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.
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