Avianca

We had a terrible experience with Avianca. We booked our flights in May to travel in August from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado in Peru. We tried to check in the night before travelling but the website was advising us to go to the check in desk to complete it. When we arrived there they said that our seats had been assigned to someone else for two reasons: first of all apparently we bought our tickets in overbooking and secondly our seats were assigned to someone else as the day before a flight was cancelled. When we asked how we could know that we bought our tickets in overbooking, as it wasn’t mentioned anywhere, they confirmed that there was no way to know but we should have guessed it as the price was lower than normal?? How is it possible for us to know if it was our first time travelling that route?? They kept us waiting for two hours in case someone decided to postpone their flight and of course it didn’t happen. We called INDICOPI, which is an association to protect travellers and they said that it would have taken 30 days to do anything?? Avianca offered to book te next available flight which was the day after but we had to be in Puerto Maldonato the same day, no other options, so we had to take a taxi (9 hours and $650!!!) to reach our destination on time. We asked for a refund and Avianca advised us to go to their headquarter in the city centre of Cusco. We took a taxi and once arrived in the main office they told us that it wasn’t possible for us to ask for a refund there but that we should have forwarded the request through the website. I travelled all over the world and never had anything like this, I would definite fraud paying for something that you don’t get. And what was really frustrating was that they were considering it as normal, the operator was not even looking at our eyes when talking, nobody cared about the three of us and the other 5 passengers that were in the same situation. I would strongly advise not to travel with this company, it totally ruined our trip and costed us $650 extra to reach our destination. Avianca, be ashamed of yourself and close down!!!

We originally booked THIS flight because of the Dreamliner plane . . . With my broken back, handicap status AND 6′ stature of myself (& my husband) I NEEDED the extra space. However, several months after booking, the plane was changed to some airline company we’ve NEVER heard of, AND our seats were separated ( we were able to change the seats to be together ). Although we weren’t familiar with the plane, we presumed that the Avianca would give us a plane that was comparable to the Dreamliner, ESPECIALLY with the length of the flight. HOWEVER, once onboard it quickly became apparent, that our 10 HOUR flight was NOT going to be what we booked OR expected !!! Toilets didn’t flush, leaving poop & paper in ALL of the toilets & the smell made you want to gag Zero leg room . . . MY legs were actually up AGAINST the seat in front of me, & when he tried to put the seat BACK . . . He could NOT, because I was actually pinned in, couldn’t move, & therefore the seat COULDN’T go all the way back. My husband ended up moving to the row across from me, just so that I could stretchout. They ran out of food – no egg meals, no milk for the cereal meals NO air vents for either fresh air OR to cool off HOT . . . It was so warm & stagnant you could hardly breath ccomfortable, AND claimed they couldn’t lower the temp This plane HAD to be THE MOST worst & MOST uncomfortable experience of my flying career . … AND, when we PAID for the Dreamliner, we are extremely DISAPPOINTED. What was SUPPOSED to be the trip of a lifetime . . . Started out a COMPLETE NIGHTMARE THEN . . . We have been attempting to file this complaint, HOWEVER, first they could not find our Locator #, so we had to find our tickets. So now we have our tickets, AND she can’t take a complaint IN ENGLISH. We were FINALLY able to file the complaint, we were granted a $200 voucher, but as of today, we’ve YET to see or hear ANYTHING more from ANYONE Avianca . . . We have given you MUCH business in the past AND a VERY LARGE payment for THESE tickets . . . BUT, I’m afraid, if you don’t care enough to follow thru with my disappointment with you . . . we don’t care to give you ANY MORE of our business.

