Kacee

UA will make the change if there's inventory, but they will charge you the award change fee.

CM might do it for free at the airport in PTY. It's worth asking.

If not, just be aware you may wind up on a later flight BOG-MDE.

Kadence

Our plane landed at 7:02 am. By 7:27 we were at the luggage carousel and when there were no more bags coming on we asked someone where our bags were. They were checked all the way through to Medellin. By now there were 2 people ahead of us in the customs line. There were people waiting outside the customs area to help us with connections and By 7:40 we went through security. By 7:55 we were in the lounge waiting for our connecting flight.

Kacee

Nice. Did they make you clear customs at MDE?

Kadence

If you mean "did they check our bags", No! In Medellin we took our luggage off the carousel and went right outside. I was quite surprised.

coolcoil

UA-CM, CM-CM and UA-AV connections at BOG have this service (not sure about CM-AV). This also applies to connections between AA and LAN. In theory, your bags are scanned by customs at BOG. I don't know what they would do if they found something problematic in your luggage. In any case, you just pick up your bags at regular bag check at the final airport.

The only times that I've had a problem with it was when I had a short connection time and my bags did not make my plane. That has not happened for a while.

JohnnyColombia

This is interesting, does it not apply to IB-LA or LA-LA?

I have not had my bags scanned at BOG for at least 5 years and I guess in the big scheme of things, pretending to scan your bag behind the scenes is the same as not scanning it in full view of everyone

coolcoil

Actually, I don't know about those. The ones I listed are those that I know for sure exist. I would imagine that if you can do AA-LA, then LA – LA would exist as well. Also, the announcement that they make on AA when arriving at Bogota is that your luggage will be transferred automatically if you are on another OneWorld flight, so it probably applies to IB as well.

drvannostren

I can't speak to the OW partners, but what I can say is Star alliance NEEVEERRRR announces a damn thing when I arrive in BOG. Now, to give fault to myself too, I always forget what the procedure is. Rule of thumb is, arrive in new country, then taking a domestic flight, clear customs, pick up bag and re-check it.

BOG, not so.

Clear customs yes, but the bags get transferred. But because I only go to MDE 3-4 times a year and sometimes I fly direct from PTY I forget whenever I go through BOG and have to ask someone. I have to ask because AC/UA never says on board "btw if you're travelling domestically within Colombia, proceed past baggage claim as your bags will be transferred". It's such an easy thing to say, but on the other hand how many times have you been on flights where they've said something like that and been wrong...cuz it's multiple times for me so even if they said it, I wouldn't trust it.

IAN-UK

First ever visit to Colombia.

My attempts to buy a ticket to the cute and convenient downtown airport in Medellin failed at the payment hurdle, but Avianca's COP site graciously accepted my UK credit card for BOG MDE.

So ... I'm arriving on Turkish with a separate connection two hours' later on Avianca to Medellin.

Looking through this year-old thread there's a suggestion that I might be able to get my bag checked through to MDE. That would be the preferred option, avoiding dragging a bag through whatever processes i need to go through at BOG.

But is it remotely possible?

chuck1

Around 12:30pm is it normal for foreigners to take 1 hour 10 minutes to pass through passport control?

JohnnyColombia

I think if you are trying to buy BOG EOH then that must be Satena and they suck at taking credit cards.

With regards to your second question, I live in Bogotá so have never made a connection through to the regions. I always get off the plane and go home. I understand your bag goes through customs without you in BOG for collection at the final destination. I see no reason why TK cannot check your bags through to MDE. And your bag would presumably go through the same process.

If they check you through but your bag does not arrive in MDE, that's no major headache. AV is really good at missing bags, it might even be on the flight before you if you have a whole two hours.

If they don't check you through then you are also still golden. When arriving in BOG you just go up the elevator and domestic departures are right there about 2 mins away.

Yes, that's quite normal in my experience. The bottleneck is baggage rather than passport control

IAN-UK

That's very helpful - thanks!

And, yes - it was Satena. It's a shame, I'd have loved to use EOH.

It's irritating when airlines try to preserve point-of-sale pricing: it required only a bit of trickery to switch from Avianca's UK site to the friendlier Colombian one.

JohnnyColombia

I am not sure to which airline you are referring when you mention preserving point of sale pricing.

For Avianca I am somewhat certain that they specifically IP block people in the US. I have never tried to buy from the UK but if I am in the USA I have to call a friend in Bogotá and ask them to book tix with my Colombian Card. I know LATAM certainly has IP jiggery pokery to force Americans to use the US site instead of the Chilean one.

If you can buy on the Avianca CO site with a UK issued card then that's all nice to hear.

Satena doesn't have any dedicated "other country" sites. They just suck at taking credit cards.

ADA I buy quite often for the EOH to BSC route. They suck even more badly at taking credit cards. I have to go through the booking online, have my Colombian card rejected and then email their corporate people with the PNR and send them a payment direct to their bank account from mine. I send them the screengrab, they check I didn't photoshop it and send me the tix back.

The maxim "Never make it hard for people to give you their money" appears to be lost on Colombian airlines.

Kacee

Is that recent? I was able to buy several tix on the AV Colombia site from the US using a US credit card last year.

JohnnyColombia

According to myflightsapp, it must have been 3 or 4 of March this year when I was in Miami.

That's anecdotal of course, hence I am only somewhat certain.