Boliviana De Aviacion A330 Business Class: A Great Value

Thank you for this! Question - was there amenity kits handed out?

@ Tyler -- Nope, no amenity kits, sadly.

This is great! You mentioned that business class tickets must be booked through an online travel agency. Which travel agency did you book through?

Flew that airline when I visited Uyuni salt flat.

I'm not sure what your expectations were going into the flight but was this a case of don't meet your heroes?
Thankful for the review and diverse content either way!

@Lucky: Is there a chance that for whatever reason the flight gets downgraded to a regular A320 for instance? Happened to me twice with Avianca years ago.

How full was the flight, in both business and economy?

First rule of flying: Don't eat the fish.

@ Christian — I like to live on the edge.

Seems extremely unlikely. They don't operate A320s, and the 6 and a half hour flight time is pushing the limits of how far their 737s could fly. Possible they could downgrade it to a 767, would all depend how long the crew have as a layover in Miami, if they rest and operate the return 16 hours later or not.
Avianca probably have dual rated A320/330 pilots, or may not even have layovers at all with their 3 hour flight times, making it very easy for them to switch between their types

@ Nik — Economy seemed to be nearly full, while business class was around 60% full.

@ Daniel B. — They’re very consistent about flying the correct equipment to Miami. 🙂

@ AA70 — If anything, I was just hoping for a little more excitement or drama. I’m not here to manufacture that, though. But yes, I think “don’t meet your heroes” might be a good description, heh.

Thank you for your quick answer. Reassuring.

@lucky: Thank you for your quick answer. Reassuring.

Seats do look comfy. Ex Wamos and Hifly. I wouldn’t have expected a great meal service, which you confirmed.

Was there any lounge access given in MIA?

A shame - I wrote them asking as a request - lets see what they have to say...

Correct me if Im wrong but there are is no Lounge Access in Term F correct? Did they supply any alternatives pre-flight?

Not sure if you know but BOA partners with AA, you can book them through American but you have to call. Rates are great, I flew DCA-MIA-VVI and got access to the AA lounge in MIA. Plus you earn AAdvantage miles so it's a win win.

Did you get loyalty points as well? I don't see any mention of BoA as an AA partner. Is this specifically for the DCA market or in general?

Weird, I've gotten amenity kits on BoA's A330. Maybe it's only out of VVI, not into VVI?

The cabin is much more gorgeous than I expected, even knowing these are former Virgin AU aircraft. Even with “meh” catering and service this definitely seems a comfortable away to get to Latin America.

Thanks for the great idea to fly down to Brazil or Argentina with them!

Funny how the MIA catering manages to look just like emerging market origin city catering.

I can see that, was almost was hoping for a little something more than "I purchased a flight and was offered a decent value experience in return."
Regardless looking forward to the full review

@Ben, were you able to check in online? (Do they offer online check-in at all?)

@ hbilbao -- Amazingly enough, that did work!

@ John Ryan -- Nope, the airline doesn't provide lounge access for business class. For that matter, the airline flies out of Concourse F in MIA (eek), and that doesn't even have an open lounge at the moment.

Well Thankyou VA

@ Greg -- LOL. I mean, they do a lot of AA catering, so...

The little cup of Ken's salad dressing tells me all I need to know about the meal service.

I called - and asked for a special request....a BOA amenity kit is one you only find in a rabbit hole - how was it for you? im destined to get one and wont give up lol

I've flown on that plane several times, back in its Virgin Australia days when it went from Perth to Sydney and back.

The business class seat is great - it's what you'd expect on a true long haul flight, so is more than enough for a 5 to 6 hour flight.

Sadly, VA only do 737s on PER to SYD now, so it's not really worth paying for J any more. But it's good to see others benefitting from an excellent product, especially at such a reasonable price.

Ben, were you able to go through security and board with just the mobile pass? I had a scare flying BoA out of Miami earlier this year - I got the mobile boarding pass at online check in, went through security with it, then got to the gate - only to be told "we only accept paper passes, and you have been offloaded from the flight since you didn'y check in..." they finally agreed to recheck me in manually after 20 minutes of waiting...

It's a shame you didn't fly their old 767 business class for a blast from the past... to quote Luke Skywalker, "What a piece of junk!"

For me the seat is all I care about in biz. Give me a low cost flat bed with comfy blankets, and you can keep your lackluster catering and mediocre wine. I’ll eat well at a proper restaurant when I get to my destination!

I just booked calling the airline. Did not want to risk snafus and having to deal with agency.

Hello. My wife and I have upcoming BoA flight out of MIA later this month in biz. Is there a way to get seat assignment online now? I tried BofA (check-in) option to view our reservation and nothing pulls up. So, not sure if I have to wait till 24 hours before the flight and then check-in at that time to assign seats. TIA for any help.