That was a really really bad experience, full of miscommunication and poor customer service. It started when I landed in Rio de Janeiro and I didn’t have my suitcases. The ladies at the Avianca counter told me I’d have my basic expenses reimbursed. They told me my luggage would be delivered on the following day which I’d have a party that had been planned for months in advance. I explained to them that I wasn’t in a hotel or in an apartment with a doorman/ receptionist. They said it’d be considered when they analyzed my situation. I had 2 choices either to picked up my luggage at the airport or wait all day for the delivery since they don’t have a certain time to do that. Of course I chose the first one. Who would spend all day at your place waiting for the suitcases to be delivered during your vacation time and birthday party? Well, I called Avianca on the next day to make sure my baggage would be there and the associate on the phone told me a flight from Colombia (where my suitcases were suppose to come from) had landed that morning. I headed to the airport and then the flight was delayed, no flight had landed. So, I had to borrow make-up, clothes, etc to go to my own party since I had bought just basic things such as underwear, medicine that I needed, sandals and a shirt. Later on, I sent somebody to pick up my suitcases at the airport while I was having my birthday party. After all that inconvenience, I had to struggle with Avianca for 2 months as if I was begging for money and as if they were doing me a favor to have just my basic and transportation expenses reimbursed (please,remember it was my birthday party and no receptionist or doorman at the place I rented). After 2 months calling them, talking to several people, waiting days and days just for an answer, getting an email saying that I had got $80 dollar in Brazil for my basic expenses which I DIDN’T and lots of miscommunication they finally sent me an offer excluding the transportation expenses to pick up my luggage. The whole process was very disappointing. I used to flight a lot with Avianca in Brazil but the way they dealt with my situation changed my mind throughout. We really find out whether a company is good or not by the time we face a problem.

My first flights on AV ever, of a total of 98 airlines flown over the years. Santiago to LAX via Bogota return in business class. Four legs, three 787s and an A319. All four flights left/arrived spot on or a bit early. Spotless planes, friendly crews, good food and on the 787s, the best entertainment system I’ve experienced. And I’m working on 4 million air miles over the past 50 years. Did on-line check-in and no checked bags, so no airport interaction at all. All this at a very competitive B-class fare. AV will be my default airline on the route in the future, replacing AA and Latam. The only negative comment I have is rather long connection times at BOG, although this can help if one of the originating flights should be delayed. Plus BOG is not a bad airport to spend time in.

Worse customer service experience ever. We booked our very first trip to Colombia over Thanksgiving. We booked two business class tickets for a direct fight to Cartagena that was supposed to land at noon, so we can make our boat connection to beautiful Rosario Islands. A week before our trip, we got a notice from Avianca that due to the strike, they had to reroute us through Medellin. The new flight with the layover would bring us to Cartagena at 4:30 PM which meant we would miss our boat connection. I went to the NYC office to cancel those flights and had to book a new flight with Jet Blue last minute. The agent who filled out all the cancellation forms told us it will take 6-8 weeks of the refund. At 6 weeks I called the headquarters to see what is the status of the refund. They told me to have patience and it will be more around 8 weeks. They also said they would escalate the case. At 8 weeks I called again and this time they said it will be more like 3 months to get the refund, but they reassured me they would escalate the case again. The following week I went back to the agent in NYC to see what she can do. She discovered that the claim was still pending and had been “Neglected” (her words). She told me it would serve me better to start a new claim to get new attention to the case, and she reassured me that this would not mean that I would lose my turn and have to wait another 3 months from then. At 2 months and 3 weeks I called the headquarters again, and with such chutzpah they told me my new claim was filed only a week ago and I need to wait for 90 days from the new claim to get my refund, which would mean basically 6 months from the date of the cancelled flight. As I really refused to take no for an answer, they put me through to Iliana Fuentes who is the manager. She told me the reason the NYC agent issued me a new claim number was because there was a mistake in the way the original claim was filed and it had been rejected, not neglected. Meanwhile, nobody had bothered to call me when such rejection was done to tell me there was problem with the claim and see how we can fix it. Ms. Fuentes was also adamant that she cannot do anything else at this moment and that I will HAVE TO wait 90more days from the filing of the new claim to see my refund. She again said she will escalate the matter, which by now we all know means nothing. She refused to give any assistance at all. Many phone calls to the headquarters and a few trips to the NYC local office, I’m still not even sure when or how I will ever get back the money from my two round trip business class seats on Avianca. They were happy to take thousands of dollars from me, changed our tickets on us without consulting us first, and now are creating all kinds of roadblocks and delay tactics in refunding the money. Even though they made a mistake in filing of the refund claim, they never bothered admitting to their mistake, nor are they taking any responsibility for a mistake that was done by their agent. Basically, they’re hoping I would just shut up and disappear so they can keep thousands of dollars for a flight they cancelled on me.