"service went from bad to worse"
Haq Nawaz (United States)
Not Verified | I recently traveled business class with Avianca from JFK to Bogotá to La Paz, expecting a premium experience, but I was sorely disappointed. For an airline claiming to offer a business class, the lack of lie-flat seats on the JFK - Bogotá leg was shocking and uncomfortable. Sitting upright for hours in what's supposed to be a premium cabin was incredibly frustrating, especially on a long-haul international flight where a bit of comfort should be a given. But the issues didn’t stop there. During the Bogotá to La Paz leg, the service went from bad to worse. Basic amenities were missing — no blankets offered, even with the cabin feeling cold and uncomfortable. To top it off, they didn’t even offer a simple cup of coffee for free. Instead of attentive, thoughtful service, the cabin crew appeared rushed and indifferent, with little concern for the passengers’ comfort. It felt more like an economy-class experience, certainly not the premium touch you'd expect when booking business class. Overall, Avianca's business class on this route felt misleading and frustrating, lacking the comfort, service, and amenities that are typically standard in business class. For those considering paying extra for an upgraded experience, be warned: it’s simply not worth it with Avianca.
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | New York to La Paz via Bogota |
Date Flown | October 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
“Everything costs”
1 reviews Danny Pena (United States)
Not Verified | Very poor class Airline. Doesn't even provide complimentary water! Everything costs, and on the menu they mark up the exchange rate in US Dollars. No onboard entertainment or WIFI that works or gives you any options to buy or text. Some of the staff are rude! The flight fares may be a little lower than Latam and others, But they charge you exorbitant high prices for the carry-on bag and check bags. I carry-on bag cost $120 one way! That's ridiculous! And then when we got to San Francisco we had to wait 45 minutes before our bags came out and we were the only ones in the international baggage area. Don't fly on this airline!!!
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Premium Economy |
Route | Leticia Colombia to San Francisco via Bogota |
Date Flown | October 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"our seat selection had been cancelled"
C Pharol (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | We booked and paid for "business class" seats on the flight from La Paz to Bogota to Miami back in January of 2024. "Business class" is more like economy plus (at best) with the middle seat blocked. In any event, when we went to check in we were told that there was a "problem" with our payment and that our seat selection had been cancelled. When I produced documents showing acceptance of my payment, and my ticket with the assigned business class seat, the story changed and "somehow" Avianca had cancelled out seats and given them away to another customer while retaining our $75 per person seat fee. Therefore, we learned at 1:00 AM that we had no assigned seat on the 3:15 AM flight! The gate agent informed us that no business class seats remained and put us in a regular economy row with no middle seat between us, as the best he could do. Somehow, on the same transaction, they managed to assign us the exit row seats we had paid for on the Bogota to Miami leg of the journey. Of course I notified Avianca on our return for the $75 per person refund, and they have yet to respond. Since I charged the tickets (of course!) I am also disputing it with the credit card company, and if Avianca does not respond to them by a certain date, the amount will be refunded to us. In this case it is not the amount so much as the sheer incompetency of Avianca. I have never heard of anyone having upgraded seats cancelled on one leg of a flight with no real explanation except "something happened" and of course, no subsequent communication from the airline. We were limited in choices flying out of La Paz, but if there is a next time I will take my chances on Boliviana. Most unpleasant any time of day but the worst on a 3:15 AM flight!
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | Bogota z to Miami |
Date Flown | October 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
“legroom is painfully tight”
C Arias (Colombia)
✅ Trip Verified | In the competitive Colombia-Europe route, Avianca fails to hold up to other airlines’ prices, services, and overall customer service. An overbooked flight made a rocky start for AV26 to Madrid, in which there was somewhat of a brawl between airline staff and passengers who had the misfortune of being randomly selected to be offloaded and rebooked in AV10, a flight which departed around 6 hours later. Anyway, I was lucky to get to keep in the crammed seat that I had payed for, and although the 787 is a comfortable plane, avianca’s recent densification of the plane means that legroom is painfully tight for me (182 cms) and padding is practically nonexistent. In other words, getting up from the seat is a pain, but so is staying on it! Food was exceptionally dreadful (like 80’s bad) and the crew also went out of their way to be as rude and unfriendly as they possibly could. Either the call buttons are broken, or nobody bothers to go see the passenger in need of something. Avianca is unable to compete with Lufthansa, Iberia, AirFrance, KLM and even AirEuropa on any aspect of their service, so I would only choose them if they were very the cheapest option, though the case is normally the opposite - and they are the most expensive.
Aircraft | Boeing 787-8 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Bogota to Madrid |
Date Flown | July 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
“I can’t move”
T Baker (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | I’m sitting here in a seat I paid extra for, with my back totally against the wall the seat and my knees smashed by the person front of me. I can’t move. My seat doesn’t recline. Why did this seat cost extra? Why is this airline so horrible? This is simply an unacceptable way to treat people.
