📅 17.03.2024
🎫 AV 85
💺 6K (Business Class)
🛫 BOG - Bogotá El Dorado Airport 🇨🇴
🛬 GRU - São Paulo Guarulhos Airport
🎨 Avianca
✈️ Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
🇺🇸 N783AV
-
6 hour flight in Business Class for roughly 650$? Sounded like a great opportunity to have a better sleep than usual on my way to Brazil, and for a travel report showing much more than just wingviews!

⭐️ FLIGHT EXPERIENCE CHRONOLOGY ⭐️ (evaluation further below)

00:05 - Avianca Diamond Lounge: For Business Class ticket holders, the access is free. There are seating and relaxing areas, and of course a complimentary buffet with soft drinks, juices, beer, wine and champagne.

00:34 - Boarding and seat: Business Class passengers & members can take a separate priority lane (Group A) throughout the boarding procedure. The initial boarding was aborted as there was a technical issue with engine no. 2. The boarding restarted 2 hours later.

The spacious lie-flat seat comes with several features like a large screen, solid headphones, stuffed seat belt, blanket & pillow in an eco bag, amenity kit (incl. Rituals products). I chose seat 6K, which is in the first row of the middle section. As there are only 2 business class rows in that section (separated from economy), the cabin feels much more private than in the front section. In contrary to most other carriers with the same seating layout, Avianca doesn't have slide doors, which would offer even more privacy.

01:18 - Takeoff on runway 14L: Due to the high elevation, the takeoff run was quite long, followed by a nice view of the city lights during climb out

03:47 - Dinner and lie-flat seat: The dinner contained a beef fillet and aspargus, red wine (choice between 2 sorts) and a chocolate mousse for dessert. Overall a tasty meal!

The seat has 3 main configurations: upright, generously reclined & flat bed. After dinner, it was time for the latter configuration. My 1.91m body length fitted just enough for a comfortable sleeping position.

04:08 - Descent & landing in São Paulo: I woke up at the moment as the aircraft started its descent into GRU. There was no breakfast or refreshing towel service, but probably, this was given to the flight being within continent and less than 6 hours. The approach led alongside São Paulo's skyline, however, the low clouds mostly obstructed the view. After landing, we got a remote stand for disembarking.

⭐️ EVALUATION ⭐️

Overall, it was an awesome experience, based on the fact that I usually fly economy. When I purchased the flight, eco was already at 500$, which made me buy the biz class ticket at the bargain price of 650$ straight away instead. Given that you have complimentary lounge access with food & drinks for free + a more sophisticated meal on board and the lie flat seat, the price was totally worth it!

Seat: Avianca has a comfortable 1-2-1 configuration in the front and middle cabin section, which gives everyone direct aisle access. The seat was great and comfortable enough in all 3 pre-configured positions, even for me as a tall person. A slide door could give some more privacy, as it is usual nowadays with many airlines, but by seating in the smaller biz section with only 8 seats separated from the economy section, it already felt quite private.

Service: Being a rather short Boeing 787 flight at 5.5-6 hours flight time (same route is also served by A320), there was not as much service as with intercontinental flights. The crew was friendly and helpful when I had interactions with them.

Catering: Dinner on board was tasty and presented as you would expect it for business class. On this route, food is only served once, about 1 hour into the flight due to the explained flight duration. The lounge food choice was good, and there was a great choice for beverage of all kinds.