Review: Boliviana De Aviacion Business Class Airbus A330 (MIA-VVI)

I kicked off the second portion of my two times to Latin America review trip by flying Boliviana de Aviacion’s Airbus A330-200 business class on the 6hr10min flight from Miami (MIA) to Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI).

It’s no secret that this is the segment of the trip that I was most looking forward to, as Boliviana de Aviacion has fascinated me for the longest time. Living in Miami, I see the carrier’s gorgeous A330 parked at the airport just about very time I fly, and it was time to finally give the carrier a shot.

So, how was my experience? In a way it was anticlimactic, as it was actually a pretty decent, comfortable experience. The airline flies former Virgin Australia A330s with super comfortable seats and exceptional bedding.

Aside from that, the product was pretty lackluster. The crew was well intentioned but not very polished, and the food and drinks were very basic. But still, given the price, I thought this flight represented an excellent value, and I’d fly with the airline again in a heartbeat.

How I booked my Boliviana de Aviacion business class ticket

Boliviana de Aviacion doesn’t belong to any global airline alliance, and doesn’t even have any major airline loyalty partners, so the only practical way for most of us to book the airline is with cash (what a novel concept). 😉

The good news is that the carrier’s business class pricing is exceedingly reasonable. I booked the following business class flight for $695.42:

9/23 OB767 Miami to Santa Cruz de la Sierra departing 11:00PM arriving 5:50AM (+1 day)

You really can’t argue with that price for a 3,200-mile flight in a flat bed with direct aisle access!

Boliviana de Aviacion business class check-in & boarding

I’m not going to lie, I was kind of giddy when I arrived at Miami Airport and saw the Boliviana de Aviacion sign, as it was a bit more exciting than my typical American flights from the airport.

I quickly found the check-in desk, where there was a long queue. At the very far left of the check-in area was a premium line, which (funny enough) was labeled as “First Class Check-In,” without any sort of airline branding beyond that.

I was helped within five minutes. The check-in agent wasn’t very knowledgable at all, though. At first, he insisted that I needed to have applied for a visa for Bolivia. I explained that the country allows visa on arrival for US citizens, and also that I have a German passport, which doesn’t require a visa for Bolivia. It took him some time to check with his manager, but eventually he came back and said everything was okay.

Boliviana de Aviacion departs from Concourse F. Despite having lived in Miami for many years, I’ve actually never flown from this terminal, so I was excited for the adventure. On the night I was departing, the terminal was open exclusively for the Boliviana de Aviacion flight, as no other flights were departing.

I was surprised that CLEAR was open despite there being a single flight from the terminal. That saved me some time, as there was no TSA PreCheck (since Boliviana de Aviacion doesn’t participate in TSA PreCheck).

Gosh, Concourse F is kind of not very nice, to put it politely. I don’t think very highly of Miami Airport to begin with, but this is especially basic.

Concourse F also doesn’t have any lounges. Boliviana de Aviacion doesn’t offer lounge access to business class passengers, but there wasn’t even an option with something like Priority Pass. There’s the Club America, but it seems to be under some sort of renovation, or temporary closure, or something.

The main part of Concourse F was just one huge room with a bunch of seating. At least the seating was in reasonably good condition.

If you want a sense of just how “exotic” the airlines departing from this terminal are, take a look at some of the baggage sizers.

My flight was departing from gate F16. One thing I found fascinating is that the crew was at the gate at 9PM, a full two hours before departure. It’s rare to see airline crews show up that early. Boarding was scheduled for 10PM, one hour before departure, and that’s also exactly when it actually started. Business class passengers were invited to board first.

Boliviana de Aviacion A330 business class cabin & seats

As mentioned above, Boliviana de Aviacion’s pair of A330s are former Virgin Australia jets, and the airline made no changes to the interiors. The business class cabin consists of a total of 20 seats, between the first and second set of doors. There are a total of five rows, and seats are in a 1-2-1 configuration.

These planes have reverse herringbone seats, and specifically, Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats.

Those traveling together may prefer the center seats, so that you can kind of enjoy the flight together. However, if you end up sitting in the center next to a stranger, don’t worry, as there’s a privacy shield that can be extended.

Most people will probably prefer one of the window seats. In a reverse herringbone configuration, there’s really not much difference between seats, so I wouldn’t say that one seat is much better than another.

I assigned myself seat 4A, the window seat on the left side in the second to last row.

With these Super Diamond seats, if you’ve seen one, you’ve basically seen them all. As far as seat features go, each seat has a 16″ personal entertainment system, attached to the seat in front.

The tray table can be extended from underneath the entertainment monitor. When you pull it out, you have to flip it over, unless you don’t need the full tray.

The seat also has a shallow enclosed storage compartment, where you can place things like a passport or phone during a flight. This is also where you’ll find the AC and USB-A power outlets, plus the headphone jack.

There’s also a small monitor that allows you to control the seat functions, which is pretty straightforward.

The aisle side of the seat has an additional storage compartment.

