Avianca Reviews

I am a senior Vice President with an international hospitality company, and I took my first (and Last) trip with Avianca. I will never fly with Avianca again.

Terrible experience. The Avianca staff at Cancún airport try every trick on the book to take money from you without justification. They are rude, they told me "you have 2m to pay additional for bags or we cancel your tickets." I have never, ever experienced such a bad customer service from an airline staff.

Paid extra for upgraded seats. The day of check in they were unavailable. I called for a refund over 4 weeks ago. Then today I received an email requesting all my banking information, license number, address, phone number, email and other personal information that would make it so easy for my identity to be stolen. When I replied that I did not feel comfortable emailing them all my personal information I got an automated email saying unless I provided all this information they would not be able to help me with my refund. Seems very sketchy and fraudulent to me.

On January 13, 2026, my husband and I experienced a trip interruption caused by the operational actions of the Common Carrier (airline), Avianca, while traveling from Bogotá, Colombia to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We arrived at El Dorado International Airport at approximately 4:30 a.m. and completed the check-in process as required, checking one 23 kg suitcase per traveler. We cleared security and proceeded to the boarding area without issue. Our boarding passes clearly indicated: Boarding time: 6:40 a.m. Scheduled departure time: 7:40 a.m. Boarding gate closing time: 20 minutes prior to departure (7:20 a.m.)

I flew from Washington DC to Buenos Aires; the airline didn't even offer a glass of water. On my returning flight and about 6hrs to my departure from Buenos Aires, they changed my flight to the next day, and they added another layover in Costa Rica in addition to my original one layover in Columbia. The flight went from supposedly 12hrs to 18hrs flight. I reached out to the airlines to try and get an explanation and a refund, but they kept hanging up and not responding to my calls and email. Their customer service is absolutely the worst service you can come across. Stay away from them!

They offer the worst customer service in the industry.... by far. Their employees know it and don't care. I have seen such a negative attitude in people. Don't know what gotten them all to that state, but is not normal that so many people just get to this corrosive and negative attitude towards their customers. I am sure that by nature any human wants to do good, be helpful and connect with others. These Avianca guys don't. It seems to be a company culture thing.

I struggled with whether to post this, but after one week passing and exhausting customer service channels, I feel I have no choice. Avianca lost my luggage due to a preventable operational failure. On my flight, I was required to gate-check a carry-on because it would not fit in the overhead compartment. The flight attendant explicitly told me the bag was tagged and that I would retrieve it at baggage claim. It never arrived. I later learned the bag was never tagged at all.

I booked my trip from San Jose, Costa Rica to Boston, MA. I paid for seats with extra leg room. The seats were the same as regular seats. It was extremely disappointing and uncomfortable. It is also difficult to be on a flight where you can't get water without paying for it. It is the only airline I have been on that does that. I realize that this airline is supposed to be relatively "low priced", but when you pay for something (like extra leg room) and don't get it, then low price goes out the window. Most of the flight attendants and other staff were polite, but there was one flight attendant who spoke with a rude tone and words. Overall, it was not a good experience. I won't book with Avianca again.

I bought a ticket with the Flex option which allows you to have the refundable option as long if is before of the trip. They changed the trip 2 times in a month which of course I wasn't happy because instead of making it nonstop as I originally buy it for, they did one stop with a long wait in the airport. At the second change they reduce the waiting period on the airport.

Missed connecting flight to Peru. Airport personnel are only available for minimal hours at JFK Airport. Would not verify that my return flight was still available even though they knew in New York the day I was going to Peru that I missed the flight. Was told they would contact me within three days. They never contacted me. I just lost the value of that ticket. The round-trip cost $1200.

My flight with Avianca was one of the worst travel experiences I have ever had. From the very beginning to the end of my trip, the situation was a complete nightmare. On my way to Honduras, my flight was delayed by four hours. While I understand that weather conditions such as a snowstorm are beyond the airline’s control, what I do blame Avianca for is how poorly the situation was handled. Due to the delay, we arrived late and missed our connecting flight. We were informed that the airline would provide hotel accommodations and dinner at approximately 1:00 a.m. However, Avianca had miscounted the passengers, leaving six people—including myself—without a hotel room and without dinner.

