Review of Avianca flight from Bogota to F. Lauderdale in Economy

Hello everyone! To continue with the throwback thursday series, this time I bring a trip to Ft. Lauderdale in Southern Florida.
Back in the day, AV was receiving their new airbuses, those were happy times, positive times. Avianca was changing for good. From being bankrupt to a thriving airline, with state of the art airplanes and whats even more, an improved service with PTVs in Y and all. All my flights with Avianca had been either domestic flights or short internationals to Panamá (which is as long as a flight to the Caribbean coast of Colombia), so I never had the wholesome Avianca experience before. I did once, when 3 years old but I don't recall much other than flying a B727, when I flew for the first time to MIA with my mum. So the chance came, and again I was traveling to Miami with my mum for this new experience, it was really exciting.
It is customary when traveling with my mum to have breakfast at the Crepes&Waffles Restaurant. It had a nice view to the former cargo apron, now the site of the new International Terminal. An A332 basking in the morning sun.

One of the greatest features of the former terminal was that one could do nice spotting from the public area, the main domestic airlines of the time in the house:

I loved AIRES' livery…what a shame its gone.
We then went to the gate, but our plane wasn't there yet. It was eventually towed into the gate. It had a commemoratory sticker for AV's 90th anniversary.

Once in, the new interior was awesome ( I like more AV's new interior with the gray leather seats…the fabric ones are indeed a bit to drab).
AV's seat was (and I consider it is still) one of the best in America. The footrest was a nice addition but I seldom use it, and it has been removed as far as I know.

SATENA's Embraer to somewhere far in the Orinoco or in the Amazon regions.

AV still had 757s, never had the chance to fly in one of those…bummer.

We taxied to RWY 13L…in the meanwhile, the PTVs showed this… I was: OMFG we won't have PTVs for the flight, but my mum (who had already flied on an airbus) was like don't worry honey, it's normal).

Take offs to the US eastern seaboard are northward in BOG. Anything to the West involves a southward departure. So this time pics are different from other reports I've done.

El Salitre Business Centre is discernible…it was a polluted day

80th St and Bogotá's signature smog

Córdoba Marsh and 116th St.

Looking to the zone between 127th and 100th streets, the Usaquen and WTC business districts are visible on the foothills of the Cerros.

134th St, Bogotá's Country Club is visible in the middle.

Portal Norte zone, and the 170th St intersection with Autopista Norte

El Rancho Country Club

Autopista Norte, links Bogotá with the Boyacá Department.

Briceño, Cundinamarca. The golf course of Aposentos urbanization is visible.

Between Boyacá and Santander Departments

Clear blue skies for us…clouds for those bellow.

Barranquilla's Ernesto Cortissoz Airport.

And Barranquilla…sadly not the best view of Colombia's Golden Gate

Then service begun…either Chicken or Beef…Mum went for the beef, I went for the chicken. It didn't taste to anything, had to pour industrial amounts of salt to give it some flavour.

BTW for those who are wondering, AV serves practically the same on their transatlantic routes. A bit lame compared to what's served on European carriers or in Delta.
Jamaica

Over …eh I'll go with Cuba.

I remember that in the good days of yore pilots would tell us when we where over some point of interest…now we must rely on this:

Sadly the huge Tupolev over the map doesn't let you really tell where you are…practically somewhere near Florida and far from Bogotá.
So after Cuba, the Bahamas come…it's the most beautiful sea I've ever seen. Everytime I pass over there I think of Enya's Caribbean Blue

This is my favorite feature of AV's IFE. I consider they do have a good music selection (way better than their movie and TV selection) and the jukebox function is the best I've tried so far.

Then there was this message over the PA, that since we were less than 30m from landing, FAA regulations did not allow for anyone to stand up. This bin got opened and I didn't dare to stand up to close it, I called for someone from the crew to close it but they were serious about the bin. No one closed it and we landed with that thing open, what a reckless safety threat, I would have surely sued AV if an object fell over me because of that.

I hoped for an eastward arrival into FLL which would have allowed for some nice views of SoFL's extensive suburbia and sprawl eating the Everglades…but we lined up with RWY 27R so an ocean approach it was. At least we had decent views of Ft. Lauderdale's CBD and Port Everglades.

We parked at the H gates of Terminal 4 (FLL's only international terminal) besides an Air Canada junglejet

N416AV at the gate

We were in the FIS in no time, and we were just before Spirit's bank made it back to its hub. It was fairly piece of cake. Bags were picked and ourselves too by my great-aunt and so begun my little escapade to Miami.