Avianca review: A330-200 economy class Buenos Aires to Bogota

Avianca review: A330-200 economy class Buenos Aires to Bogota

I know. Normally I’m the king of organization and I post all my trip reports in the order in which I flew them. However, things were kind of busy last summer and I sort of fell behind on my writing schedule a bit. Ok, I will admit that I was feeling slightly lazy as well, but I was mostly busy. I promise. Anyway, this post represents the Avianca review I should’ve written four months ago.

FYI, I’m going to do things slight differently this time. As an experiment, I’m going to use the script from the video as the base for this written review. Then I’ll mix pictures into it as I normally do. I’m getting the sense that nobody reads the entire article anyway, and it’s the pics (and captions) that tell the story. So…why waste time writing an entire article when I already wrote the script for the video months ago? Slowly but surely, I’m learning to work smarter (not harder)…

AV088
Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) – Bogota, Colombia (BOG)
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Aircraft: A330-243
Registration: N974AV
Duration: 5 hours 46 minutes
Seat: 12D (economy class)

Avianca A330-200 side view
Avianca A330-200 side view illustration by Norebbo.com
EZE-BOG flight track
Our route from EZE to BOG this morning
Please note: some of the links below may be affiliate links. This means that I will get paid a commission if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of them.

The video

If you’re a regular consumer of my content, you probably watched this particular Avianca review on my YouTube channel months ago. However, it didn’t get as many views as most of my other videos usually do, so I know there are some of you who are seeing this content for the very first time.

Video reviews are a higher priority for me these days, but even I will admit the time between the publishing of that video and this written review was a bit too long. Shame on me.

The music for this video, of course, came from my good buds over at Epidemic Sound. Do consider subscribing to their service if you need really good music for your own videos!

Arriving at EZE for my first ever Avianca review

I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare before my 5 and a half hour flight up to Bogota on an Avianca A330, and I was feeling pretty good about it. I was a little sleepy still, but…otherwise good.

Curbside EZE Airport
Pre-5am drop offs at the airport (in a country in which I can’t speak the language) are sketchy. This could’ve been the completely wrong airport and I never would’ve known.
Buenos Aires Airport curbside
It looks friendly enough though. Guess I’ll go in and see what happens…
Buenos Aires Airport ticketing hall
Inside the ticketing hall…in what I believe to be Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EZE).
EZE airport departures
Whew! Looks like I am indeed in the correct place. Avianca 088 to Bogota showing an on time departure!

The usual pre flight stuff

Terminal A here in Buenos Aries isn’t all that interesting if I’m being honest. It’s certainly nice…but it’s very basic with limited views to the outside. Oh – and to the cashier of the Havana Coffee shop located adjacent to gate 5 who rang up my breakfast that morning: you are the meanest cashier I’ve ever met. Just sayin’.

Sanspotter selfie EZE
Yours truly, feeling absolutely shell shocked from the interaction I just had with a certain cashier lady. Not a good (or graceful) way to start my first ever Avianca review!
Terminal A EZE airport
I’m not totally up to snuff with EZE, but I was somewhat underwhelmed by terminal A. It’s relatively small and cramped considering how much international traffic runs in and out of here on a daily basis.
Old Avianca livery
Really? I didn’t even know that this Avianca livery even existed anymore.

The old livery on the plane flying me up to Bogota this morning is one of my favorites for sure (and I’m glad it was the one that ended up in this Avianca review), but unfortunately the pic above was the best view of it could get from inside the terminal. Oh well. I was still too flustered about my encounter the meanest cashier lady on planet earth 10 minutes ago to really care.

The boarding process

Just as it was for the boarding process for my Latam flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires two days ago, exactly nobody rushed the gate until it was their turn to do so. It was freaking awesome.

Gate 2 terminal A EZE airport
I can only dream of being this chill right before a flight.
Us passport EZE airport
Spot the gringo!
Boarding Avianca flight
Here we go. At 6am, that arrow was more helpful than you could possibly know.
Avianca a330 boarding door
Apparently I was too sleepy to notice that this is actually a picture of a random dude and not an Avianca A330 boarding door.
Avianca A330-200 economy class
That’s more like it. This A330-200 cabin pic is much more appropriate for a legitimate Avianca review.

Avianca A330-200 economy class is configured in a typical 2-4-2 layout. I had an aisle seat in the center section for today’s flight up to Bogota, which as you will soon see, was chosen for a *very* specific reason.

Is there not a better feeling in the world than knowing that you’re just minutes away from flying thousands of miles away from the meanest Havana Coffee shop person you’ve ever met? I’ve never been more ready to fly in my life.

Avianca a330-200 leg room
Leg room on this A330-200 is pretty good actually. I was too tired to care (or even notice) at the time, but looking at this pic now is a pretty good reminder of how comfortable this was.
Avianca A330-200 cabin interior
A brief look around the cabin revealed a shocking lack of the color red. Sichuan Airlines (and even Hainan Airlines) could teach Avianca a thing or two about red aircraft interiors!
Avianca a330 review
Seems as if the guy on the left wanted to see more red in this Avianca review as well.

