PDXmilespoints503

Good day my wife and I are on Flight 86- BOG to LAX- on B787. Two quick questions

any preferred biz class seats for us to be together?

any flight reports- look like some flight reports with the B787 BOG to LHR but not to LAX. Thanks so much!

beachfan

i am also keenly interested - seems like the best way from LAX to Columbia, only lie flat perhaps?

jkreisler999

I fly this route a lot. The business class is 1-2-1 seating, so best to grab two seats in the middle if you want to sit together. Also, best to avoid the first and last rows of either business cabin (there are 2) as they are near galleys and bathrooms so they can get loud.

Hard product is excellent. Same planes used to fly to Madrid and London. I Would argue the best business class product from South America to west coast. Seats are great, fully lie flat with good bedding... Food is usually alright, not exceptional but not bad either. They also usually have a decent wine selection. Service, however, is very inconsistent. That is really the only downside.

KKinLA

jkreisler999 is right. I flew this route a couple days ago.

The center seats are best for a couple traveling together.

I would avoid the last two rows at all costs. They are in a mini-cabin behind the galley. Avianca is pretty good about keeping the front curtains closed so the first two seats wouldn't be too bad but best bet would be rows three, four or five.

dll

Just took this flight earlier in the week. It's a nice daytime flight, and as others mentioned the hard product is quite nice. Seats are spacious and comfortable, IFE is good and the amenity kit, pillow and blanket all quite good.

Meal service was TERRIBLE, IMO. There is a lunch service after takeoff with a salad, cheese plate and choice of three main courses. I had a chicken dish (stuffed chicken roll) that had zero taste and was incredibly dry. The horror of that main course pales in comparison to the pre-landing snack, a sandwich warmed up containing random bits of dry chicken and some mayonnaise. I've never been to prison but I can only imagine this is what prison food is modeled upon.

Bring some snacks to keep you from going hungry.

We arrived in LAX on schedule. After a very slow taxi of 30 minutes we were made to park at a remote stand at the west end of the airport. The bus service to US customs was slow and took forever. From wheels down to exiting customs was over an hour for me. Plan accordingly, you might get lucky and have a TBIT arrival gate (I've seen the Avianca 787 parked at TBIT some nights).

Cymbo

Boy, dll got this one right! The outbound to BOG was OK, I passed on the offered meal as I had enjoyed an excellent selection in the Star Alliance lounge and the flight was an hour late departing. A meal at 11.40 pm is not my choice. However the return was maybe even more awful for me. The fact that I chose the same stuffed chicken roll meant I shared the same tasteless offering. It was in essence a very bland economy meal served on china! The cheese selection was pathetic, three ho hum cheeses with a single tiny sliver of guava paste. Nasty little soft rolls and a boring salad with about enough balsamic dressing for a teacup-sized salad portion. Dessert was quite gelatinous and nondescript. Extremely poor service for a premium cabin, essentially a quick drink offering, hot towel and lunch followed hours later by hot towels and near LAX, another quick beverage offering and that truly horrid chicken sandwich stuck to a plate. The attendants essentially disappeared for multi-hour stretches! The seat was OK and the movies selections satisfying (I ended up watching Argo and Casablanca again) and enjoyed them. Upon arrival at LAX I was, as a wheelchair user, forced to engage in a time-wasting and extremely irritating charade. There were 17 wheelchairs lined up at the arrival gate and ultimately only four people to push them. I blame Avianca totally for this mess as when I remonstrated with some AV employees, they were adamant they had complained to BOG HQ on numerous occasions about this farcical situation. We were essentially pushed and reassembled then pushed and reassembled, five times, before we got to the Custom's counter. Unbelievable. Enough is enough..... I got my bags onto a cart and used it as my support as I cleared out almost two hours after landing. The Customs area was far from busy and the bulk of the Pax were long gone before our "Push and Pause" bunch had reached baggage claim. United, SFO-IAH-BOG is suddenly looking a much more attractive option for me.

KKinLA

I concur with the above two posts. Do not choose this flight for the meal service. On the return flight I had the cerdo (diced pork) and it was not very good. I also passed on the sandwich because it did not look good.

But, that being said, the service was good and I like the flat bed seats (especially for the lax-bog leg).

I've flown this trip twice and did not experience any delays or issues on arrival like the two previous posters.