I never write a review but people need to know how bad is this company, my first time travel with them the worse experienced I had. Everything is bad, a lot excuses to steal from the consumer. Stay away from this company.

I have never written a bad review nor have I ever felt so disrespected that I needed to warn the public...until now. We booked internal flights for Colombia with both Avianca and Clic Air. We were a week away from departure when my wife and traveling buddy suffered a major injury that required 5 hrs of emergency surgery and a medical crisis that most people don't survive. Julie is alive today, but we lost our trip.

I have flown Avianca multiple times to Cali, Columbia from JFK in the past 2 years. No issues except they expect you to change flights in BOG in an unrealistic time period, but will rebook when you miss the connection. However, my experience changed when I had to cancel my trip this November due to unforeseen circumstances. I buy flex fares and getting a refund should not be an issue. BUT IT IS. They won't refund the money to their own Life Miles card. Instead, they require information to wire to your bank account. SERIOUSLY? Who does this? Still having trouble getting my money well over the 30 days.

I was delayed and received a voucher, when I tried to redeem my voucher the agent cancelled my tickets. Now I could fly with the original booking. Then I was told to buy another one and was promised I will receive a refund. Bad idea. I ended up paying twice for the same flight. The customer service team took a long time to review and respond to my case and ended up not getting my money. They stole my money.

Avianca left me stranded at the airport. The flight was overbooked, and the flight attendant gave me such an absurd excuse that they wouldn't let me board because I'd had a tooth extracted 15 days earlier—a conversation they overheard me having with a niece. They offered me a waiver, not a credit, and when I tried to file a claim, I got no response. They just keep transferring me from one phone line to another without resolving the issue

Stop buying tickets from this airline. It’s the worst airline. Worse than Spirit. All these women and guys have really bad attitude. They give us attitude like if we owe them their pay. They don’t wanna do their job and they give you attitude when they need to do their job! I’m disgusting as a traveler that travels every month. I will never spend another dollar with this piece of shit airline. STOP TRAVELING HERE!!!!

Would rate no stars if possible. One star is giving them too much credit. The absolute worse airline ever. They overcharge you and lie about their flex space program. Don’t pay extra because the seats are the same as the regular ones. Shame on them for lying and stealing. The absolute worst airline I have ever used.

This is just like a bus. Uncomfortable seats, bad service, and delays all the time. Aside from that, expect fees for everything. Expect to have your carry on and personal item (if allowed) to be weight. Also, DO NOT COUNT on their policy about baggage!!.. once you take the flight there is 0 reimbursements!!! Trust me... I am -289 on fees. I would use this airline if I was flying from point a to point b without luggage and in a rush. There is a reason why it is cheap and even worse why every place you look up for Avianca airlines has a 1* up to 3 * review...

The overall service I have received thus far is very distasteful. Sept 14 I bought 3 tickets to Aruba, almost immediately after purchase I noted I booked the wrong dates. So I contacted Avianca, where I spoke to Deigo **. I ask him to assist me to change my tickets to the correct date. He checked his platform and said he's unable to find the date I want available with Avianca. I then give him the option to check for closest available day, which was also unsuccessful. It was my first time booking with your airline, so I trusted the guidance given by your agent. He advised me to let him cancel the tickets, get a refund and repurchase. That's where my nightmare begins. He cancelled the tickets and sent me a link to apply for a refund. I tried applying several times for the refund using the form, but was unsuccessful. I kept calling Avianca daily, speaking to many different agents who kept resending the link, still attempts to apply for refund was unsuccessful.

Airline did not inform El Salvador airport tax while booking or after booking until day of boarding which was 4500USD additional for round trip for 2 and they refused to give refund as well which is pathetic. I have not received any refund on baggage as well that I added separately.

