I use Taca... Uhh,, Errr... Avianca a lot between SJO and MDE or BOG. Right in the midst of their home turf. I still get errors more often than not. They have a really bad database/shopping cart system.

If you speak Spanish, you can get help from their customer support after more than an average wait on hold with a lot of repetitive and annoying announcements. My average wait (no status except *G) is between 30 and 40 minutes. I'm fortunate that my Spanish is better than average, so I can always get through the call and accomplish what I need.

If you don't speak SPanish, then I believe calling during daylight hours will give you the best shot at finding someone who thinks they speak English. Those calls take me longer, but they would be the only option for someone who doesn't speak fairly fluent Spanish.

Waiting on the web site is just a craps shoot. It is my least favorite booking site. Maybe it will improve with the merger now complete, but many of us know how long those bugs can take to work out.

Good luck. Hang in there, and I think you'll enjoy the hard and soft products enough to be worth it. That said, I'm seeing a decline in food quality in clase negocios lately. Still better than US carriers, but nothing as good as I was getting earlier this year and last. I still like them overall, and I'm glad they serve markets I frequent.

Most of us here don't fly Taca/Aviance metal at all, and are more interested in their Lifemiles program, and particularly redemptions on * alliance!!

a few interesting points that might be of help to some of you:

The error i was getting was happening after entering the passengers names & dob. Apparently that still creates a request in the database, which is left in standby, and thus any subsequent request for the same flight will also error out. From what LM has been telling me, they can't clear it manually and you have to wait until it gets purged automatically from their db (5-7 days).

I am still under that mark from my last request so waiting until the end of the week until i try again and will report success or failure. I am holding the seats with a DM reservation in the time being, renewing it every 3 days...

Another interesting point, is if you purchase by phone, they don't give you the option to do cash and miles, or at least at the same price as on the website.

Synd

Really? That is very interesting. Do you know how they price the miles in the least cash, most miles option?

I have been trying to book a one way South East Asia - UK for April 2014. Tried different cities (KUL/SIN/CGK/BKK) but all ended up with an error page. This is getting very frustrating. I guess I will need to wait til weekend when I have the time to contact their call centre and try to book the flight.

Strange. I tried SIN-LHR on on random dates in early April 2014 and I found multiple flights available in boht business and coach.

What class are you looking for? May be issues with your browser??

I was looking for business. They did show up but once I try to book the flight the error page comes out. I have tried 3 different browsers and cleared the cache/browsing history but I still get the error! :-(

SingaporeDon,

The price i got on the phone was 30 USD for each 1K miles.

[QUOTE=KenInEscazu;21019279]I use Taca... Uhh,, Errr... Avianca a lot between SJO and MDE or BOG. Right in the midst of their home turf. I still get errors more often than not. They have a really bad database/shopping cart system.

If you speak Spanish, you can get help from their customer support after more than an average wait on hold with a lot of repetitive and annoying announcements. My average wait (no status except *G) is between 30 and 40 minutes. I'm fortunate that my Spanish is better than average, so I can always get through the call and accomplish what I need.

If you don't speak SPanish, then I believe calling during daylight hours will give you the best shot at finding someone who thinks they speak English. Those calls take me longer, but they would be the only option for someone who doesn't speak fairly fluent Spanish.

Waiting on the web site is just a craps shoot. It is my least favorite booking site. Maybe it will improve with the merger now complete, but many of us know how long those bugs can take to work out.

Good luck. Hang in there, and I think you'll enjoy the hard and soft products enough to be worth it. That said, I'm seeing a decline in food quality in clase negocios lately. Still better than US carriers, but nothing as good as I was getting earlier this year and last. I still like them overall, and I'm glad they serve markets I frequent.[/QUO

Avianca have many CSR who speak excellant English. The pro lem is gross incompetence and crap systems

Was that for just a few miles?
As you know, online, when you go for more money, less miles option, the initial miles cost 3 cents a mile, but then slowly the price starts decreasing and gets to 1.5 cents per mile at one point somewhere near 80% or maximum miles you can buy. The cost per mile then starts going up, and at the end when you reach 60% cash, 40% miles, your average cost of all the miles you bought is about 1.7 cents if I remember it correctly

In your case, did the phone CSR offer similar prices, or a flat 3 cents a mile for all of your 60% miles??

I can get all the way upto the credit card page. Usually, it tickets and gives you a PNR straight away. I am surprised you are having problems booking online

I can only get up to the credit card page on Europe - SE Asia leg, never encounter any problem. SE Asia - Europe is a completely different story. I have been trying again in the past 30 mins without luck. I may try email lifemiles support before calling them