Avianca Administrative Center — Local services in Bogota, Capital District

Our Christmas holiday got off to the worst possible start when we tried to check in (early) in Barcelona.

We had an organised 2 week tour of Costa Rica ahead of us which we were understandably looking forward to immensely. However this required an Avianca transfer flight in Bogotá to San José (BCN-BOG-SJO) so we could stick to our not-inexpensive itinerary.

At check in we were told that the incoming flight to Barcelona was delayed by and hour and a half and that meant we would miss our connection to San José as ours was the last BOG-SJO flight of that day but that the airline would put us up in a hotel in Bogotá and we were checked on to the first BOG-SJO flight at 06.00 the next morning.

So far, so correct by the airline. What we didn't know was that after an 11 hr flight, we'd have to queue in Bogotá without our bags (they'd been sent to San José), wait it a queue for about 2 hrs at the Avianca Error Desk with hundreds of other people whose Christmas travel plans had been buggered up by Avianca's inefficiency.

Once we received our 'hotel and food' voucher from Avianca we had to deal with Immigration in BOG airport, security, customs, customs security and then we had to find where to go to get the shuttle bus to the hotel provided - nobody could clearly tell us exactly where we had to go - no Avianca employees directing flight victims - nothing.

We eventually went to bed in an Alan Partridge hotel close-ish to the airport at around 01.00 local time, which for us meant a lot more than 24 hrs without sleep (if you can count sketchy plane-sleep minutes, while being disturbed by trolley-dollies when you don't need/want them or them going missing when you do as sleep).

As we'd been put on the first flight the following morning, we had to wake up at 03.00, have a very quick 'express - basic -breakfast' - leave Alan's hotel to get picked up by the inefficient shuttle bus in order that we got to BOG airport at 04.00 for the SJO flight a little after 06.00.

The BOG-SJO flight left on time, but arrived more than 30 mins late due to 'wind' so we missed our rescheduled connection with the tour we'd paid for and looked forward to.

These clowns are inept and avoid them...

This is the WORST airline I've ever flown. STAY AWAY!

We were flying to Costa Rica from JFK on August 21st, 2022 on a 3am flight. 4 days Prior to our flight, I attempted adding 1 carry on and 1 check in bag. I tried multiple times thru the website and app but was declined everytime. I called the customer service # provided, spoke to an agent and she still couldn't assist me. After multiple phone calls and attempts on the site and app I decided to try and speak to someone when I arrived at JFK. When I arrived the lines were wrapped all around terminal 4. Once I finally got to speak to an agent she charged me $210 for a carry on and a check in bag. I asked her to speak to her supervisor, his name Osvaldo. Osvaldo was also helping a disgruntled customer, rolled his eyes and told her he didn't care about the app or website glitches. $210 was the price for 2 bags ($105 each.) Obviously I had to pay. I wasn't going to leave my luggage at the airport.

We were then directed to wait on another line to pay for the baggage and get our boarding passes. That agent was a nightmare. He only gave me one boarding pass (there were 2 of us.) He told us we were supposed to get the other boarding pass from the original agent who took our bag for check-in, he then printed the 2nd pass and threw it at my wife.

I'm now in Costa Rica, and I’ve currently been on the phone with Avianca customer service for an hour trying to pay for my baggage for my return flight while on my vacation. They've sent me multiple links that don't work. They've taken my CC info over the phone and then was hung up on (disconnected) before it went through. Seems like they just want me to pay $210 again. We have an upcoming trip to Colombia, flying with Avianca, I am ver tempted to cancel this upcoming trip and book with another airline. This airline is TERRIBLE!!...

I've recently experienced 2 different flights where Avianca at El Dorado had closed their gates earlier than the time published on the ticket. The ticket stub said gates close 20 minutes before. They closed it 25+ minutes before. In my last flight, I saw a man arrive 25 minutes before closing, and they rejected him. This is not legally or ethically acceptable. In another flight, there were no boarding announcements at the gate from my particular flight in addition to the early gate closure. As a result, us and 10 or more other people missed our flight.

I've flown with Avianca for 10 years now, and the quality of their service and experience has significantly gone down - Avianca is a low quality airline now. This airline's cost cutting strategy in order to remain competitive has come at the cost of the consumer. Us and several other random passengers in one flight all agreed that Avianca is now worse than both American and Spirit Airlines; that's pretty bad. I will avidly avoid flying Avianca until they improve.

Last thing - if you try to call their customer service number to file a complaint, you cannot reach a real person. All their systems are automated and don't allow you to reach a real person in the event you have an active issue. Again, I'm dumbfounded at how poor their quality of...