Review: Avianca Business Class Airbus A320 (MIA-BOG)

To kick off my Le Premier in the new La Premiere adventure, I flew Avianca’s Airbus A320 business class (often simply marketed as “Premium”) on the 3hr5min flight from Miami (MIA) to Bogota (BOG).

I was looking forward to this flight, since Avianca only recently reintroduced business class within the Americas, so this is still a fairly new product for the airline… and it’s a quirky one at that. I’m conflicted on Avianca’s A320 business class.

Yes, it’s definitely a step up from economy, but that’s about it. The seat isn’t as comfortable as you’d typically find in regional business class, and I found the food, service, and amenities, to all just be okay. So I would fly this product again if the price and schedule were right, but the issue is that I often find Avianca doesn’t actually have very attractive pricing for this product. This isn’t an experience I’m necessarily dying to repeat.

How I booked my Avianca business class ticket

I flew Avianca all the way from Miami to Paris via Bogota. I booked the entire ticket with Avianca Lifemiles. Specifically, I paid 94,450 miles plus $28.50 in taxes & fees for the following itinerary in business class:

4/06 AV5 Miami to Bogota departing 7:55AM arriving 10:25AM
4/06 AV228 Bogota to Paris departing 1:35PM arriving 6:45AM (+1 day)

Since I earned those points with a transfer bonus (which are often available from transferable points currencies), I thought that was a solid value.

Avianca business class lounge & boarding

In the previous installment, I reviewed the Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami Airport (MIA), which is a pretty nice new facility, and adds some needed Star Alliance lounge capacity at the airport.

My flight to Bogota was departing from gate J2, not far from the lounge. The boarding pass indicated that boarding would be at 6:55AM, a full hour before departure, which seemed mighty early.

Surprisingly, boarding didn’t start long after that. At around 7:05AM, those needing extra time were invited to board first (about half the plane seemed to think they fit into that category), followed by business class passengers and Star Alliance Gold members.

At that point I boarded N955AV, the 16-year-old A320 that would be flying me down to Colombia. For what it’s worth, this plane arrived a few hours earlier, as a redeye.

As I boarded, I found the sticker next to the door to be interesting, telling passengers to watch their behavior, because the flight is protected by a “legal protection company.”

Avianca A320 business class cabin & seats

Avianca’s A320s are in a dense configuration, with a total of 180 seats, including 12 business class seats and 168 economy seats. The business class cabin consists of a total of three rows, in a 2-2 configuration.

These seats were designed by Recaro, exclusively for Avianca, and it’s an unusual product. At first glance, it almost looks like intra-Europe business class, as you’ll see there are three seats per row, with the middle seat blocked. However, unlike on intra-Europe flights, the aisle and window seat are actually made wider, for added comfort.

I assigned myself seat 3K, the window seat on the right side in the third row (it’s unusual how the seat letters are A-B-C on the left, and D-E-K on the right). These seats have 33″ of pitch, so it’s a decent amount of space if we were talking about economy, but it’s not especially spacious for business class.

As you can see below, there’s also special stitching for the business class seats, compared to the economy seats.

As far as seat features go, each seat back has a full size tray table, a portable device holder, and a cupholder, in addition to some ads and other placards.

The center console is a pretty good size and is sturdy, so you can place things here during the flight, rather than using your tray table.

Underneath the center armrest, you’ll find both AC and USB-A outlets. While the ports are easy to reach, the actual way they’re positioned isn’t great. For example, there’s not enough clearance above and below the power port to fit a full size MacBook charger in there (the one that looks like a “brick”).

As far as other features go, Avianca’s A320s have overhead consoles with individual reading lights and air nozzles, so that’s appreciated.

Lastly, Avianca has dedicated overhead bins for business class passengers, so that overhead bin space shouldn’t be an issue (then again, given Avianca’s strict carry-on allowance for economy passengers, this shouldn’t be a problem even in economy).

