made me put the tv away. So I slept a bit, but I couldn’t sleep that much because I couldn’t get comfortable, and my phone had no battery, so I tried to get the tv, but the flight attendant came out of nowhere and told me to put it away. The 2nd flight from Bogota to Fort Lauderdale was better but the flight attendant didn’t speak much English so we couldn’t really communicate and I was sitting in my seat (1C) and they gave food - the 2 food options were an omelette and some mozzarella thing, so I asked for the mozzarella thing, but she gave me the omelette, which was disgusting. I was thirsty so I asked a flight attendant for water, but she never came back, so I called another flight attendant and she got me some water. So we arrived at FLL but when I got to baggage claim, they (Avianca) lost one of my bags! I will never fly Avianca again!

Not Verified | Bogota to La Paz. Frustrated and disappointed at Avianca's cancellation. I was flying from Paris to Bolivia, connecting thru Frankfurt and Bogota. My first flights were with Lufthansa and last one with Avianca. I took with this airline because it is part of Star Alliance and wanted a streamlined process while getting some miles. I had a long day as Paris was on strike and almost missed my flights, but LH managed to take us to our destinations. When I reach BOG for my last flight, I was surprised to see the cancelled flight. This is frustrating for me as I will be spending less than a week with my family in Bolivia and taking away a day from me means significantly. I'll still give them a chance in the future as I had high views on this airline, but it is starting to change and I hope they can keep up with the brand name and airline alliance reputation. I was given with a new ticket and a hotel voucher ... but I can't give them credit for that as that's what they are supposed to do. This compensation means nothing as reaching my destination on time was more important.

Not Verified | Cusco to Rio de janeiro via Lima. Because whats happened in Bolivia and that my governmnet warned me from going there I had to cancel the Lima to La Pas part. The warning came just the day before my trip and I could not get in contact with them until I was in Lima. I went to the counter in Lima and ask If there was any problem to do that, they said Its no problem and I can use this part of the trip within a year. This morning when I came to the airport they could not find my booking and they could not help me in the counter at all, had to ask the tourist office to help me call them, and after 2 hours telephone queue I got to know that they canceled my ticket and the only thing they could to is to help me to write a complain about that they didn't inform me about this. It would take 7 days before I would get any answer and maybe a new ticket. I have another flight from Rio tomorrow evening so had to book a new ticket and pay 600 euro. I would never fly with Avianca again.

Not Verified | London to Lima via Bogota. Cancelled our flight 1 day before departure. Delayed our flight out to Bogota but didn't update our connection flight to Lima. Struggled to get a refund confirmed, even after getting a refund request submitted we've been told to wait indefinitely until they process it. They don't know how long this will take! Ridiculous. We've then had to buy new flights last minute to get to Lima on time to make sure our itinerary isn't disrupted. Original flight cost £808 for two people. New flights have now cost us £1,450 for two people and we don't even know when we'll get our original flight refund back! Terrible service, avoid at all cost.

✅ Trip Verified | Bogota to Cartagena. The flight got cancelled due to "weather conditions", while we were informed, we could see the viva colombia take off to Cartagena in the Back through the nice glass of the airport. After this cancellation by higher forces, we were put on hold and finally booked to a flight 4 hours later. The flight was packed and on top we lost the business class status and had not only to travel Economy, furthermore we got a middle seat each of us, one in the left, one in the right row of the seats. When I asked for a compensation due to the loss of the status I was told that it was not possible but at the same time we would be charged an additional fee, cause the switch to another flight was considered a change of the reservation which we would need to pay for. I feel frauded, we did not even get a better meal or anything as a compensation. So we travelled economy for business class price, without being able to choose seats, sit next to each other, or even have any of the benefits other business class passengers would get on the flight. Ground personnel seemed rather helpless and overwhelmed with the situation, even unable (or unwilling) to at least provide us a contact, where we could address our claims to in the aftermath. They only advised us, to use the contact function on their webpage, which I tried, but did not function (the link was dead) Concerning the flight itself, the seats were normal, the inflight entertainment in my seat was broken. All Avianca employees were extraordinary polite and nice but in the same level overwhelmed and unable to provide useful information or solutions.