Oh, God! Have you ever been in a position where you feel your blood pressure levels rise like a thermometer in boiling water? This was my experience with Avianca yesterday. I thought I would split up my trip to Colombia in order to get to Bogota at 10am rather than 11pm. But, to do that I had to use two different airlines. Long story short: AVIANCA TESTED MY NEWFOUND PATIENCE AND I LOST IT!

On a lighter note, after 3.5 hours of back and forth, I FINALLY got my ticket...and I am arriving at 10am, not 10pm to celebrate Carlos' birthday with him.

just returned from cali, col saturday 22jul, wait until you have to actually get on the flight, it doesnt get better. i had delay on every leg of my trip.

Where are you flying from and to what city in Columbia? Your thread does not mention. I fly to Bogota all the time and use AA. I have also used AA to Cali. AA has a hub in my city and makes it very nice. Not sure if you have the AA option.

I fly into Bogota. I usually use AA, but I wanted to get in earlier and save some cash and so I decided to try an AA flight to Miami and then an Avianca flight to Bogota. I am destined to take off at 7:00 am and get in at 10:30 am. I hope the flight doesnt get delayed, but if it does, I guess that is how the cookie crumbles. Nothing could be as bad as my first flight to Colombia on AA. We were delayed in Miami for hours and hours bc the plane was "broken." Yes...that is what they said. Then, because we were delayed so long we had to wait for another flight crew. When we finally touched down in Bogota, we had to be pulled to our gate (to thhis day i still do not know why). Oh, but there is even more...haha...once were were finished being pulled to the gate, we found out that it was broken, so we had to be pulled to ANOTHER gate! Haha. WELCOME TO COLOMBIA!

I always use American Airlines also; they are almost always on time. I mostly fly Miami to Cali but a have flown a couple of times to Medellin. I have heard some horror stories on Avianca.

Good luck,

Peter Miami

I used to live in Colombia (Bogota) and found Avianca to be great at one point in history. They've gone way downhill in the past 8 years or so. Too bad Continental is great, especially if you want to avoid flying through Miami. COPA is ok if you don't mind a stop in Panama City :0 I found in my many flights in and out of Colombia that the best route was via Newark or Houston or pretty much anywhere other than MIA. The flights in and out of that city --especially on Avianca and American-- invariably got delayed and the service was bad, flight crew cranky. Once I started going Continental and using Houston to go to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, I've never had another missed connection, late flight, or unpleasant experience.

Hope you have fun in Bogota If it is a busy travel day, allow 1 hour to get through the DAS (emigraciones) line so that you don't miss your flight back to the US, and no, Avianca (unlike the rest of the airlines) will not come around looking for you in the emigraciones line or page you to make sure you get on their flight. Their attitude is: if you miss your flight due to the long line, it's not their problem! That's service!

Well, in my several trips to Colombia, I have only had one delay and that was the American Airlines delay fiasco in Miami. I even got in early once. Who would have thought? This time, I am just crossing my fingers and hoping that Father Time and even Mother Nature are on my side.