Booking Infant Awards: Impressed with Avianca Call Center!
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2005
Location: SFO
Programs: SQ QPPS, *A Gold, EK Skywards Gold
Posts: 671
Impressed with Avianca Call Center!
I've read many posts on Avianca Lifemiles where people have complained of ineptness on the part of Avianca call center agents. I wanted to share my very positive experience I had this week relating to a Lifemiles reservation.
I was trying to book a Star alliance award ticket from US to Asia, and I had issues completing the reservations on their website. The site gave me an error and I could not complete the booking. I called Avianca's toll free number and chose the option for Lifemiles and was connected to a relatively easy to understand agent. She asked me what the problem was and she offered to make the booking for me while also waiving the normal call center fee. She was able to snag the award seat, deduct the miles and get my credit card info over their automated system. She did say it would take 2-12 hours for the ticket to be issued, and sure enough within 2 hours ticket numbers showed up on the reservation.
I then had the uneviable task of adding an infant-in-arms ticket to the booking. Once the adult ticket was issued I called Avianca again and was advised that typically the infant ticket is issued by one of the operating carriers, but they said they would do it for me as a service. Fare was quoted and cc info obtained. After a day when I still did not see the ticket for the infant issued I called back and was advised that the credit card was charged and ticket would be issued by the end of the day.
Now came the real surprise. Once I hung up within a few minutes, I got a call from the same agent who said he had given me inaccurate info and that my credit card was not charged yet as it had to go through their internal validation process. He apologized profusely for the wrong info he had given earlier and told me to wait a day for the ticket to be issued. Sure enough the process was completed the next day.
All in all I had a very satisfying experience with Avianca's call center. Are they perfect? Ofcourse not. They have a lot of issues especially with ticket issuance and credit card validations. But the good thing is that they try very hard and try to do their best to resolve issues. Can't say the same for most of the US based airline agents that answer calls!
Way to go Avianca ! Hope you can improve on other areas too!
I was trying to book a Star alliance award ticket from US to Asia, and I had issues completing the reservations on their website. The site gave me an error and I could not complete the booking. I called Avianca's toll free number and chose the option for Lifemiles and was connected to a relatively easy to understand agent. She asked me what the problem was and she offered to make the booking for me while also waiving the normal call center fee. She was able to snag the award seat, deduct the miles and get my credit card info over their automated system. She did say it would take 2-12 hours for the ticket to be issued, and sure enough within 2 hours ticket numbers showed up on the reservation.
I then had the uneviable task of adding an infant-in-arms ticket to the booking. Once the adult ticket was issued I called Avianca again and was advised that typically the infant ticket is issued by one of the operating carriers, but they said they would do it for me as a service. Fare was quoted and cc info obtained. After a day when I still did not see the ticket for the infant issued I called back and was advised that the credit card was charged and ticket would be issued by the end of the day.
Now came the real surprise. Once I hung up within a few minutes, I got a call from the same agent who said he had given me inaccurate info and that my credit card was not charged yet as it had to go through their internal validation process. He apologized profusely for the wrong info he had given earlier and told me to wait a day for the ticket to be issued. Sure enough the process was completed the next day.
All in all I had a very satisfying experience with Avianca's call center. Are they perfect? Ofcourse not. They have a lot of issues especially with ticket issuance and credit card validations. But the good thing is that they try very hard and try to do their best to resolve issues. Can't say the same for most of the US based airline agents that answer calls!
Way to go Avianca ! Hope you can improve on other areas too!
Last edited by JDiver; May 10, 2013 at 6:41 am Reason: restore original post title
#2
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Melbourne/Bangkok
Programs: A3*G, QF PLATINUM, BA GOLD, VA GOLD, HH DIAMOND
Posts: 2,245
You can add the infant in future by contacting the operating carrier as mentioned by that agent. Ive done it on a tg booking by calling my local tg office.
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2005
Location: SFO
Programs: SQ QPPS, *A Gold, EK Skywards Gold
Posts: 671
#8
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: US*G BR*CE
Posts: 13
#10
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: TGU
Programs: Lm silver / MileagePlus / Aadvantage / Amex platinum / stargold points silver
Posts: 266
Is there a new policy, when I have tried to purchas a ticket for an infant no matter the age, they always tell me that I have to redeem to separe tickets
#11
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Melbourne/Bangkok
Programs: A3*G, QF PLATINUM, BA GOLD, VA GOLD, HH DIAMOND
Posts: 2,245
#12
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: WAS
Programs: AA,AV,UA,BA
Posts: 14
I had the same experience with AV, haven't tried TACA. I read somewhere that their call center might eventually move to US, but I can't find the source.
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Anywhere I need to be.
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