Avianca Reviews

When I arrived at the airport in Lima to return home, Avianca charged me a $75 fee at the check-in counter. I gave them my credit card to pay for the fee, but after they swiped the card, they said that it did not go through. I then gave them a second card, and once again, they swiped the card and said that it also did not go through. I then stepped out of line, went to a nearby ATM machine and pulled out cash. I went back to the counter, paid my $75 fee in cash and got a receipt showing I paid in cash. A week later, I realized that I had a $75 charge on both of the credit cards I had given Avianca.

For the last three months, I have been trying to get reimbursed of the $150 which Avianca owes me. I have my receipt showing that I paid cash in Lima. I have both of my credit card statements, but it's taking the company months to reimburse me! Calling them is fruitless. It's very difficult to get a hold of anyone who speaks English or speaks it well enough for either of us to understand each other. I have been emailing someone in the customer service, but all he can tell me is that they are in the process of validating my account, and then they will reimburse me. There is no office in my state I can visit to speak to these people one on one and show them my receipt and statements. The whole thing feels really shady.

Do not fly with this airline!

Due to hurricane Irene, all airports in the NY tri-state area were closed on the 28th. An Avianca agent in Cali advised my husband on the next available flight to JFK which would be on September 9th. Because he had to be back at work as soon as possible, he asked them what other option was available. They advised him to take a flight to Miami, Florida scheduled for Monday, August 29th, and he accepted and was charged an additional $241.02 for the change.

I called Avianca after he arrived and expected them to refund the additional charge since the change was based on circumstance beyond our control. Avianca's response was that he would have been offered a waiver if he would have travelled on the date, the next available date, which was on September 9th but because he chose to travel to Miami, he had forfeited his waiver.

This is incredible; the flight was cancelled by the airline due to inclement weather. To later claim that they offered the passengers affected by this event a waiver to travel on a different date is a ludicrous. They took advantage of a situation that was out of our control.

Later at the time of the checking in the luggage, there was a man very rude and didn't let my brother check the luggage in, so he needed to make another line and the lady pushing the wheel chair has to wait until my brother made other line to check the luggage in.

When they arrived to Bogota, Avianca didn't have the wheel chair for my sister in love and they have to wait long time in the plane long time and there were other two more persons disable, in Bogota they needed to make connection to Barranquilla, at the time to depart from Bogota, they were told that the fly was cancel and Avianca Associates saying that it was because of the weather which it was not true, so my brother and his wife were sent to a hotel.

This is were the nightmare started, first my sister in love was wheel to the bus, and the bus didn't have a ramp, so she need to climb the stairs of the bus with a lot of difficulty (one of her legs is bent to the outside) she can't walk well and climb. When she got in the bus there was not a sit for her and she was told to sit and an area for luggage and at the time that to sit down, she felt down on her butt, then when they arrive to the hotel she needed to jump from the bus down the street by the hotel.

The next day, Dec/19/10, they were picked up at the hotel to the airport and she needed to do the same, then, at the ticket counter they were complaining because my brother took the wheel chair out to the hotel. Later when they needed to board the plane Avianca put them on a plane that needed to claim the stairs, so Avianca got to men and a chair to carried my sister in love (a woman that weight 254lb.) into the plane. Well, they arrive to Barranquilla and at the time to claim their luggage Avianca told them that their luggage were lose and that they were bring them to them at my mother's house at one o'clock and they having arrive and I started to call Avianca to let them know that in one of the suitcase are my sister in love medication. I only packed medication for her in her purse for three days, I didn't think that Avianca still so disorganize, and I was put on hold for one hour and fifteen minutes, then I was disconnected.

I called again and this time another lady put me on hold and then she put me to star choosing department again something that I already did. I still don't know what is going to be missing from the luggage since they have enough time to go through and choose what they want to take, and now my brother and my sister in love have to comeback and I don't know how is going to be that return. This treatment to disable people is not acceptable for airline that offer their service here in USA. Their advertisement are full of lies and they don't stand for they name.

Your staff have proven to be very polite and respectful in the past and I have always been a satisfied customer.

It is with great pity that I must now come to you via this email and file a formal complaint for which I will seek some kind of compensation, monetary, unlimited flights for me and or my family, in addition to assurance that the harm caused by Avianca staff will not be repeated in the future. It must be that Avianca adds this unnecessary injustice (indicated below) to the training that Avianca workers receive before they are allowed to serve the most valuable asset that Avianca has its customers, which has allowed Avianca to become a great company and grow to the award winning service provider that it is today.

Let me begin by indicating what I do for a living. I am the owner of [ship service company] which provides various services to foreign companies whom have cargo and supply vessels as well as tug boats in Central and South America. It is for this reason that I travel to various parts of Central and South America either by sea or by air. While on a job in Roatan Honduras I was contacted by one of the owners of a supply vessel to travel to Medellin Colombia and pick up Mr. Robert Edward W., and accompany him back to Roatan Honduras. My job was to find the best a securest air line provider that would allow me to deliver Mr. W. to Roatan Honduras with out any trouble. I chose Avianca like I have in the past and here is where I will explain what took place on what day and how it took place and for which I seek some form a gratification or compensation.

