I like Avianca and often fly with them. More of that I write this post in an Avianca flight from San Salvador (originally started form San Jose (Costa Rica)) to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I had quite annoying/unpleasant experiences lately with them. Let’s hope they were rare or one-time issues run into me consecutively because of my bad luck.
After finishing my works in San Fransisco following unplanned 3 weeks stay, I finally rearranged my flight from San Francisco to San Jose (Costa Rica) for some other paper works in the city.
While doing that, the first red flag was the time spent on the call center to change my flight dates. (Heads up: when I bought the ticket 6 months ago anticipated this and selected the tariff which allows a modification on the ticket including after the flight take off). It took 40 minutes on the call to find my flight in their system, to propose me the new one on the date I requested -even though I checked in their website Avianca.com and told them what flight exactly I want to fly-, and finally to reserve it. 40 minutes!! Too much! To compare it, I did same operation twice in United Airlines in less than 5 minutes once via Twitter chat once in united.com by myself. Ohh! I should also remind that modification on the ticket was not possible in the official website of Avianca.com nor on the social media like Twitter, whatsapp etc which saves you at least 40 minutes occupation on the phone.
The second red flag was the requested amount to make the modification on the ticket. I know when you want to change the date an additional fee might appear due to bla bla rule. What is annoying is that I already paid significant amount of difference to buy the “L” tariff (which was around $1300 total round trip). Then the moment I needed the feature I paid for I had to pay extra $250 to make it work! It is not over.. When I have searched a flight at that moment on the same itinerary, I was able to find tickets around $500 round trip in a week interval.
At the end, I shouted my mouth, cooled down my brain and paid the extra fee to close the deal.
Finally, the departure day has arrived. The unplanned stay in San Francisco lasted 3 weeks was about to end. I was feeling gloomy since this magical city I have never been before, allowed me to meet great people, experience valuable memories.
After goodbye hugs to all friends promising each other to meet one day I headed over the SFO airport. Ensuing smooth check-in and quick passport control I was already on the other side having more than 3 hours. First checked a few stores in the terminal, then I looked for the Avianca Lounge to get rest before the flight since it would be long one. Then I figured out that there was no Avianca Lounge in the terminal where the flight takes off!
While making a travel plan one of the reasons motivating people to pay extra and buy flight tickets from the companies like Avianca or United or Copa or Turkish Airlines (Star Alliance members) is getting the quality service including using lounges in airports while waiting for the flight. If this is not a red flag, then what else!
Finally last incident happened at baggage delivery. After landing to San Jose and checking a few things in Duty Free, and I moved towards baggage carousel to pick mine. When I saw the bag on the carousel in distance I realized something was wrong some tiny metal pipes was moving around the bag like antenna on the head of a space animals in cartoon. When it came closer I saw the handgrip to pull the suitcase was completely broken, the pipes in tube were moving, and the side of the bag was ripped off until half. I was surprised by the impact of damage. The vast of tear on the side was schoking and made me think like “wtf!! there is an unleashed Doberman in the cargo?”
This is what I had to deal with after 8+ hours flight in total. It was a disappointing experience from beginning till end. After reporting immediately the issue in airport, I got an uber and headed over my place to get rest after more than 12 hours total trip.
Obviously, there are consequences of what I have experienced with Avianca in this trip. My mind changed while organizing a trip and buying flight tickets. Let me end up here this post and talk about them in a new one. Besides Avianca concluded damaged luggage process. I will explain the details and the result as well in one of the next posts.
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