You’re probably dying to know why I chose this particular seat. Well, to be honest, at this point, I still wasn’t sure if I made the right choice. Just a few more minutes to go, and I’ll know…

Avianca a330-200 safety card
Yeah, it was waaay too early for reading, but this is necessary for the review.
Avianca a330-200 safety card Inside
If we have to evacuate, I’m dead. Funny how easily our brains give up when deprived of sleep, isn’t it?
Empty seat next to me
Boom. There it is! FYI, as a solo traveler, choosing an aisle seat in the center section of a widebody is always one of the best ways to end up with an empty seat next to you.

I may not have any wing footage in this Avianca review to show you, but I can promise you that I’m feeling like a king here in seat 12D all by my lonesome self.

Avianca A330-200 seat 12D
The view from 12D as we push off the gate.
Free earphones Avianca economy class
As soon as I can figure out how to untangle these headphones, I can continue with this Avianca A330 review. Please have patience, because tangled wads of cords and I don’t get along very well.
Avianca a330-200 review
Such a beautiful sunrise out there as we haul *** down the runway on our takeoff roll. Why is there nobody looking out the window?!
Avianca a330 video screens
It’s ok. It’s too early for a movie anyway.
Avianca a330 video screen size
It’s *never* too early for the moving map however.

What is the breakfast service like in Avianca economy class?

I guess the nice thing about suffering through one traumatic breakfast experience so far this morning meant that I was ready for anything at this point. Clumpy eggs? over cooked potatoes? grumpy flight attendants? bring it.

Avianca economy breakfast
I wonder what the green sticker means? I didn’t care – I would’ve eaten it even if there was a big red X on it.

Should I be worried that I’ve never once heard anyone say amazing things about the food in any other Avianca review I’ve ever seen? Maybe not, considering that I’ve never heard of anyone ending up in the hospital from eating the stuff either.

Avianca food economy class
Looks like we’ve got potatoes which resemble pineapple, and….a sprinkling of ham for flavor.

Despite being one of the blandest looking plate of eggs I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in front of, it was surprisingly decent. Although, I’m guessing that the fact that it wasn’t served with a heaping pile of attitude as well had a lot to do with it. If I had to rate this meal, I’d say: 3 and half stars out of 5.

SANspotter selfie Avianca
Yup. That hoodie goes extremely well with Avianca economy class food.

After breakfast (and before settling down to catch on some sleep), I made a quick trip to the loo. One of these days I’m going to experience an economy class lavatory that impresses me. Today wasn’t that day.

However, this particular visit to the loo was kind of neat because we were 7 miles above the Amazon rainforest, and…I used the loo 7 miles above the Amazon rainforest. If anything, I’d like to think that I’m in a relatively smallish group of people who can say that they’ve *actually* done that.

Relaxing (and trying to sleep) in Avianca economy class

There’s a little over an hour to go at this point, and…I’m not exactly sure what I was hoping for by checking my watch every 5 minutes. Other than massive progress of course.

Apple Watch
How many other airline reviewers can tell you where the DOW was at at any point on any flight they review? I like to be informed.
Sleeping Avianca economy class
I always seem to think I look like Brad Pitt and that these types of casual selfies are gonna be so cool for the blog. Sadly, I’m pretty freakin’ far from looking like Brad Pitt.
Avianca a330-200 row 12
At least I don’t have a loud seatmate snoring in my ear. Things are pretty comfortable here in row 12!

Making time go by even slower was watching our pixel-by-pixel progress on the moving map. Are we there yet?

Final thoughts about my first ever Avianca experience

So that pretty much wraps up my first ever Avianca review! My entire experience was ok I guess, with mediocre food, a decent seat, and most importantly…a cabin crew a million times more friendly than a certain Havana Coffee employee back at EZE.

Avianca flight experience
On the descent into Bogota now, feeling SO happy to be in a completely different country than that meanie from the coffee shop this morning.

If I’m being honest, up until this point, the first thing I thought of when hearing someone say “Avianca” was the crash of flight 52 way back in 1990. For some reason or another, that incident really stuck with me and I’ve never been able to shake it.

Thankfully, being able to experience Avianca for myself absolutely helped to reset my thoughts and my mind doesn’t immediately got to such dark places anymore. How so? Well, it’s been four months since this flight, and I hadn’t even thought of that incident until writing about it just now. For a negative Nancy such as myself, that’s huge.

Avianca A330-200 N974AV
One last look at N974AV as I walk away. A fine A330 she was!
Avianca A330-200 full review
Ok. I lied. THIS is the final pic of the old gal.

By the way, having an empty seat next to me on this flight made all the difference, and…if you’re curious how I’ve been able to make that happen so many times over the past several years, I recently wrote an entire article about it that I recommend reading. It’s stuffed full of good tips, tips, and techniques that’ll make *any* introverted Flyer weak in the knees with excitement.

Comments (14)

  1. Andrew

    October 25, 2019
    • SANspotter

      October 25, 2019
      • Andrew Oriez

        October 27, 2019
        • SANspotter

          October 27, 2019
          • Andrew

            October 30, 2019
          • SANspotter

            October 31, 2019
          • Andrew

            November 7, 2019
  2. Albert

    October 27, 2019
    • Andrew

      October 27, 2019
      • SANspotter

        October 27, 2019
  3. TSov

    October 27, 2019
    • SANspotter

      October 29, 2019
  4. Andrew

    October 30, 2019
    • SANspotter

      October 31, 2019

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