All-in-all, this isn’t a terribly impressive product. I’d take just about any other business class product in the region over this. The thing is, it’s one thing if Avianca’s pricing were amazing, but I find that in business class, the airline charges at least as much as American, Copa, etc., in most markets. So it’s not like you’re getting some huge discount.

Of course there are exceptions on connecting itineraries, but I also don’t want to fly all the way from Miami to Sao Paulo on an A320 (though in fairness, there are also some 787s).

I think the other thing worth acknowledging is that premium cabin norms differ around the world. In North America and parts of Northern South America, proper recliner seats in business class are the norm, at a minimum. Meanwhile in other parts of South America, we frequently see airlines have “premium economy” on regional flights, which is economy with a blocked middle.

So Avianca’s business class is a step up from that. However, the pricing is also way higher. So I struggle with this product in terms of quality and value.

Avianca business class amenities

On the plus side, Avianca offers a decent selection of amenities. For example, waiting at each seat upon boarding was a full bedding kit, with a pillow and blanket.

The pillow was pretty substantial, as was the blanket. It’s not quite what you’d get on a long haul flight, but still, many other airlines don’t even offer bedding on regional flights, so I’ll take it!

During boarding, each business class passenger was also offered a bottle of water.

Lastly, toward the end of boarding, the purser came around and gave each passenger a welcome card, with her name on it, mentioning how passengers will have an “amazing experience.” That’s a nice service touch from Avianca, but the issue is that the actual service standards don’t match what you’d expect based on getting such a card.

Avianca A320 business class entertainment

Avianca’s A320s don’t feature inflight Wi-Fi yet. I believe there are plans for it to be introduced, but it’s not available on most aircraft as of now. While there’s no seat back entertainment, the airline does offer streaming content to personal devices. The system has entertainment, flight information, etc.

The entertainment selection is better than nothing, but not much more than that. By my count, there were 39 movies, 24 TV shows (some with multiple episodes), 13 lifestyle shows, along with a kids selection and some games.

On top of that, there was the map feature, so that you could track the progress of the flight.

The entertainment selection is better than nothing, but that’s about it. If you’re at all picky about what you watch, I’d highly recommend bringing your own entertainment onto an Avianca flight, especially when you consider that these planes operate some flights of over five hours.

Avianca A320 departure from Miami

Boarding was reasonably efficient, despite a full flight. For what it’s worth, there were eight people booked in business class until the morning of departure, but every seat ended up being full (including the captain’s wife and son being onboard — though they had one seat in business class and one in the flight deck, and switched off).

At 7:40AM, the door closed, well ahead of schedule. The purser made her welcome aboard announcement, informing us of our flight time of just over three hours. Avianca’s announcements frequently use the carrier’s slogan, which is “thank you for flying with Avianca, where the sky belongs to all of us.” I mean, I guess that’s cute, but if you ever call Avianca’s call center, the number of times you hear that borders on being cruel.

While still at the gate, the crew performed a manual safety demonstration. Then at 7:45AM we began our pushback. We pushed quite a distance, given that gate J2 is at the very end of the ramp, and it’s quite tight in this area.

During pushback, I had a great view of the Air France A320 that operates the carrier’s unique Caribbean island hopper flights. That remains an experience that’s on my avgeek flight list.

We started our taxi at 7:50AM. Hi, Aerolineas Argentinas A330!

Hi, Eastern Air Express 737s! And not hi to GlobalX A321!

It was a roughly 10 minute taxi out to runway 8R, where we were immediately cleared for takeoff, at 8AM.

We had a quick takeoff roll, and steep climb out of Miami. It was a gorgeous morning, as usual…

The seatbelt sign was turned off just five minutes after takeoff. One thing I found interesting is that in the post-takeoff announcement, the crew mentioned how passengers could purchase upgrades to extra legroom and business class seats. It’s not often you hear that after takeoff, never mind that the business class cabin was full.