On the 21st day of August 2010, Mr. W. and I departed Medellin Colombia for San Pedro Sula Honduras. We would change planes in Bogota to San Salvador and then on to San Pedro Sula Honduras. When we arrived in Bogota we were taken apart and separated from the people of the same flight and asked if we were headed to San Salvador, we said yes and were taken to the ticket counter. The lady that was attending us was what seemed to be nice young well dressed lady. But, as it turned out, looks are deceiving. This young unprofessional lady (whom neglected to give us her name) proceeded to be very, very rude to me and especially to Mr. ***.

The lady asked for our passports and yellow fever shots (yellow booklet that indicates this)she was attending Mr. W. first and was directing her question to him but since Mr. W. does not speak any Spanish I proceeded to help and translated to him the words that for which Mr. W. wanted conveyed to the young Avianca ground crew ticket attendant. When I did this, the young rude lady said that she was not talking to me that she was talking to the old man, at which point I told her that he spoke no English and she made a face that indicated to us disgust. I then asked her if she had had a bad day or been in some kind of trouble just before we got there, that she did not seem okay and her response was total out rage and proceeded to make big show of a bad attitude towards us and for which every one around us did not approve of.

The young attendant told us that we would not be allowed to travel on the Avianca plane because Mr. *** did not have his yellow fever shot. When I translated this to Mr. *** he said, what is she talking about, does she not know any thing, he told me to tell her to take a closer look at his passport and that he was almost 70 years old and did not need a yellow fever shot and that he had flown all over the world and had had no problems before. When I relaid this information to the young lady, she said, there is nothing I can do and if you don't like the way I am handling the situation and feel that some one other than her could provide a better response or service, that we were free to go through the line an wait for another ticket attendant to help us. She then said to me show her my return ticket for which I told her that I did not need a return ticket that I was a sea man and that if she took the time to read the attached letter that she would find out that I was traveling to Roatan to board a vessel.

By this time I had had just about enough of the situation and seeing that we wouldn't lose our flight if I went through the line again, I proceed to look for the Avianca shift supervisor whom after listening to me explain the situation concluded by saying you are correct, Mr. W. does not need a yellow fever shot, I apologize and am sorry that you lost your flight, I will book you on the next flight for the next day 22nd of August 2010 and told us to have a nice day. Mr. W. said to me, I know my rights tell the supervisor that Avianca must provide a Hotel Room and feed us, because it was the company's untrained staff that caused this inconvenience to the both of us. As it turns out, the supervisor filled out a report and found us a Room in the Capital Hotel in Bogota, were we were to have a further problem that I will briefly indicate for the record.

At the Capital Hotel in Bogota, we were given vouchers to present at the restaurant for our meals. When we got there we had not shown our vouchers and were treated very cordially like and with great respect, but once we presented the voucher it was like we were out casts of some sort. We were told that we could not order what we wanted that we could not eat the salad bar that we could drink water or Coke and that it was a different meal for us since it was a deal that they had with Avianca for people that did not make their plane connections on time.

This would be the second time that Mr. W. would be discriminated upon, the first time when the young rude Avianca ticket attendant dis cremated against him by not treating him with the same respect that others were treated and by not respecting the fact that he was a senior citizen which in every country in the world is recognized as a special time in ones lives when one is not the same as when one is young. This is the end of my story and complaint, will be looking forward to hearing from your good office or other wise one of many attorneys that we consult will be contacting Avianca anew, on Mr. W.'s and my behalf.

Mistreatment and and discriminated by badly trained Avianca Ground Crew has caused Mr. W. who is a Senior citizen to lose his job-in Roatan Honduras because the vessel that he was to be the Captain on had left with out him and the company had to hire another captain for the job. This has caused many problems for Me as well now that I will be charged for unnecessary expenses,according to my employer and will unable me to bring my family for vacation in Roatan. This is very devastating to me, because my child is 26 months old and I have been away from him and his mother for many months at a time do to the nature of my work Avianca has to pay for my grief and emotional scars. No money will ever be enough, to correct the Avianca abuse, but there must be an example. Please help!

I made a complaint with Colombia's civil aeronautics. I had to pay another ticket, pay for a hotel, lose a day's work. Avianca in Colombia does not do what you want. I paid JetBlue $540, I paid hotel $200, I paid $50 for meals, $50 taxi and also 2 days work for $600. I feel humiliated. It almost gave me a heart attack.

I still haven't received my suit case nor have they done anything to help me I keep calling them and they keep telling me that they are investigating but thats all. All of my clothing was in these two bags. They said that they contacted the Manager in Colombia but that he hasn't made a decision. It's going to be two months already and I haven't heard back from them and still no suite cases.

I have no clothing ever since I have been unable to travel or go any where due to this. All of my personal belongings were in these two bags.