Avianca/Taca LifeMiles - Avianca Standby Policy

Hello,

Does anyone know Avianca's policy for airport standby? If it helps, I'm a *G member with Air Canada.

Thanks!

I don't know the official policy but have always found AV airport staff quite accomodating. I'm 2-2 in changing to a different AV domestic flight - once when I showed up at CTG early and wanted to grab the next flight to BOG rather than wait around for my originally booked one and once when I missed the first flight of the morning MDE-BOG. In neither instance did I have status with AV and in both cases there was no charge for the successful standby.

It probably helps to know enough Spanish to be able to communicate clearly but not to know so much/speak in an unaccented way that you are mistaken for a native speaker. My gut feeling (no evidence to back this up, just conjecture) is that AV staff might treat you better/bend the rules if you're a foreigner, but one that understands Spanish well...

One thing I did learn on a recent AV trip is that they will not through-check baggage to OA if the two tickets are on different PNRs. This really surprised me as most airlines, assuming interline bag agreements in place between the airlines in question, will still interline checked bags even across different PNRs.

I don't know the official policy but have always found AV airport staff quite accomodating. I'm 2-2 in changing to a different AV domestic flight - once when I showed up at CTG early and wanted to grab the next flight to BOG rather than wait around for my originally booked one and once when I missed the first flight of the morning MDE-BOG. In neither instance did I have status with AV and in both cases there was no charge for the successful standby.

It probably helps to know enough Spanish to be able to communicate clearly but not to know so much/speak in an unaccented way that you are mistaken for a native speaker. My gut feeling (no evidence to back this up, just conjecture) is that AV staff might treat you better/bend the rules if you're a foreigner, but one that understands Spanish well...

One thing I did learn on a recent AV trip is that they will not through-check baggage to OA if the two tickets are on different PNRs. This really surprised me as most airlines, assuming interline bag agreements in place between the airlines in question, will still interline checked bags even across different PNRs.

Thanks very much for the advice!