Review Time
If I could give zero stars, I would. Our experience with Avianca was, without exaggeration, the worst airline experience of my life! A complete masterclass in incompetence, miscommunication, and customer disregard.
Our trip from Lima to Los Angeles was a disaster from the moment we arrived at the airport. Just 1.5 hours before takeoff, we were notified that our connecting flight in El Salvador was canceled and pushed 36 hours later. Not delayed but CANCELED!!
When we asked for help at the check-in desk, the Avianca staff shrugged, offered nothing, and told us to “call customer service.” When we called customer service, they told us the opposite, that we needed to speak to the people at the airport. So we were stuck in a loop where no one would take responsibility and each person pushed us off to someone else. Absolutely no solutions, no rebooking options, nothing. Just “we can refund you” and “good luck.”
To make things worse, Avianca’s own broken website wouldn’t let us buy carry-on baggage. The system wouldn’t allow purchases because the flight was marked canceled. When we showed this at the airport, the staff didn’t care. They forced us to pay $105 per bag per flight, adding up to $440. They acknowledged their own website was the problem and told us to hold onto the recipes and they would reimburse us. Spoiler: Avianca didn’t refund a single cent.
Then came the chaos in the El Salvador airport. Hours and hours of delays with no updates. A customer service line that was three hours long because practically every Avianca flight had been canceled. And once again, Avianca staff told people to “submit receipts” because they couldn’t help anyone. We submitted everything. Avianca reimbursed NOTHING.
Their communication since then has been nonexistent. Emails ignored. No follow-up. No acknowledgement. No courtesy. No apology. Nothing. After we returned home, I reached out, multiple times , to get compensated for the baggage fees, the food we had to buy, the wasted hours stuck in El Salvador, and the entire flight fiasco. Avianca ignored the first messages completely. When they finally responded, they claimed there was “nothing they would do,” despite the fact that their own airport staff repeatedly told everyone who was impacted by this delay on the flight to request reimbursement and assured us all it would be covered.
Avianca has been: Rude, Unhelpful, Inconsistent, Disorganized, Completely unresponsive once they have your money.
This airline fails at every level! Customer service, basic communication, operational reliability, honesty, accountability, and even functioning technology. I would tell anyone considering flying with them: don’t do it. Pay more, fly literally any other airline, and save yourself from what will almost certainly be an infuriating, expensive, miserable experience.
Avianca is, without question, the most unprofessional and unreliable airline I’ve ever dealt with.
Tried for 3 hours to amend seat via the app and website. Directed to the automated WhatsApp chat which didn't work. Phoned and spent 45 mins on the line to someone only to get cut off with no resolution.
Flight to Bogota delayed for over 2 hours.
Baggage at Quito lost for 3 hours. An airport employee told me to ask for help at an unmanned Avianca desk. When I pointed out that there was no one there, she said to use the QR code taped to the desk. The qr code took me to an FAQ on the avianca website which was neither bilingual nor helpful. Again directed to WhatsApp help bot which doesn't work. I protested and was sent to the avianca desk who sent someone to search the conveyor belt in case it was jammed somewhere. He returned empty handed and his colleague said, he didn't know where it was, why it had been lost or what I could do to get it back. I protested again and he sent me upstairs to the avianca office where a man who mostly ignored me somehow located the bag. This man refused to respond to me when I spoke but eventually walked me to the luggage which had appeared on the conveyor belt. No apology or explanation when asked where it had been. He left without another word. I'd been travelling for 30 hours by this point and it was v stressful.
Missed airport collection due to 3 hour delay and had to get an expensive taxi to the hotel.
Avianca flight from Guayaquil to Seymour Island - unable to buy snacks because they only accepted cash and my full wallet was packed away. Return flight from San Cristóbal to Guayaquil - unable to buy snacks because they only accepted card. This time I'd brought cash in preparation. No consistency or payment policy.
Avianca baggage drop at San Cristóbal took 45 minutes despite 3 desks and a small queue of people. No AC. Customers pouring with sweat. No clear reason why - just an indifferent attitude to customer service.
