In 2022, Avianca made the decision to eliminate business class on all routes within the Americas, choosing to only offer business class on transatlantic flights. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen the airline progressively add back business class on more routes, and we’ve now reached a major milestone, as the airline has restored business class on all routes.
Let’s go over all the details, starting with a little bit of background…
In this post:
Avianca cut business class on most routes in 2022
In the past several years, Avianca has nicely transformed its business model, by becoming a more efficient airline. As part of this, the airline eliminated business class on flights within the Americas as of October 2022.
Not only did Avianca reconfigure its Airbus A320s to remove business class and add 20% more seats, but the airline also stopped selling business class seats on flights within the Americas that were operated by Boeing 787s. Instead, these premium cabins were just sold as seats with more space, but without additional service.
With this policy change, Avianca only maintained business class on transatlantic flights to Europe. I thought from the beginning that this was the wrong move. The airline started reversing course on this in August 2023, by restoring business class on some routes. The airline has progressively been ramping up business class in more markets since then, and this experiment has now come full circle…
Avianca restores business class on 100% of routes
Over the past couple of years, Avianca has been restoring business class on most routes, and as part of the latest update, the airline has now restored business class on all flights globally. So whether you’re on a domestic or international flight, and whether you’re on a Boeing 787 or an Airbus A320-family aircraft, the airline now has business class available.
I’m happy to see this, and think it’s a pretty logical move. The reality is that the demand for premium air travel has continued to grow, and I think Avianca was also losing some tranatlantic business class traffic to other airlines due to not offering business class on connecting flights.
I think the approach Avianca is taking now makes a lot of sense — Airbus A320-family aircraft are configured much more efficiently than in the past, but by having a business class product, Avianca can now compete better for premium travelers. Just keep in mind that Avianca’s A320 business class isn’t much to get excited about — it’s better than economy, but not as good as your typical business class product.
When it comes to the business class soft product within the Americas, here’s what we can expect:
- On domestic flights, the airline offers a snack service, coffee, soft drinks, and beer, with the option to purchase additional food and beverages from the buy on board menu
- On international flights of under three hours, the airline offers a snack service, hot or cold beverages, and beer
- On international flights between three and four hours, the airline offers a menu created by Chef Álvaro Clavijo, hot or cold beverages, beer, and a blanket and pillow
- On international flights of over four hours, the airline offers a menu created by Chef Álvaro Clavijo, hot or cold beverages, beer, a blanket and pillow, and an amenity kit designed by Mola Sasa featuring Loto del Sur products
Here’s how Avianca Chief Commercial Officer Otto Gergye describes the restoration of business class on all routes:
“With the launch of Business Class Américas on domestic routes, we are expanding access to this experience while raising comfort and service standards for customers. This expansion complements its availability across all international routes within the Americas and reinforces a consistent regional offering, now present on more than 40 domestic routes and over 100 international routes.”
Bottom line
Avianca has now reintroduced business class on all routes globally, representing a major reversal to a policy implemented a few year ago.
The airline first cut business class on all flights within the Americas as of 2022, but started reversing course within a year. We’ve progressively seen more routes with business class added back, and now as of early 2026, business class has been restored on all domestic and international flights.
I think this is a smart change on Avianca’s part. Just manage your expectations when it comes to the quality of the carrier’s narrow body business class.
What do you make of Avianca introducing business class on all routes?
I bet this moron never even flew Avianca or has a need to do so...
Whether in Europe or the Americas, it should not be called ‘Business’ class if it’s 3-3 economy seats with middle blocked. Call it… “Economy with the middle seat blocked.” First/Business class should mean lie-flat. Premium economy should mean recliners.
That's not business class! Not even PE.
Like Alaska First Class is, at best, PE.
The upgrade to business for longer regional flights (e.g., JFK to Bogota) made sense for things like meals etc, but for elites these seats are now just harder to access with nothing in return. Even for non-elites it doesn't add as much as you'd think.
Last year elite members used to get up to 10 intra-america business upgrades per year (think JFK or Sao Paolo to Bogota, 5-6 hour flights) PLUS up to 15...
The upgrade to business for longer regional flights (e.g., JFK to Bogota) made sense for things like meals etc, but for elites these seats are now just harder to access with nothing in return. Even for non-elites it doesn't add as much as you'd think.
Last year elite members used to get up to 10 intra-america business upgrades per year (think JFK or Sao Paolo to Bogota, 5-6 hour flights) PLUS up to 15 or more free instant upgrades to when these were premium economy seats for shorter domestic and regional flights (1-2 hour flights). Now that even the domestic flights are marketed as "business" the 15 instant upgrades vanish and any upgrades on these get pulled from your annual quota for longer flights. Additionally, the cost to upgrade to these seats for domestic is more than double than it was previously.
