Boliviana De Aviacion Doesn’t Want You To Book Business Class

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: November 27, 2024
Published: September 24, 2024

43 comments

I’ve booked tickets on a lot of niche carriers over the years, though here’s something that I’ve never seen before.

In this post:

Boliviana de Aviacion doesn’t sell business class direct

As I wrote about in a separate post, I’m finally traveling in Boliviana de Aviacion (BoA) business class from Miami to Santa Cruz de la Sierra (which I’ve been really, really excited about, in case that wasn’t obvious). 😉

While trying to book my ticket, I came across an interesting discovery — BoA doesn’t sell business class tickets directly, but rather you have to book through an online travel agency. This is truly bizarre.

The airline has a “proper” business class product on its Airbus A330s, which fly to Miami (MIA) and Madrid (MAD). But when you go to BoA’s website, you won’t see an option to select a class of service. The flight results are exclusively for economy.

I figured I must be missing something. So I instead did my flight search through Google Flights, which was willing to redirect me to the BoA website to book.

Google Flights search results for Boliviana de Aviacion

But even when redirected to BoA’s website from Google Flights, I still couldn’t find any way to actually book business class. Before anyone asks, BoA’s app is… ummm… interesting. It doesn’t have any booking or reservation management functions, but rather just seems to be a flight status board of sorts.

So I ended up having to book my flight through an online travel agency. That’s easy enough, and it even made the ticket a few dollars cheaper. Business class shows up as normal on any OTA, ranging from Expedia to Booking. But it’s all a bit ironic, since airlines usually work so hard to cut out third parties, and want you to book direct.

I figured I was just totally incompetent, so I hesitated to write about this, because I figured OMAAT readers would quickly point out how I was missing something very obvious. But when I boarded my flight last night and ran into a fellow enthusiast, he brought this up to me as well, and asked if I noticed how you can’t book business class through the carrier’s website. So I’m happy it’s not just me.

Does anyone want to try to to explain this?

I didn’t go to business school, but if my understanding is correct, a key step to running a business is to actually, you know, sell and market the product that you have. Like, if you’re running a lemonade stand, it’s important to make lemonade, but it’s equally important to sell it.

So I really can’t help but wonder what’s going on here:

Am I in fact missing something, and there is actually a way to book business class tickets on BoA’s website?
Does the airline not realize that it’s not selling business class tickets through its website? If so, what’s going on in BoA’s revenue management department?
Is the airline, for whatever reason, unable to get the functionality of selling business class seats onto its website? If so, why?

Is there some other possible explanation I’m not thinking of? I’ve just truly never seen anything like this, which is why I bring it up. It’s not a huge deal as a consumer, but from the perspective of an airline, it makes no sense.

Bottom line

Boliviana de Aviacion is the first airline that I’ve flown that offers a business class product on some flights, but doesn’t actually sell it directly. If you want to book BoA business class, you have to book through an online travel agency. While incredibly minor, I can’t help but be curious what the explanation is for this…

Any insights into BoA not selling business class tickets directly?

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Richard Guest

January 28, 2025, 4:18 pm

Ok, I have a wife from Bolivia and have been reading about BOA's Business Class being very nice. I have been in First Class in American Airlines and United. Looked on the BOA website for a flight from MIA to VVI in January 0f 2025 and found like others that Business Class doesn't exist online. I called BOA customer service in miami and after many attempts reached a Rep that told me that you had to call the same day of travel early in the morning to get a discounted upgrade without paying a high price (i think 5 am, I booked a ticket online for around $500 that was named Eco but was able to select a seat via the call near the front of the aircraft. I called the same day of the flight around 7 am for a flight at 11 pm from MIA to VVI arriving the next at 6 am to request a upgrade to Business Class. I was told the upgrade would cost $180 USD. They said someone would call me to accept payment as oppose to while I was talking to them which I didn't understand. After further conversation, they said I could pay at the check-in desk in MIA and that I had a reserved seat. I said well ok as a shot at Business Class. Arrived in Miami, checked in, paid the $180 and had the best airline seat I have had in my life (drinks, meals offer upon take off and breakfast, fully reclining seat which I slept in most of the flight, nice monitor, private window seat - took up two normal seats in the main cabin with an aisle between an others, amenities to include sleeping mask, blanket, toothbrush, etc... Interestingly all Business Class seats were taken up when I boarded with normal looking families as I was told almost all were available for same day upgrade? While in Bolivia, I booked travel from VVI to MIA for $350 USD as I paid with BOBs exchanged in the streets as opposed to the bank (Streets - $100 USD for 11,350 BOBs, Bank - $100 USD for 685 BOBs) at the Santa Cruz BOA physical store which was interesting in that they had No classes of service other than Super ECO. I asked the representative if I could request an upgrade to Business Call the same day of travel and they said "Of Course". In reading some of the other posts, I think it could be a way for drug traffickers to travel by commercial transportation by making it very hard to book and thus leaving many seats available for last minute travel plans. I need to find out whether I could advance purchase Business Class and the cost if able.

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Pierre Diamond

September 24, 2024, 6:59 pm

I flew a lot with BoA's predecessor in the late 90's an early 2000's. LAB, for Lloyd Aereo Boliviano was a fascinating airline, the 2nd oldest in the world after Avianca. It flew from 1925 to 2010, had in the 1950's an extensive network spanning 3 contients and it operated, during its life no less than 25 different types. In the end, it had a small fleet of Airbus A310, Boeing 737-300 and Boeing 727-200 bought from Brazil's VASP at the time of VASP's liquidation. Sadly, service was never their forte but they already were unbeatable for the prices, especially in First Class.

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Sanders Guest

September 24, 2024, 6:47 pm

The reason is that BoA is a state owned enterprise in a socialist country and the airline was established to offer reasonable fares and equality to the entire population. Fares are very low by western standards, even if you book a few days in advance. Because the principle of socialism/statism is ensuring that everyone is treated the same the government doesn't offer business class on its website because it doesn't want one Bolivian to be able to pay for a superior service that another Bolivian couldn't afford.

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Pierre Diamond

September 24, 2024, 6:40 pm

Oh there seems to be weirder... You document that your ticket was priced at $713 more or less, but their own display, which you show, indicates "Super Eco', "Eco", and then "Normal" for a price higher ($ 780) than what you paid in Business. Are you sure that "Normal" does not mean "Business Class"? Many airlines, like Iberia in Europe, often offer Business Class for less than the highest Economy fare, one even sees it sometimes for AA/BA flights on the AA/BA websites. But the scale is not exactly the same...

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Lieflat19 Diamond

September 24, 2024, 5:29 pm

The jefes and diputados don't want the low yield clowns clogging up the business class seats on their way to Miami or Madrid...

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