Review of Avianca flight from San Salvador to Washington in Business

Preface

I was really excited as this was my first time ever flying with Avianca and I was so excited to get the chance to review it.

Check In and Security

 I arrived at SAL at 7:45, a bit less than 2 hours before my scheduled departure time of 9:35.

Avianca has a few areas to check in. One for economy and one for business class and Star alliance gold. I went to the business class check in, but their kiosks were down, so they said if I had checked in online and wasn’t checking any bags, it was best to just head straight to the gate. So I did. She also informed me that the lounge was located next to gate 10.

I headed upstairs to the security checkpoint. security at San Salvador was relatively easy. You do have to take out your electronics and remove your belt, but that’s really it. There was also no line so it took only a minute or two.

The Lounge: The Avianca Sala VIP Lounge

Once through security, I made my way to the Avianca lounge. I had access through two methods: (1) I’m Star Alliance gold and (2) I’m flying in business class.

The lounge was pretty spacious, and had a lot of seating options. I chose to sit in an area with some couches, that was tucked away a bit. Now, that I'm writing this and look at it- I realize that this was a children's room. Oops!

The lounge has free wifi. The password is posted on a sign at the lounge entrance.

The lounge has a self service coffee station, and a food station that is not self service. You tell them what you would like, and they will serve it to you on a plate. The breakfast was quite good.

More Security??

I headed to the gate a few minutes before boarding was set to begin at 8:35. Yes, I was surprised that it was an hour before departure time also.

As I was walking over, I got a picture of the A320neo that would be taking us to Washington today.

But then I found out why the boarding time was an hour prior to departure. There was an additional security screening where we had to remove all electronics, shoes, liquids, etc.

Boarding, the Cabin, and Seat

I boarded the aircraft in group A, which is for business class and Star Alliance Gold members. I selected seat 1A today, which is a window seat in the bulkhead and on the left side of the aircraft. Baggage will need to be put in the overhead bin for taxi, takeoff, and landing. Although, the bins over rows 1 and 2 had hazmat items in them like oxygen containers and fire extinguishers, so they weren’t usable.

Which meant that everyone in business class had to put their items above row 3. I was glad that I was the first one onboard because that meant that I had my first pick, but it wasn’t ideal.

I was surprised to find bedding with a pillow and a blanket at my seat, which is never typical for business class in the Americas.

The seat is interesting and unique to Avianca. At first glance, it looks like a European business class seat, which is an economy seat with the middle seat blocked off. However, there’s a center console and it actually has an open space beneath it and above the seat cushions, so you actually do have a good amount of space.

There’s a universal power outlet with a USB A charging port. There’s also a cubby hole where you can store things.

The tray table is located in the left armrest, and there are two windows at this seat, but the second window is kind of shared with the person behind you. The seat was thin, but strangely, still felt well padded.

Pre-Departure

I was also fortunate enough to have nobody seated next to me.

At 9:13, our purser, Sandy, came by to introduce herself, she handed me a welcome card with her name on it, an amenity kit, and a bottle of water.

Taxi and Takeoff

At 9:15, Sandy came on the PA to make an announcement to welcome everyone on board and announced our flight time of 4 hours.

At 9:17, the safety demonstration began. It was perfored in both English and Spanish. I quite like Avianca’s tag line “where the sky belongs to all of us!”



At 9:23, we pushed back. 12 minutes ahead of schedule.

At 9:30, we had lined up on runway 07 for departure and began our takeoff roll.

Cruise

At 9:34, we reached 10,000 feet and were well on our way to Washington.

I decided to open the amenity kit to see what it contained. It had a pair of socks, lip balm, toothbrush and toothpaste, hand cream, an eyeshade, earplugs, and some tissues. Which is just what you’d need on a flight like this.

I like the design of the amenity kit, it’s colorful and I like the attention to detail with the silver button with the avianca logo on it.

I decided to check out the in flight entertainment. Avianca doesn’t have seatback screens on its narrowbody fleet, but does offer personal device entertainment streamed to your device. You connect to their WiFi network and you have access to some movies and tv shows.

I wouldn’t say that Avianca’s entertainment is lacking. It has a good number of movies and tv shows to stream. Just not as much as United or American but it does have a good variety.

The interesting thing is that although Avianca has WiFi for streaming entertainment. There’s no onboard internet connectivity. So you can’t get any work done, really.

I was wondering when service would start. But then I smelled food being heated in the galley, so I figured they were probably getting the meals ready before they asked us what we wanted.

At 9:56, Sandy came by to offer us lunch. It was a choice of chicken with vegetables or beef with vegetables. I went with the chicken and then she asked what I wanted to drink which was only a choice between red wine, white wine, or beer. I went with red wine. It seems strange that no hard liquor is served on board. Ordinarily, business class offerings have a full liquor selection.

1 minute later, my meal was brought out. Which meant that I was right about the meals being prepared ahead of time.

It was a small piece of chicken that was super rubbery and inedible. The sauce wasn’t good, and the vegetables weren’t good. The dessert, which was a chocolate mousse with mixed berries was quite tasty but overall, this wasn’t a good meal at all.

A few minutes later, we hit some pretty rough turbulence and the flight attendants had to take their jump seats.

Despite the turbulence, Sandy still came by to clear my tray and brought me another glass of red wine.

I decided to switch my clock to Washington time at this point, making it 11:21 am in Washington. So, we had about 3 hours remaining in flight.

I ended up randomly falling asleep for about an hour. I was tired I guess.

As soon as Sandy saw that I was awake, she came back to ask if I wanted something else to drink. I went with a Coke Zero, which tends to be my usual drink of choice after napping on a daytime flight.

After a bit, Sandy came by with a snack basket. The options were limited. I got some rice chips which were bland and mostly inedible. She also refilled my Coke Zero.

Descent and Arrival

At 1:58, we began our descent into Washington.

We touched down on runway 1C at 2:21 pm, and began our taxi to the gate.

We sat for a few minutes on the tarmac before parking at gate B48 at 2:34 pm for a 20 minute early arrival.