And what do you get in return? A free snack, whereas even wine you still have to pay for. The airline will justify the extra cost by benefits such as priority check in and boarding, as well as lounge access, but elite members already had all these so there is no added value there.
Disrespectful to elite members who earned status for 2026 and bait and switching them at the end of 2025.
Yeah, losing lots of free "premium seat" coupons is an overall bad thing for elites because we can get food at the lounge, in lieu of onboard service (assuming the flight departs from a city where there's an AV lounge). Also, I recall some kind of obscure sentence (on an email or website) saying that an announcement would come regarding the premium seat coupons but we're now well into January and they just removed them...
Yeah, losing lots of free "premium seat" coupons is an overall bad thing for elites because we can get food at the lounge, in lieu of onboard service (assuming the flight departs from a city where there's an AV lounge). Also, I recall some kind of obscure sentence (on an email or website) saying that an announcement would come regarding the premium seat coupons but we're now well into January and they just removed them without saying a word.
For non-elites, depending on the route, the change can be positive because the cheapest business fare (which includes lounge access, onboard snacks, and more luggage) can be found for the same price as their "classic" economy fare and sometimes even a little bit less.
Not in this case. I just looked at the fare differences again and the amounts they are asking are absurd, higher than I realized earlier. $100 upcharge for a 30 minute flight from Bogota to Medellin, whereas before it was only $10-20 to upgrade. But maybe if no one buys it those prices will come down with time.
I haven't traveled BOG-MDE in a long time, but bought a few tickets for family (other domestic routes) and business class was cheaper than "classic" Y. Bought them in a blink :D
Avianca business class hard & soft product was bad the last time I tried it. I hope they make more investments in both areas.
Irrelevant airline from an irreverent country.
Bit like your comment tbh.
Flying Business Class on Avianca may not allow you to board your flight with your CPAP machine as allowed by every major airline carrier in the United States under the American Disabilities Act. Avianca requires passengers who carry CPAP machines to provide a medical doctors statement including the flight number and date of travel 10 days prior to departure. Avianca should consider adopting policies that are more customer friendly to the traveling public.
Emirates too, flying from Mumbai to Dubai. The only ones on a long trip in Asia, including low cost airlines — and they are supposed to be the “premium” airline
That’s pretty bad, in my view. The seat only option was veryreasonably priced. And so was BoB, if you wanted a drink or food..
Meanwhile, the soft product seems mediocre, yet the price is much higher. And don’t forget, Avianca’s cheapest J fares (F fare class) earn nothing on any program other than AV’s own.
Bottom line: You pay much more for basically the same - minus the miles/points earned on Economy tickets …
We actually recently flew SALSFO on Avianca last Thursday 15th, and the free meal service consisted of a cold sandwich, and water & coffee. Anything else outside of this, was charged at regular menu prices. This being one of the longer flights on the AV A320 network (close to 6hrs), you'd expect a better variety of choices
Regardless of what AV publishes and puts out, their Business Class in the Americas still sucks.
Do they compete with Emirates on MIA-BOG? Thought so.
This is a good decision by Avianca. Many passengers like business class, especially on long or connecting flights. Removing it before was not a good idea, so bringing it back on all routes makes sense. Even if the service on short flights is simple, it is still more comfortable than economy. This change will help SavePinset Avianca compete better with other airlines and attract more premium travelers
Maybe they will also undo their ridiculous "avianca" lower case rebrand to demonstrate how 'flying is for everyone' during their LCC phase
Do you know if this applies to TACA (by Avianca) too? Or is this subsidiary a total different airline/company?
Same company.
@Ben, don't forget that the new Insignia/Diamond exclusive check-in area at BOG is also part of these recent improvements and it's already in service.
So basically it's a Eurobiz hard product combined with a US domestic First soft product. Sounds wonderful!
It's not eurobiz, as it's a 2-2 product, instead of a 3-3 with a blocked middle seat.
Isn't it more of a modified 3-3 though? Not quite a true 2-2 config and markedly less spacious.
It's still more like a 2-2 and each seat is much wider than regular 3-3 seats. Also, the console can't be removed. As @Ben said:
It appears all they offer is beer! No thanks!
I can't speak for the shorter (<3 hr) routes that were not served as business class, but on the longer routes there's always wine. The thing is, except for transatlantic flights, there's no printed menu and the crew would only say "red wine or white wine." Don't expect any verbose descriptions of wine, although I guess they can show you the bottle...
I flew Avianca J once and NEVER AGAIN. It was so bad, I couldn't believe that they were selling it as business class.
That's a pretty weak offering. You think they would at least try to match Copa, but they didn't even come close.
No need for Business Class on ICE flights. Lol
Ha, Ha ...