Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[Cynicor]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

So is it working again, then?

 

[TheBOSman]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

So is it working again, then?

Successfully ticketed just now. All is well for anyone else seeking to get in under the wire.

 

[jsoprano]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Just spend an hour on the phone to Avianca in the US getting my ticket paid and issued... what a nightmare! The bad conenction via Skype didn't help. Then before being able to sort the 2nd ticket I got disconnected...arghh! Now trying to call again but either cant' get through or they can't hear me.

Question: is there a better number to call rather than the US/Cananda call centre? I don't speak Spanish so rely on English speakers. If anyone has experience please share, thanks!

 

[shannan94]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Just called after not receiving a call back overnight to put my payment through... Informed my booking has gone through 'fine' and they will take 24-48 hours to ticket the reservation at which point they will inform me my credit card has been charged. Not the easiest call centre to deal with, transferred about 10 times to different people.

I just pray that means I'm not going to be bumped up to the higher rate considering I put the reservation through on the 13/10

 

[Cynicor]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

My email back says to try again, haven't had time to check availability yet. Hopefully they have cancelled it and returned the seat to the pool.

Are these bookings fully refundable, in case it does go through?

 

[Glider_]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Yes the bookings are refundable, with a $50 fee. Be aware though that you will only receive the taxes part back in money, the rest will be in points. This is relevant if you used the points + pay option. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just something to be aware of. Other posts seem to indicate the refund of your taxes can take anywhere from 1-6 weeks.

 

[BobbyFlyer]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I did a booking yesterday which didnt go through as said my credit card payment did not work (which i know is not the case as have used it many a time with them) and no points deducted. Booking is there in Check My Trip but as expected not ticketed.
Interestingly i see there are still the seats on the LM system. Not sure if Air Canada released more or if these are the original booking.
Looking for advice on what to do here. I didnt call last night as thought i'd just let the whole thing lapse and rebook when released - as i didnt want to waste a whole night on the phone with them. But now i see the seats there, do i try and book these again and let original booking lapse? Is there a chance the original booking will be processed? Will Air Canada kick out one of my bookings when it sees a double up? Or do i just wait until the original booking lapses and rebook again? Any thoughts appreciated!!

 

[gizzard]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Question: is there a better number to call rather than the US/Cananda call centre? I don't speak Spanish so rely on English speakers. If anyone has experience please share, thanks!

I don't know whether they are better or not but I've used both Bogota and Ecuador and, if you look back in the thread, you will find that others have used one or the other. Their english is fine but sometimes it's hard to hear. I didn't see any real difference between the two but prefer Bogota it was slightly cheaper to phone for me. The only drawback that I found was getting the credit card accepted with the auto system.

Call Center - Customer Service Line | Avianca

I notice that they have an online chat too but can't say that I've tried it.

 

[Shanye2233]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I also am excited with the new changes to the award tickets making it extra cheap to travel to Europe next summer

 

[pmdg7444]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

TRUST avianca to be efficient..........old rates still apply. No cheapies to Asia just yet

 

[jsoprano]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I don't know whether they are better or not but I've used both Bogota and Ecuador and, if you look back in the thread, you will find that others have used one or the other. Their english is fine but sometimes it's hard to hear. I didn't see any real difference between the two but prefer Bogota it was slightly cheaper to phone for me. The only drawback that I found was getting the credit card accepted with the auto system.

Thanks. I've tried Bogota earlier today and had exactly the opposite experience to yours: better English speaker than on the US line, call quality was better and he was very competent and quick.

Anyway, I got my partner's ticket sorted now as well, saw that a seat became available on the same flights I booked yesterday when the payment couldn't be processed, so simply booked it again (payment went through without problems now) and then called up to cancel the original, non-ticketed booking.

 

[jsoprano]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Is there a chance the original booking will be processed? Will Air Canada kick out one of my bookings when it sees a double up? Or do i just wait until the original booking lapses and rebook again? Any thoughts appreciated!!

I had the very same issue and called up, they told me they had no record of a credit card transaction so something with the payment interface connecting to their booking system must have been the issue. Without credit card details they can't process it, so unless you call them up to pay it won't go through. Someone in their Bogota call centre who was very knowledgeable told me they had this issue for several hours and all these bookings are in a queue now waiting for those who made the booking to call up.

I had two bookings, for one I called up and got it paid via the phone, then it was ticketed within a few minutes. For the other, because there was still availability on the same flight, I booked it again and then called up and got the first booking cancelled.

 

[digpomi]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Question: is there a better number to call rather than the US/Cananda call centre? I don't speak Spanish so rely on English speakers. If anyone has experience please share, thanks!

I have used the UK number last few times with better results than ringing the USA. The USA number often rings out. I do not ring the South American numbers as calling USA/UK is free on my telstra landline with international calling pack. However, all calls are diverted to South American Call centres anyway. I had a 90 minute call yesterday cancelling some tickets(6 bookings in total). Their automated credit card system seems to be have frequent problems and the agent had to restart the system several times. The initial agent passed me on to another agent as the credit card phone recording would not come on at all. The second agent was quite good and had to reboot his system several times as the $50 cancellation fee has to be processed individually for each ticket and the recording would often go down. This was second try on cancelling the tickets as the week before it was the same problem and the agent gave up in end and said call back later.

 

[TheBOSman]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Sadly it appears many of the miscodes are dead .

 

[msrpres]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Even the boomarangs seem to be dead.

 

[JessicaTam]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Hopefully there will be some snippets left.

 

[BobbyFlyer]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Thanks for your advice jsoprano.

On another note i see new rates uploaded today.

 

[Alanslegal]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Some boomerangs now cost more

But HKG-BKK-SYD F is now 50K woohoo versus 67.5K I was quoted last night

 

[burmans]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Sadly it appears many of the miscodes are dead .

Well it was inevitable they would catch-up with Shanye and others, particularly after they broadcast it.

 

[liparj]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Hopefully there will be some snippets left.

Seek and ye shall find