Had an issue with them 3 times. Should of learned from the first two times that they gave me a hard time but it was the only connecting flight. Brought my ticket with United but they have alliance with Avianca & I wish I would of spent the extra money for a different airlines because they are not helpful at all. I had to do something that they could off done on their side myself. Not solution oriented at all. Do not fly with them.

The staff are nice. The planes were fine. No issues with bookings. However there is no customer service. If there is a problem you are on your own. No 800 #. Staff are not empowered to do anything. There is someone that can help but finding them is hard and only found a person in Bogota In San Juan and Buenos Aires. No one knows what to do.

I strongly advise against flying with Avianca. As a Colombian, I have had my own experiences, but my recent flight with Avianca was the worst I have ever encountered. I traveled with my 88-year-old mother, who has low vision and mobility issues, requiring assistance. Unfortunately, the experience was extremely disappointing:

Let’s talk about all the services I paid extra for but didn’t receive for my round trip flights Chicago to Bogota. Starting with the seats: My husband is tall so I bought premium plus seats. So to be clear, I paid more money for extra room which is what is advertised on their website for this type of ticket and the seats were extra small. There was less legroom in the “plus” seats than an economy seat on American/United. I have attached a picture to this review to show just how small the “plus” seats are.

Choose a different airline. They didn't sell enough tickets, and said that they needed to balance out the weight. So instead of getting 5A like I paid extra for, I was assigned to 22F, a seat that was smaller middle, and didn't ever recline. They didn't make any effort to fix or refund what I paid extra. Just ignored it and said it was to save fuel.

This airline doesn’t even offer complimentary beverage service on a 4 hour flight!!! When I asked for a coffee I was told the charge would be $5!! Also, I purposely do not travel with “checked baggage” because I do NOT want to mess with baggage claim or risk lost luggage since I was going to have a connecting flight. However, I was told at the gate that I had to check my carry-on (at no cost of course) but when I stated that I prefer to keep it with me, they insisted. I noticed prior to take off that there was plenty of space in the overhead bins.

Well, I can't give them a 1/2 star so, they get a one star. Absolutely the worst airline I have ever flown on!!! $8 for a small bottle of water, nothing is included on this piss poor excuse for an airline. I honestly would rather fly Spirit or Frontier...they used to be a 1 star for me, now both have moved up to 2 star compared to Avianca. I definitely found the worst carrier there is that flies out of the US!!! Stay away from this airline at all cost, if the price sounds good....don't believe it, you will pay in the end. Use Copa or Latham if flying to South America and avoid Bogota at all costs. Copa and Panama City, Panama is the most user friendly airport for foreigners. You will get as lost as a fart in a tornado in Bogota airport!!! Not only that but, Bogota security likes to pull Americans for security screening!!!

I traveled FLL to La Paz and back to FLL. As international flights, the services were way too poor. Knowledge of the ground crews at the check-in counter in FLL in Hollywood, Florida, USA was terribly lower. At the check-in line, a supervisor wanted to see a scannable barcode. I told him that I couldn't check in via your website, so there were no scannable barcodes- but the supervisor at the counter gate insisted I do it online on the spot again and get a scannable bar code. After telling him repeatedly - your website wasn't allowing me to do so because I am a USA citizen, so I needed to do the check-in process at the counter. The supervisor said it would cost me $20 per passenger (we were 2 passengers). I knew it was an absurd charge but agreed to pay just to cross him and got to the counter agent.

Avianca Airlines – Deceptive, Unreliable, and condescending Customer Service or Non-Existent. I’ve been meaning to write this review for a while because my experiences with Avianca have been not only frustrating and costly, but deeply disappointing. I hope this helps others avoid what I went through. Recently, I purchased a round-trip ticket but missed the first segment due to a last-minute emergency — my ride got sick, and I had to take her to the hospital. I still made it to the airport 1.5 hours before departure, but Avianca’s counter staff said I had missed the flight. I immediately called customer service to explain, but they offered no help and never told me that missing the first leg would result in my entire itinerary being canceled, including the return.