The Avianca Lounge at Mexico City (Benito Juarez) Airport
First up, before we even get in the air, since I used Aeroplan points to get the business class ticket, that’ll come with access to a lounge. So how is Avianca’s business class lounge at Mexico City airport?
It does not exist anymore.
Avianca previously contracted the Priority Pass lounge. If you search online (like I did), you’ll find a bunch of blog reviews of the lounge and Priority Pass still has metadata on its website that indicates to Google their lounge at Benito Juarez is for Avianca customers. But if you walk all the way to that Priority Pass lounge (it is a very long mindful walk) from the security gates, you’ll discover Avianca customers no longer have access.
How is the entertainment on Avianca?
The flight from Mexico City to Bogota is a little over 4 hours, so I had this grand plan to watch Colombian movies and TV dramas the whole way to perfect my Colombian accent. Colombia is a major producer of Spanish-language TV content, not to mention being home to many of the most popular musicians on our planet.
The entertainment system had a handful of American movies from before the pandemic, and ZERO Colombian content. No TV content at all. No music content at all. No Shakira Shakira. No J Balvin. No Maluma.
It’s a lost opportunity. Having people sit in front of screens for several hours with nothing else to do is a big chance to showcase a country’s media content, and Colombia has so much amazing talent to share.
On my flight to Bogota, and then on the flight to Lima two months later, the entertainment system was still in the same nearly-empty state. They did have Detective Pikachu. I watched that many times.
How is the food and beverage service in Avianca business class?
You’re probably getting the theme of non-existent at this point.
As of May 2022, Avianca was still announcing it wasn’t serving drinks or a regular meal service on flights because of the pandemic. That does seem like an excuse to save money since other airlines have mostly returned to pre-pandemic meal and drink service.
From Mexico City to Bogota, business class passengers received a bottle of water, a bag of potato chips, and the worst sandwich I’ve ever eaten. Long-time readers will know I’m something of a sandwich (and donut) connoisseur, and this sandwich was uniquely terrible: three pieces of hard cheese in a heavy, dry white bun, with nothing else. Like rolling around half-dry cement in your mouth.
On my Bogota to Medellin flight, we didn’t even get water BUT the flight attendant gave water to some Avianca crew that were transiting onboard.
There was a glimmer of hope on the flight from Medellin to Lima: they gave us a different sandwich than The Worst Sandwich Ever they handed out on the flight from Mexico City. The new sandwich had a piece of lettuce, some processed ham, crumbled cheese, and a splotch of sun dried tomato salsa, on a whole wheat bun.
An encouraging sign: it was part of testing a new onboard menu. They gave us slips of paper with QR codes that linked to a survey about the sandwich.
Avianca wants to change! When somebody is going through a tough time, that willingness to change is a hopeful step in a new direction.
Were these flights worth it?
Over the three flights with Avianca, there were many indicators of why the airline has probably struggled in the past: the seats, even in business class, couldn’t fit carry-ons under them. There were many communication issues, like their own booking emails not including information their agents at the airport needed. Their app would never work for me on two different phones. And I wouldn’t describe their advertising or customer service as honest. You can read about that saga here: Are Avianca’s refundable tickets refundable?
I’ve recently had great experiences with LATAM, from booking through the journey. In South America, if I need to book a flight, I currently check-out LATAM’s options first.
I wouldn’t use any of my Star Alliance airline reward points again for Avianca flights, especially for business class. The point cost is the same as booking on an airline that provide perks, but with no perks.
I hope Avianca comes out of its rough-patch. It could serve a key role in connecting the Americas and engaging people with Colombia’s rich culture.
And how much pollution did these flights create?
Too much. 375 kg of CO2 from Mexico City to Bogota. 45 kg x 2 for the flights between Bogota and Medellin. And then Bogota to Lima, at 202 kg. That comes out to 667 kg of CO2. There is no land or ferry connection between Central and South America, which makes flying necessary at the moment, unfortunately.
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La comida malísima y bebidas solo una bebida con la comida,No café o té, si lo quería tenía que ir a pedirlo.
El agua ir a pedirles y ellos ignorando el pedido estaban muy ocupados hablando,el desayuno frío y malísimo,daban ganas de vomitar,
Esta experiencia la tuve desde Londres a Colombia y el regreso de Colombia a Londres peor.
Just this morning I canceled a booking with United Airlines for a business class flight from Madrid to Lima after I discovered that UA had turned over the entire operation of the flight to Avianca, which had only economy class seating and service on the second leg of the flight, and no meal service included in the fare for either of two segments of the more than 13-hour flight. I was more disappointed in UA than Avianca, however, since UA sold this subpar service and accepted payment for it on its website, then washed its hands of any responsibility, saying it could nothing about anything. The answer to all inquiries was … call Avianca!
Oh! That’s like showing up to a date you were chatting to online and they’ve swapped in their lonely cousin.
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