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A couple of days ago, my Avianca flight from Panama to El Salvador had the distinct honor of being the first flight that I could remember ever missing. The crazy part about the entire situation was that I was in the airport, but could not get any assistance. I reached out to Avianca on Twitter when I returned to the United States, here is the exchange:
@Avianca what is your check in policy? I arrived 45 mins prior to departure and it was closed.
— Rob S. (@phillipsloopllc) July 24, 2018
Thanks for the response @AviancaEscucha The link does me no good when I didn’t receive this information up front. Airlines usually tell customers if something abnormal is occurring. Is my ticket lost or do I have it for future use?
— Rob S. (@phillipsloopllc) July 24, 2018
After not receiving a response, I posted about the situation again and I received the following response from another Twitter user:
Follow @AviancaAbusa and find thousands of users suffering from @Avianca lack of concern for passengers @100Apoyopilotos @safetypilot26 #avia #Aviancabusa #Aviancamiente #todoparaincomodarte https://t.co/A5AzYCWQxF
— Cesar Martinez (@cesarmtzcoach) July 26, 2018
Avianca Airlines’ customer service is worse than I expected. The blog post about the flight has been the most shared/read post this month. On one hand, I was pissed that I did not make my flight. I really wanted to review Avianca. On the other hand, I am happy that I get to use this platform to highlight their customer service failures.
I decided to give the Avianca call center in Miami another call today. The agent informed me that my ticket was good for 11 months. When I pressed her about a rebooking fee…she said, “oh yeah, that will be $300 + any fare difference”. What?! The original ticket was only $454. I do not want to pay almost double to fly the airline.
Avianca may have lost my business forever. If they provided the check in policy upfront, I would be less frustrated. To the point, I have reached out to Chase Bank to dispute the transaction because I feel that Avianca has not been forthcoming with their passengers.
