LatinFlyerMag

It will be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out. Personally, I've found Avianca a bit wanting in some of the service areas (see my blog post at http://www.latinflyerblog.com/2010/0...xperience.html) although their new Airbus is beautiful, and their flight attendant uniforms are the best in the Americas.

Copa and Aerorepublica seem more agile in terms of using modern technological services for their passenger's convenience (Avianca couldn't even accept my Delta Skymiles number by phone). But Copa needs to find a way around those weird departure and arrival times.

At any rate, it remains to be seen how well Avianca and TACA blend.

Open Jaw

There almost always seems to be problems with earning miles with DL on AV flights. AV seems to take forever in sending the trip info to DL.

sfvoyage

So I suppose you prefer AF over AV. Any experience with IB? I've flown IB GVA-MAD-BOG in J and found the experience very average, and the food inedible, and wonder if AF or AV would be any better. I am inclined to try AF next time I go to BOG, but I understand IB has just reconfigured their J cabin, so their J seats are truly horizontal & flat.

AdamSouthFL

Tonight I just received an email from Taca with a Distancia number saying they have matched my Avianca Elite Status to their Distancia Horizonte level. I never signed up for Distancia nor requested a status match.

I'll have access to all AV and TA lounges. Also from now until March 26 I can earn double miles on AV flights when crediting to my Distancia account. And effective March 1, 2010, all flights on AV count towards upgrading my Distancia level (in other words, AV flight miles are now elite qualifying).

Similarly, Avianca is running a promotion that one can earn double miles on TA flights when crediting to the Aviancaplus account. But they do not say that TA flights count towards elite qualification.

Am I missing something? Why would I want to be elite on both of these airlines when they are merging? Why would I want two accounts to split my miles? Wouldn't it make more sense to just merge the FF programs together?

skyteamelite

I agree... They're clueless, I have no idea what they're thinking or who's advising them...

arfgoblue

I am AV elite flying with TACA next week, and I haven't recieved any info about TACA match. If I did match, does TACA offer free battlefield upgrades for its elites?

Cheers!

dragonfirebcn

AV has done the cabin reconfiguration as well! I have never done AF J but I've done AV (BCN-BOG) and IB (MAD-BOG) in J and I have to say that, even with the old configuration, AV was way superior than IB (but that's not so difficult to achieve). I personally like the AV in-flight service, I've never had an empty glass of wine on my table while flying with them. But I can probably imagine that AF J food should be better, because of the french thing and all...

skyteamelite

I have flown AF BOG-CDG-BOG several times. Overall, their product is much superior to both IB and AV, both in Y and J. (Haven't tried AV transatlantic Y to be fair). The food and wines on AF are just way better than on the other two. The food AF offers in Y is roughly equivalent (in terms of quality) to what you'd get in J with IB or AV.

Of AV and IB, I prefer AV. Thinking back of my transatlantic flights on AV, the one point I was most dissatisfied with was the food... So disappointing!

kiwiandrew

For those who read Spanish - apparently AV-TA are close to deciding which alliance to join - the article suggests that they will make a decision late next month .


http://www.portafolio.com.co/empresa...ich-_7448289-3

While I hope that they will go with *A I am not too sure whether JJ would want to block them because of Ocean Air , and of course there is also the question of CM .

AdamSouthFL

Thanks for the article.

I, too, hope they join Star. He doesn't elaborate much about ST, so I'm reading between the lines to believe they are leaning to *A. I think this would be a great move for both *A and AV/TA as it would completely cover Latin America (Central, Northern, and Southern with JJ) and would be big competition with OW's flights out of South FL and South CA. CO is the only US based *A member that flys to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and I doubt they are able to gain a share of South FL market bcs of connections in EWR or IAH. One can see how the other carriers want flights from MIA to Latin America by the number of DL codeshares that are on AV flights today to BOG, CTG, etc. I think AV has upper hand in selecting an alliance.

And I don't see how the DL codeshare agreement benefits AV as one can buy an AV codeshare on DL out of ATL, which means one must fly on DL metal from BOG.

AdamSouthFL

I don't know too much about Brazilian airlines but like the US, there's probably no problem in having 2 airlines in 1 alliance.

I've wondered about CM too. Perhaps they are happy being the neutral regional carrier with codeshares on KLM and Onepass with CO. I just wish CM would buy a 787 and fly to Madrid.

skyteamelite

I hope AV/TA joins ST and CM joins *A. All 3 major alliances would then have good coverage of Latin America.

It makes perfect sense for CM to follow CO into *A, while it wouldn't make much sense - in my view - for both AV/TA and CM to be in the same alliance... They are each other's main competitors (jointly with LAN).

kiwiandrew

According to this item just posted on Flightglobal AV are 'leaning' towards *A but have not yet made a final decision

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...-alliance.html



Avianca's chairman and owner, German Efromovich, told ATI during the FIDAE 2010 air show in Santiago that "we have a honeymoon with Star Alliance, but SkyTeam and remaining a non-allied carrier are also still the options".
He adds "there are intensive conversations about an alliance membership going on" and "no final decision has been taken yet".

Maybe this is a tactic to persuade DL and AF/KL to offer something really special to go with Sky ?

AdamSouthFL

April has passed and still no announcement about AV/TA joining an alliance. Do you think if they wanted to announce at the end of April that they are now being overshadowed with the news about CO/UA merger?

cnsoccer

http://www.larepublica.com.co/archiv...ance_99319.php

Article is in spanish but it pretty much says the continental united merger sealed the deal and avianca customers will be able to reach more destinations. It says it is still being decided but av will join star in one month.