Avianca business class meal service

Once the seatbelt sign was turned off, the crew closed the curtains around the cabin (both in front and behind).

Around 20 minutes after takeoff, the crew came through the cabin with warm towels. These have to be the cheapest and thinnest towels I’ve ever seen used in a premium cabin, as they were maybe a little sturdier than a tissue.

20 minutes after that, around 40 minutes after takeoff, the flight attendant rolled the cart down the aisle with drinks and breakfast. There were no menus, and options were simply described as either pancakes or an omelet. I selected the omelet. It was super cheesy (almost so cheesy that it could be mistaken for a pizza), and had mushrooms. The main was served with a side of fruit, and a couple of croissants.

Drinks were also offered, and I asked for a still water and a coffee. As is common on Latin American carriers, there was no option for milk or liquid cream, but instead there was instant creamer.

As I said, that’s hardly exclusive to Avianca, as I’ve found the same to be the case on Boliviana de Aviacion, Copa, and GOL. It drives me bonkers, since it doesn’t seem like that would be expensive to add, yet that powdered creamer is just plain gross.

I’d note that after the meal service, the crew kind of just disappeared. I don’t think they offered any drink refills once the meals were cleared, which was underwhelming.

I can’t say the food tasted that great, and it would’ve been nice if there were a side of yogurt, or something. The fact that the lady seated in front of me was ripping @@@ the entire flight also didn’t help with making the meal experience very appealing.

Avianca A320 business class lavatory

Avianca has a dedicated business class lavatory at the front of the cabin, right by the flight deck. It’s super basic, and has nothing in the way of special amenities.

I’d say the crew did a moderately good job saving the lavatory for business class passengers. A lot of people tried to come up from economy to use the business class lavatory, and I’d guess they were sent back maybe half of the time.

The one thing I found odd, which isn’t Avianca’s fault, is that the guy in the aisle seat basically refused to get up when I needed to access the aisle, so that complicated things a bit.

Avianca business class service

Service on this Avianca flight was fine. That’s to say that I thought the flight attendant working business class was reasonably friendly and kind, but service wasn’t in any way attentive or personalized. She went through the motions, but then after the meal, disappeared into the galley, never checking to see if anyone wanted anything else.

Avianca A320 arrival in Bogota

At around 9:45AM Bogota time, the captain was on the PA to announce that we’d shortly be descending, and would be landing in around 20 minutes. That’s also the point at which the seatbelt sign was turned on.

The views on descent were beautiful, as Colombia’s landscape is pretty gorgeous. Our descent wasn’t very long, given that Bogota is at an altitude of over 8,000 feet.

We had a bit of chop on our approach, as we descended through the clouds, but nothing major.

At 10:05AM, we had a smooth touchdown on runway 14L.

There was some interesting traffic during the taxi to our arrival gate.

At around 10:10AM, we pulled in next to another Avianca A320. However, we were actually at a remote stand, so we deplaned via stairs.

It felt like it took forever for the bus to fill up, and then it was a very long drive to the part of the terminal where we were being dropped off. We ended up arriving there at around 10:30AM.

From there, I cleared transit security, and then headed to the Avianca Lounge, prior to my Avianca 787 business class flight to Paris.

Bottom line

Avianca’s A320 business class is… not great. The airline has a quirky business class seat that’s on the tight side. While there’s food, it’s not amazing. There’s also not Wi-Fi, and service levels leave a bit to be desired.

It’s of course better than economy, but I’d say it’s a significant step down from most business class products in the Americas. So I’d fly the airline again if the price or schedule were advantageous, but I certainly wouldn’t choose it over a competitor, all else being equal.

I should mention that the airline seems to sometimes have reasonably priced upgrade offers, and I think those could be a good deal. After all, Avianca often has very attractive economy fares, and this is much better than economy.

What’s your take on Avianca’s A320 business class?