Review of Avianca Brazil flight Porto Alegre Sao Paulo in Economy

Airline Avianca Brazil
Flight ONE6127
Class Economy
Seat 16A
Aircraft Airbus A320
Flight time 01:15
Take-off 13 Aug 16, 10:40
Arrival at 13 Aug 16, 11:55
O6 16 reviews
joaointhesky
Published on 13th January 2017
Welcome to my fourth Flight Report here in F-R.com. This time I am writing about a flight I made in July. I apologise in advance for not having photos of the landing - the video file wasn't working.

I really like Avianca Brasil. Since my first flight with them, on December 2015, I wanted to fly with that amazing airline again. On July, during my winter vacations, I found a fair price for a POA-GRU-POA flight with ONE - BRL271 for a roundtrip, about USD86.
The only problem when I bought the ticket was Avianca's website. It really needed a new template! Exactly this week, I saw that ONE changed its website. It is now way better than before.
photo site one
I made the on-line check-in. The only way to add the boarding pass to my Passbook was sending it to my e-mail. That's not good, too…
Well, I was hoping I could fly on an A320 with the old interior, so I would make a flight report of it. In the day of my trip, I saw on FR24 that PR-AVQ would take me to Guarulhos - ONE's second A320. Of course it had the old interior, the same used on all A319s that make the Rio-São Paulo "air bridge".
I arrived at the airport two hours before my flight. Even though I made the on-line check-in, I made it in the airport, too. There were few people in the line. The airport agent quickly printed my boarding pass and I went to the safety procedures. I was soon in front of my gate.
A photo of my boarding pass
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Some years ago, Infraero (Porto Alegre Airport owner) expanded the check-in and boarding area. Nowadays, LATAM Brasil (TAM) uses this new part of the Terminal. It was like almost an emergency construction, because POA was getting crowded. In Brazil, we call kind of thing a "puxadinho" (something that was made to quickly solve a problem, even though the quality is not the best). Here's the waiting area of the expansion. Behind the windows you can see the real expansion of Terminal 1, that stopped more than a year ago due to non-payment from Infraero to the contractor:
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The "old" side of Terminal 1
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POA serves as a feeder for most of the airlines to their hubs (São Paulo, Rio and Brasília), except for Azul, that flies to some big cities (Cuiabá, Belo Horizonte, Rio, Montevideo, etc.) and some small, too (Santa Maria, Pelotas, Uruguaiana, Passo Fundo, etc.)
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Soon my aircraft arrived. PR-AVQ on a nice morning light!
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This Avianca morning flight from/to GRU always make a quick turnaround. So, in a few minutes, we were boarding on PR-AVQ.
Boarding was really quick, soon I sitted on 16K, a window seat near the wing (wingviews from behind the wing are the best, in my opinion)! Avianca Brasil's A320s transport 162 passengers, while LATAM Brasil transports 174. So everyone flying O6 has a lot of space!
It was all very nice until I saw these words in front of me…
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In the return flight my control didn't work, too.
Soon we were being pushed back.
Video of the take-off



As we were climbing I tried the AVOD system. It's important to say that the entertaiment options are the same both in the old and new interior, the only difference is the system interface. Unfortunately, the screen sensiblity was horrible, so I almost gave up on searching a good thing to watch. The options are displayed in ONE's monthly magazine, "Avianca em Revista". There are movies, games, sitcoms, a flightmap, etc.
"Avianca em Revista" had an interview with Glenda Kozlowski, a Brazilian sports journalist.
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Main menu
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Some sitcom options
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Also, it looks like this version of Avianca's entertainment system is a translated one of the Colombian. The tourism options it shows are only from Colombia, for example! Notice that Avianca Brasil and Avianca Colombia are not the same airline (even though it has the same owner, Synergy Group).
Translation: "Time for arrival in São Paulo - Guarulhos - 0:38
Estimated time of arrival - 11:59"
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Flightmap
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Later I discovered why my control wasn't working.
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In the return flight, my control had the same problem. Anyway, the control looks very nice.
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While I was struggling with the screen to see any film or sitcom, the cabin became full of a delicious smell of hot food. Avianca Brasil is the only airline to serve hot food in domestic flights in Brazil! They mostly serve sandwiches. In the Rio-São Paulo air bridge, however, they serve a hot food and even a dessert (on a 40 minute flight!).
So the flight attendants brought for us a (really) hot sandwich with cheese and ham. It doesn't looks good on the photo, but its taste was amazing! The drink options were the common ones: Pepsi, Guaraná, juices and water, served on plastic cups.
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The sandwich was so good that I asked for some more to the flight attendant, aswell as one more cup of Pepsi. The crew didn't look so happy as I noticed on my other flights with ONE, except for one flight attendant.
After eating a lot, I went to the back of the cabin and took this photo.
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Cruising!
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This is a nice way to promote ONE's frequent-flyer program, "Programa Amigo", or "Friend Program", in english. Translation: "Do you wanna make that international trip with points? Visit our website and register"
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Soon we were descending.
Doing the traditional approach over Santos city
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São Paulo is a huge city!
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As I said before, I lost the video of the landing. Sorry!
Thanks for reading this flight report, I'm always trying to improve :)
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Verdict

Avianca Brazil

8.6/10
Cabin10.0
Cabin crew7.5
Entertainment/wifi7.0
Meal/catering10.0

Porto Alegre - POA

9.1/10
Efficiency8.5
Access8.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

Sao Paulo - GRU

9.5/10
Efficiency10.0
Access8.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

Along with Azul, ONE has the best flight experience in Brazil. I recommend it to everybody!
The cabin was nice, very clean and comfortable.
Cabin crew was not so friendly as I'm used to, except for a flight attendant, that was happy. In general, they just did what they had to.
The entertainment system is very, very nice. I would give it a 10 if the screen sensibility and the interface were better. The control was broken, too, but it probably wasn't Avianca's fault.
About the meal, it is amazing to have a hot sandwich! It is sad that they serve only one option, but anyway this is incredible nowadays.

Information on the route Porto Alegre (POA) Sao Paulo (GRU)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 5 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Porto Alegre (POA) → Sao Paulo (GRU).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Azul avec 8.0/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 23 minutes.

  More information

3 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 381586 by
    SKYTEAMCHC GOLD 10071 Comments
    Hi Joao and thanks for sharing this report with us.
    Great flight with a hot sandwich and a cabin that looks nice despite the IFE controls looking old and the screen not working perfectly. Great viwes on approach.
    Be aware that your name is visible on your ticket except if you don't mind.
    • Comment 381694 by
      joaointhesky AUTHOR 68 Comments
      Hi and thanks for commenting on my FR :D
      Yes, the IFE screen is old, but the new version of it is way better. There were a lot of good options, so the entertainment was very satisfying for a one-hour flight... if the control was not broken.
      Thanks again!
  • Comment 381860 by
    Chibcha SILVER 540 Comments
    I'm glad AVB gave you such a satisfying flight, it's Colombian sister is not as nice.

    I haven't seen the IFE remote problem before, it's a shame people don't take care of things, thanks for sharing!

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