Review of Avianca flight Lima → Porto Alegre in Economy

Hey guys and welcome to the last FR of my Peru trip. This time, covering a great experience with Avianca Perú.

It will be quite a short report, once the flight was a red-eye and I was super tired, so you know.

at the airport - check-in & boarding

After some very nice days in Peru, it was unfortunately time to go home. The time gap between the hotel check-out limit and my flight was of almost ten hours, but still I thought it would be nice to go straight to the airport.

Check-in and baggage checking was fast, with much cordiality. After that, I went to the food court for lunching. The place was chaotic, completely crowded, so I went to enjoy my McDonald's in an uncomfortable way in the floor of a corridor which was next; some other passengers also had this idea, so you can clearly see this is a big issue in Lima airport. Well, besides the precarious condition, my hamburger, along with the famous Inca Kola, was pretty good.

 
The customs/screening procedures in Peru were also very quick. At that time of the day, there were not many international flights. The traffic increases when the sun goes down, when the European flights arrive, along with Avianca and LATAM hub waves.

It's always exciting to spot my city in an international airport screen like this!

Well, after hours and hours sitted - with paid wi-fi -, finally at 21:26 our flight was called, respecting priorities. Nothing much rushed, once our flight was pretty empty that day. 

My boarding pass for today

Today I would fly on A320 registered N688TA, on special Star Alliance colors. The interior was much newer than the one I had flown days before, with personal screens and an adjustable headrest. The aircraft had just arrived from Medellín, Colombia, and would go to Porto Alegre after a two-hour stop in Lima.

Let's go then

View from my seat, more to the back of the aircraft.

Indeed, the flight was empty, certainly with less than a half of the seats occupied. The two other seats in my row were even empty, giving me some good hours of comfortable sleep, thankfully. By the way, one of the FAs was even Brazilian, and he did speeches in Portuguese, English and Spanish. I talked to him a little bit. A super nice guy, considering the terrible time of the flight. He told me he worked at International Avianca for years.

View from the back of the galley. There you can see an Aerolíneas Argentinas 737-800, as well as an Avior 737-400 in the background.

Before the flight starts, the personal screens transmit some announcements and promotes Avianca destinations, just as in my first flight. 

One of Avianca's latest campaigns promoted their workers. So in each seat of the aircraft, there was a nominal "thank-you" sign to one of their employees. 

departure

With the low load factor, in a few moments our doors were closed and pushback was started. The taxi, though relatively short, took quite a while, due to the intense traffic in Lima airport. 

The safety procedures video was showed on the screens, while we taxied. At 22:15 Lima time, that is, 15 minutes after the estimated time, we took off.

ONBOARD SERVICES

Quickly the entertainment system was available. There were tons of movies/sitcoms/etc options, but I chose the Liam Gallagher live at New York show. LG is one of my true musical heros, along with Noel and the Beatles, so yeah, it was quite an easy choice, you know. 

Then the best part of the flight came: dinner. At 23:03 Lima time, 38 minutes after take-off, service was started. The options were meat with sauce and lasagne. I chose the meat, which was utterly delicious, with a sweet taste of Brazilian Stroganoff. The food was served along with some salad, a piece of cake and a little bread. To drink, sodas, juices, water, coffee, and much to my surprise, lots of alcoholic options. I asked for a Coca-Cola and also some coffee to take me to that much-needed sleep. At 23:37 everyone was served and the service was over.

In the name of a good journalistic coverage - I swear! - after this first service I asked for the lasagne too. It was also really great. Overall, I can definetely say this service was so much better than in my POA-LIM flight.

Since my flight was during the World Cup, the airline promoted, in their napkins, their support to the Colombian football team. 

descent and landing

After such a "light" dinner, I laid in the three seats I had and slept for the whole flight. When I woke up, pretty uncomfortable due to the terrible position in which I rested, we were already on descent. At 04:24 Porto Alegre time, we landed on runway 29 of my home airport, ending a really sweet flight. What a way to finish such a trip! 

With the empty flight at that time, once this flight was the first of the day, customs were super fast. In minutes I was already going home.
 
Now all I needed was some rest…

post flight

Overall, this flight experience with Avianca was much better than the POA-LIM one. Avianca showed, from what I've seen, two much different products in the same flight. This sensation can be negative, mainly to the frequent flier. Apart from that, it was almost a perfect flight. A comfortable aircraft, a good entertainment system and some amazing food, besides the advantages of a direct flight; this is what the passenger wants, and that's why this flight sucessfully operates since 2011.