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Bogota Colombia to Dulles |
Date Flown | October 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"deeply unpleasant travel experience"
C Torsen (Colombia)
✅ Trip Verified | I am an Avianca star alliance gold member. Over the years, I have seen previously good service decay into mediocrity. But today was different. I’ve had enough, and am now looking looking for status match options with competitors. Today, booked from Orlando to Bogotá in “Flex” (Avianca’s most expensive fare for this specific route/ $620 round trip/ 3.5h flights), I was greeted by some extremely rude staff at Avianca’s check in at Orlando Airport. Although, thanks to my Star Alliance Gold (Avianca Diamond) status I have a complimentary sports equipment, for the first time ever, I was ordered to open the wakeboard’s case and show it. Afterwards, I was told that, due to the fact that in the wakeboard’s case there also were a couple of damp swimsuits, this was no longer considered a sports equipment and therefore would be charged as an oversized bag ($100). In order to comply with the rude employee’s nonsensical and ridiculous requirement that there only fly the sports equipment within the case, I asked her to check it in. At that point she stopped again, this time to take out a measuring tape and ask me for the $100 oversize fee anyway, as the wakeboard exceeded allowed measurements by about two inches. After asking for some rationality, I was insulted by the supervisor, threatened to have my reservation canceled, and forced into oblivion. Upon boarding, even in the Star Alliance Gold line, me and my fellow frequent flyers were barked at by another equally rude employee into measuring our luggage in a low cost airline-style fitter. After my “personal item” (an average sized backpack) barely exceeded the allowed measurements and would be of no difference to anyone, as it flies under the seat in front, I was ordered to gate-check it for the hefty fee of another $120. After mentioning, once again my status, the unnoticeability of the excess in size, and the cost of the fare I had purchased, I was told literally that they “couldn't care less” and that, should I not pay immediately, I would be reported as an unruly passenger and be denied boarding. Apart from the absolute antithesis of basic costumer service, the outrageousness of the employee’s blatant lack of respect, and the little to no courtesy Avianca showed towards me and other costumers, I wound up paying $840 dollars for a round trip of 3.5h flights on a painfully uncomfortable economy seat with unnoticeable recline with a blocked middle, and absolutely no complimentary service (even water was charged) and a couple of insults. I have flown low cost airlines extensively both in Europe and the US. I have never had such a terrible experience, let alone for the price and frequent flyer status I hold. I would suggest fellow travelers to go out of their way in avoiding Avianca: If you’ve purchased one of their more “permissive fares” or got frequent flyer status with them or any Star Alliance partner, they “couldn’t care less about it”. And regardless if you have it or not, you’re guaranteed to have an expensive, uncomfortable, and deeply unpleasant travel experience both in the ground and air.
Aircraft | A320 neo |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Orlando to Bogota |
Date Flown | October 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
“Mediocre airline”
Georgios Vrontos (Greece)
✅ Trip Verified | Mediocre airline, in a 5 hrs flight from SCL-BOG-SCL on a A320, there was no inflight service. Only buy menu. Crew was professional but not something special. Both flights were on time. Aircraft was clean and legroom was standard for A320 but not fitted for that mid-range flight. I noticed that the 3 first rows were in 2-2 configuration with a blocked middle seat. It was business class but I think is not worth the U$300 one way upgrade charge. I was thinking of do it but when I saw was was offered I changed my mind. No IFE during the flight. Seat allocation was done by the airline and if you wanted to change, you had to pay extra.
Aircraft | A320 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Bogotá to Santiago |
Date Flown | October 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"has been nothing but chaos"
Cornell Dixon (United States)
Not Verified | I highly recommend using a different airline. It has been nothing but chaos on my departure flight as well as my return flight. They start boarding 45 min AFTER the departure time, with not room for those with short departures. Currently I am waiting for a flight to NYC because somehow I was able to book a flight through them that doesn't exist. I flew in from Rio on my way back to D.C. and they said the 11:55 departure time I had on my itinerary didn't match the 7:40 AM time on my layover boarding pass. I landed in Bogota at 11 am. How is that even possible that I was able to book one flight but then given another a day later? They didn't even offer to put me up in a hotel. Instead I had to beg for them to at least get me on a flight as close to my destination as possible (NYC). I guess from there, I'm on my own. This is so unprofessional. I would not be writing this review if there was some compassion. Why would anyone want to spend 20-something hours in an airport to no fault of their own?
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Rio de Janeiro to Washington via Bogota |
Date Flown | October 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"missing a vaccine document"
I Franklin (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | They would not let us get on a flight because we were missing a vaccine document. I had refundable fare and was promised by the check in agent if I contacted their help desk within 10 days I would get a full refund. To this day Avianca says I should have done it there before the flight and refuses to refund $2572 except $104. I battled for 6 months with them stating I was working off their employees statement.
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Rio de Janeiro to Bogota |
Date Flown | January 2024 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"as uncomfortable as possible"
A King (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | Every step of the way the make the flight as uncomfortable as possible to provoke costumers to upgrade. They purposely have seats that don’t recline at all or have a headrest in economy, bus seats are more comfortable. On the flight I asked for a pillow or blanket to use as cushion on the bench seats and they charge 11$ 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!
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Costa Rica to San Francisco via El Salvador |
Date Flown | August 2024 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |