Avianca

Not Verified | It use to be a proud Colombian airline. Now is a cheap airline charging as normal airline they want you to pay for everything. Not even water is offered, the cabin crew is rude, terrible service all with a cost.

✅ Trip Verified | I booked a multi trip, and because of a separate flight being delayed, I missed one leg. Avianca, without any communication, then cancelled all my subsequent flights, including my flight home. Left me stranded abroad. A rude phone operator offered me a replacement flight for double what I could get it for on Skyscanner. Even then, I am $900 down and they could resell my original seat. Food was terrible. Entertainment didn't work on my long flight out. The plane was filthy. Phone help line took ages and was no help. No communication from them at all.

Not Verified | We arrived at the airport an hour and a half before the departure and only then we received an email from the airline that our flight was cancelled. Who cancels the flight an hour and a half prior to departure? Staff at the counter told us that flight was cancelled because one of the flight attendant got sick. Aren’t they supposed to have an extra staff for situations like these? We were told that we will be placed on the next flight which is 14 hours later! Our entire 1st day of vacation is ruined including the cost of our first night at the hotel in Lima. Additionally, we paid 140$ for taxi to get to the airport and back home, then, 12 hours later we had to pay another 70$ to get to the airport so 140$ wasted and the airline refused to take any responsibility for this financial loss. We arrive at the airport the next day 1.5 hours prior to departure. We couldn’t find the airline because they didn’t put a proper logo on the monitor (like all other airlines). We were running back and forth in the airport and 10 minutes later finally found their screen with a tiny logo somewhere in the corner of the screen. The “supervisor” starts yelling at us that the flight registration is closed. We pointed out that hey didn’t display proper logo and we still have at least 20 minutes before the flight closes. The supervisor continues to argue with a nasty attitude. When I ask her to show their policy regarding international flights and she tells me that she doesn’t know exactly but keeps insisting we are late! After arguing for another 10 minutes they put us on a flight. During 6 hours flight they didn’t give us even a little snack! Only water. We call customer service to request to change our return flight to make up for one lost day but they refused. I requested customer service supervisor and I was told there is no English speaking supervisor available. By the way all communication with the airline was in Spanish even though we requested English multiple times. Long story short: we were told it is impossible to change our return flights without additional fees (which was 500$ for both of us). We said “no thank you, we will keep it”, requesting to at least compensate us for the taxi on the day we had to return home. Few days later we received compensation of 50$ instead of requested 140$. Whatever, we decided not to waste the rest of our vacation and move on. If we only knew that the real nightmare is ahead of us. On the day of our return flight we arrive at the airport 5 hours prior to departure. I printed out my boarding pass but wasn’t able to print out my husband. The airline counter wasn’t open yet so we had to wait for another 1.5 before they show up. The first staff told us that the problem was with my husband ID verification and t will be easily fixed. 45 minutes later another staff tells us that my husband’s flight was cancelled by the airline, they have no idea why and we have to wait because they are “ working on this issue”. The staff at the counter also told us that my husband didn’t fly from Chicago with me and instead flew from Orlando. I told them that we have confirmation of purchase for tickets from Chicago and we also have boarding passes confirming that he flew from Chicago but as the only answer we heard was : “In my system .. he flew from Orlando”.

✅ Trip Verified | Horrible customer service. I've never been treated so poorly by a company before. We had a problem with our domestic flight, the plane was broken, which was supposed to get in 6 hours before our Avianca flight, and as we waited and waited we realized we weren't going to make our international flight. We had only added luggage a couple hours before when we checked in online, and it cost us $130 for one checked bag with Avianca. We called Avianca, knowing that we wouldn't get our flight money back because it was a non-refundable flight, but we just wanted our luggage money back since we wouldn't be on the flight. Instead of even being nice about it but refusing, the customer service agent blatantly argued with me and tried to make me look stupid for thinking I should get my luggage money back when I had purchased a non-refundable flight. This is only part 1, though. We had expected that we would still have our return flight in place since we were only missing our flight out (and we were purchasing a new flight to Guatemala). No one from Avianca said otherwise in the 45 minutes I spent on the phone with them. The night before my flight home from Guatemala I realized I hadn't gotten an email to check in. I called them and they said that if you don't show up for one end of the flight you automatically cancel the other as well. They refused to put me on the same flight I had already purchased a ticket for and instead told me I could purchase a new ticket for $600 (one way, on the flight I was already supposed to be on). I will never be purchasing from Avianca again. I will actively spend more money to purchase a ticket from a different airline.

Not Verified | If you thought that Spirit Airlines was the worst, it is only because you have not taken a ride with Avianca. If you are in the mood to inflict some form of self-hate, I would suggest engaging with Avianca. If you feel that you need to punish yourself for some reason, please engage with Avianca. If there is someone that you would like to play and April fool's joke on this year OR if there is a person that you authentically HATE, offer to buy them a flight somewhere and buy the ticket with Avianca. Avianca is masquerading as an airline. I purchased a ticket with them, as I have for many tickets going to different countries on many different airlines. I book my tickets months in advance going from country to country. When I booked a ticket going from Brazil to Spain I was given a quote. I agreed to pay the price, (I live in the US, and I was making the reservation on my computer in the US). It then changes from US dollars to Brazilian real. When they changed it to the Brazilian real, they changed the price, (which I had no knowledge of). I only discovered that they charged me more after I was checking something else on my online bank statement. I called them to ask about it. The payment was still being processed. I was told because the point of departure was Brazil, they had to convert my US dollar to the Brazilian real and I incurred a currency exchange. I informed them in all my years of traveling and using many different airlines, but also, if that is a policy of theirs there should be a disclaimer that states that possible fees maybe incurred on international flights for various reasons, please see our policies. There was nothing to that affect anywhere on their website. I explained that to them, they said we are sorry that is something I have to take up with my bank. My bank informed me that charge did not come from them if came from Avianca. Another situation, I was supposed to go from Rio in Brazil to Paris, France. My flight was at 1:24am. When I got to the airport to check-in at Avianca there was no one at the desk to check-in with. I checked in with the kiosk, it told me to see an agent, again, there was no agent present. My flight left, I had to stay in Brazil, I lost the money for that flight, lost the money for the hotel in Paris, and lost the money for the flight back to the US. When I called Avianca the agent was beyond rude and uncaring about my situation. He lied throughout the call and refused to allow me to speak with a supervisor, when I asked multiple times, plus he did not allow me to take the survey that I was supposed to take to rate his service. I had to speak to four other agents between five days just to get to a point of filing a complaint, and Avianca has still done nothing, in both cases. I beg you please do not be fooled.

✅ Trip Verified | It is the worst airline I have ever travel with. The last 3 times I try to travel was on 2020-2019 and not the best experience. First, they left my bags for a week in the departure place. The second time, they left me 2 day on the airport because of snow, but one of my sisters was able to travel same day, with same airline, and with the snow. The third time, they delayed my flight because they had problems with the airplane. So after 3 year I decide to give Avianca a try. What a mistake! They cancel my flight because the plane is not working properly. So I do not understand how this airline Avianca works. Let’s look at this service wise: no food, no water, no space, but look at the prices of the tickets. They are insane of expensive to get the worst service. Definitely, never again.

Not Verified |  Very dissatisfied. They are expensive and treat passenger like animal. We flew 7 hours with nothing to eat or drink. Air hostesses are very rude. Travel with passenger with mobility problems and they do not care. We have to lift my mom off the aircraft onto a bus and everyone from the crew looking as they do not care.

Not Verified | I have been Executive Platinum with American Airlines (AA) for at least 15 consecutive years, and have flown close to 2.5 million miles with AA for the past two decades. I have also flown with countless other Airlines across the world. Avianca has to be the worst airline I have ever flown in my life. Very low value for money and bad customer service. Please avoid at all costs!

✅ Trip Verified |   We purchased a direct flight. Months later, they changed the flight to have a layover in a different country and lengthened the travel time by 3 fold. That was unacceptable to us. They would not refund us. Their website wouldn't work for refunds (isn't THAT convenient), so called all of their customer service numbers which just directed us to WhatsApp and answered only by AI, and that told us to use the website, the non-working website. We emailed support, and they told us to use website even though I told them the website didn't work for refunds.

✅ Trip Verified | $100 is the hand luggage price for flying with a company who doesn't provide you any water in 5 hours fly. This is worse than a low-cost airline. Never again