Originally Posted by
nwflyboy
@ abaheti - If your flight isn't until November, I wouldn't necessarily panic just yet. Maybe they were shooting for a July 1 aircraft switch but need a few more days. Or, maybe it'll be October, no way to know. If it were me, I'd start looking at a Plan B, but would probably hold wait a while before dumping the flight you have. I'm by no means an expert on flights to South America, but great options are limited, and *IF* your/my flight is on a new 787, that looks like the best way to get to BOG to me. On my return I'm flying on COPA (due to the timing/availability of the flights). COPA adds one more stop (in PTY) which isn't great, and the long flight is in a 737MAX, and I prefer to avoid narrow-body planes on flights that long. On the plus side, the return is a daytime flight so getting a good block of sleep is less critical (southbound is overnight), and COPA's 737MAX actually has lay-flat seats in business class (something I've never seen before in a 737), so I decided to give that a try. In your case, it would add one more stop to your flight, so obviously not optimal.
I will be watching with interest to see if anyone reports on a new-smelling 787 actually being used on this flight now that it's July, or if there are any more press releases about that being delayed.
Originally Posted by
Tomasz Pa
Copa have flat seats on some 737 maxes and they are super comfy. I did MIA - PTY on such a seat and it rocks.
also avianca 787 is old and you can fell it but it is cheap flat seat (or was).
Screw it. I just found flights TO Lima on Copa 737 Max using my UA miles ticket on AV -- so flipped from AV. I switched. Same miles, extra $2 in taxes. Lie flat seats assured. And a meal that is not a cardboard sandwich. If I'm burning miles (or cash) for business, I want my wife to have a business class flight. That's the silent agreement for her tolerating me talking about miles and planes way more than should be tolerable to a spouse, and in 20 years points have always delivered. On the plus side, in exchange for extra time without lie flat we land two hours earlier and I know the quality will be good.
Not as ideal theoretically as the lie flat experience is now a bit shorter and our connection to LIS is 3.5 hours vs shorter, but at least i know we will get there on time and have beds for the overnight flight. Want to start the trip right. There is UA Polaris available but I don't want to spend the extra miles since I think Copa will be solid.
I just scoped out some return flights on Copa vs AV, but it is a bunch more miles... honestly, could be worth it to me because I was going to pay for a positioning flight from Quito to Bogota to get the 787 Avianca experience... But I could burn an extra 80k miles and just do Quito-PTY-LAX on Copa and be ok, I guess. Daytime return so less critical to lie down. 80k miles extra is painful to consider, but I also don't want to have bad vacation experience. My dilemma is that if I cancel I will have miles stranded on AC because I will need to book the new tix through UA. Return flight is less critical to the vacation, so pondering now. Bored my wife over dinner just now and she finally just say "whatever, i trust you, and I really don't want to understand all of this" :-)
So, any advice for my return? Maybe that gives AV enough time to have planes available? Or even with 787 on AV will Copa just be a better experience (and I can skip a positioning flight for $$)?