Early last year I visited Colombia for the first time, and had an incredible time. I only visited Cartagena and Bogota — I loved Cartagena, while I wouldn’t return to Bogota. However, I’ve heard that there are lots of other beautiful parts of the country as well.
Cartagena, Colombia
As an American Airlines loyalist (well, at least historically), the issue is that American only flies to Bogota, so we flew to Bogota, and then connected to Cartagena on Avianca. It was an easy enough process, though it was also sort of annoying to connect, given that Cartagena isn’t that from the US.
In fairness, Cartagena is already served by other US airlines — Delta flies from Atlanta, JetBlue flies from New York and Fort Lauderdale, and Spirit flies from Fort Lauderdale. I’m surprised American doesn’t fly there, given that they’re traditionally the strongest US carrier in Latin America.
Well, if you’re interested in visiting Cartagena and are an American flyer, there’s some good news — American is launching daily flights between Miami and Cartagena as of December 15, 2017. The flight will operate with the following schedule:
AA1145 Miami to Cartagena departing 10:55AM arriving 1:47PM
AA1144 Cartagena to Miami departing 2:37PM arriving 5:39PM
The flight will be operated by an Airbus A319, covers a distance of roughly 1,100 miles, and is blocked at about three hours in each direction.
Award availability on the flight isn’t great (come and think of it, that’s true of American on the whole). There’s no saver level business class award space, and a limited number of dates with economy award seats (availability gets significantly better towards the end of the schedule, in late February and March).
If you’re someone who likes hotel loyalty programs, the other good news is that a Hyatt Regency recently opened in Cartagena, which looks quite nice. I imagine this is a good points option, though the location of the property isn’t ideal.
The new Hyatt Regency Cartagena
I stayed at the Hilton Cartagena when I visited, which wasn’t especially nice.
However, I also stayed at the Sofitel, located in the heart of the old town, and loved it.
The beautiful Sofitel Cartagena
Cartagena is a great place, so I’m happy to see that American will soon fly there as well.
Anyone else like Cartagena, and excited about this new flight?
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