Once the baggage was checked, the scanning machines were broken so airport staff were manually checking bags with their bare hands. Not avianca's fault but everyone's stress was exacerbated because of the prior delays with avianca which meant we all risked missing the flight. Everyone eventually boarded with minutes to spare.
Bogota to Heathrow - delayed by 2 hours and the boarding gate was moved to the opposite end of the airport with short notice leading to several people running panicked to get there in time.
Once boarded, there was a further delay to take off with no apology or explanation given.
Underneath my feet was a manky half eaten sandwich and god knows how long it'd been there.
Then when we finally took off, the airplane started DRIPPING cold water on my head. I pressed the assistance button twice but no one came.
The lights were left on until 3am so it was difficult to sleep.
Then at 3am, they served pasta and coffee??? And woke everyone up who had fallen asleep.
No water offered during 9 hour flight apart from 1 cup at meal times = 2 small cups. I'd been boiling all day so was dehydrated and suffered because I'd expected water or at least the option to buy some having drank my personal bottle.
In the morning, my row wasn't offered coffee but other rows were. The 2 people next to me received 2 glasses of water whereas I had 1 for no clear reason. They collected rubbish from other rows but not ours so we had to sit in it for hours.
At Heathrow, they lost my luggage again. I was sent to search the oversized luggage area for it then scolded because I didn't have the luggage tag. Note - the Bogota avianca employee did NOT give me a luggage tag but I was blamed for this and treated with suspicion.
Then again, as if by magic, after the Bogota luggage drop had closed, my luggage reappeared with no explanation and no apology. Staff were rude and defensive.
Due to the delayed flight, I missed my connection at Heathrow so had to buy another coach ticket back to Wales.
Total hours delayed: 4 (+1 to get later coach home)
Total hours spent looking for luggage: 3.5
Apologies received: 0
Total extra costs due to delays: around £200
Bought the tickets to Bogota half of the year ago. They charged me twice by error, terrible customer service experience (bot not working, tickets not working, gets you ages to get through to the staff), took a lot of time to get that sorted, but I received my money back after some back and forth. Then today, at the flight day, it turned out despite my booking being active (app and email) the ticket is not linked to it and I cant flight. Took me ages to get some input from Avianca, they told its the bank issue (and yet, booking was active so no way for me something could be wrong and no info fromt Avianca) and hung up on me. Again, whatsapp bot not working, ticketing system also. I dont have my money and I dont have a ticketi….
IF ANYONE IS SEEING THIS PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND SAVE YOURSELF THE PAIN AND SUFFERING. DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS AIRLINE NO MATTER HOW CHEAP. I'M USUALLY A VERY CALM AND UNDERSTANDING PERSON BUT THIS AIRLINE IS THE WORST. THEY'RE CROOKS, WITH BAD ATTITUDES. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
IF ANYONE IS SEEING THIS PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND SAVE YOURSELF THE PAIN AND SUFFERING. DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS AIRLINE NO MATTER HOW CHEAP. I'M USUALLY A VERY CALM AND UNDERSTANDING PERSON BUT THIS AIRLINE IS THE WORST. THEY'RE CROOKS, WITH BAD ATTITUDES. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
After booking with these idiots, you'll receive a ridiculous amount of marketing emails (only Latin American airlines seem to do that for some reason) which I found extremely annoying. After sending multiple emails about it, asking to unsubscribe (the emails do not have an unsubscribe button or the button doesn't work...), they said to I had been removed from the database to only recieve many more marketing emails after a few weeks.They don't understand customer service.Too bad there isn't a lot of competition in Guatemala so they get away with this behavior.
The Avianca website is a disaster. It is so primitive that it doesn't even provide the option for multi-city flights. Then, when you try to use it, it stops all the time. Removes some of your data, like my zip code, then tells me I haven't completed all the needed data. I'd like to buy from it, but the site makes it impossible. How can an airline succeed when let down by such a crap website?
I think in airlines, there are 5 categories, in descendent order: good, mediocre, bad, worse, and Avianca. The seats are incredible uncomfortable and you can't recline, the food I wonder if it can be called food, I use a walker and request assistance, and every airline gives me a seat in row under 10, but Avianca gave me 27D I will never, ever, ever used them again.
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