One thing that stood out to me about this seat is that it felt surprisingly spacious for an A330. The A330’s fuselage isn’t as wide as on some other wide body jets, and sometimes that can make business class seats feel narrow, especially in bed mode. I didn’t at all find that to be the case here, and even found the footwell to be a good size.

I was also delighted to see how the jet has individual air nozzles, which always help with sleeping comfortably.

What an absolutely lovely, fresh cabin! It’s nice when an airline picks up a secondhand jet and it elevates the passenger experience, rather than putting a damper on it.

Boliviana de Aviacion business class amenities

Waiting at my seat upon boarding was some exceptional bedding. This consisted of two plush pillows with cool Boliviana de Aviacion branding, plus a cozy blanket. It’s rare to get two proper pillows in business class, and I loved the blanket as well. I wasn’t expecting Boliviana de Aviacion to maybe be among the top five airlines in the world when it comes to business class bedding, so that was lovely.

Much less impressive was the pair of earbuds offered, which reminded me of flying economy in the 1990s. There were no amenity kits on this flight — I believe the airline exclusively offers those on the Madrid route, which is the carrier’s only “true” long haul flight.

There was also a 600ml bottle of water, which has to be one of the biggest bottles of water I’ve ever had placed at a seat.

After settling in, one of the business class flight attendants stopped by my seat to offer me a pre-departure drink. She simply asked if I wanted something, so I asked for a glass of white wine, which was promptly served.

I love how the airline has pre-departure drinks of choice, though I can’t help but wonder if the airline is actually paying duty on all alcoholic drinks, or if the airline just isn’t following regulations, and no one has noticed, given that the airline has a single route to the United States.

Boliviana de Aviacion A330 business class entertainment

Boliviana de Aviacion offers on-demand entertainment at every seat on its A330s.

Definitely manage your expectations when it comes to the selection. There were only around 36 movies and around 32 TV shows, so it was one of the more limited entertainment libraries out there. If you want to stay entertained during the flight, I’d recommend bringing you own content. Fortunately on a quick overnight flight, I was just planning on sleeping most of the way.

Of course there was also a map feature, which is my favorite entertainment option.

Unfortunately Boliviana de Aviacion doesn’t offer Wi-Fi on its A330s.

Boliviana de Aviacion A330 departure from Miami

The boarding process took quite some time, but that was fine, given that boarding started an hour before departure. By 10:45PM, 15 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure time, boarding wrapped up.

12 of the 20 business class seats were occupied, while economy seemed to be full (a vast majority of economy passengers were connecting to Argentina or Brazil, as Boliviana de Aviacion sells the cheapest fares in the market).

Once the door closed, the safety video was screened. I didn’t have many expectations here, but to my surprise, the airline had a very engaging video.

At 10:50PM we began our pushback. Hello, World Atlantic MD-83!

We then started our taxi at 10:55PM, and were cleared for takeoff on runway 8R at 11:10PM. We had a smooth takeoff roll and climb out. The seatbelt sign was never turned off on this flight, and for that matter, there was never an announcement from the pilots.

Boliviana de Aviacion business class dinner

On this Boliviana de Aviacion flight, dinner was served after takeoff. The crew had already taken meal orders on the ground, with the choices being described as salmon with white rice and sautéed vegetables, or chicken cordon bleu with yellow rice (there were no printed menus).

Service was slow to get started after takeoff. Warm towels were distributed just under an hour after takeoff, which was the first inflight service interaction.

Then around 75 minutes after takeoff, meals were served off a cart. The entire meal was served on a single tray, and each dish still had plastic wrap on it. I assume this is intended to provide passengers with some reassurance about food not being contaminated, rather than it just being crew laziness?

The meal was certainly generous in size, and was otherwise… okay? The salmon, veggies, and rice, were edible. That was complemented by a “salad” (a creative mix of sliced and shaved veggies), a cheese plate with two types of cheese, strawberry cheesecake, and a bread roll.

For those curious about Boliviana de Aviacion’s alcohol selection in business class, it’s pretty basic. There was an Altosama Demi Sec sparkling wine, which retails for around $10. The red and white wine were from DUO, with a similar retail price. There was also some basic liquor, which was stocked on the cart in mini bottles.

Boliviana de Aviacion A330 business class lavatories

After the meal, I checked out the lavatories. The Boliviana de Aviacion A330 has a business class lavatory at the front of the cabin, and then there are also a couple of lavatories behind the cabin, by the second set of doors. The lavatory was basic, and just had some soap in an unbranded container.

Boliviana de Aviacion A330 business class bed

Once back at my seat, I was looking forward to getting some rest on this short overnight flight. I reclined the seat into bed mode, and found it to be comfortable, better than any reverse herringbone seat I’ve been in on an A330.

I fell asleep around 90 minutes after takeoff, as we were about halfway between Jamaica and Colombia.

I then woke up a little over an hour before arrival, as we were entering Bolivian airspace.

I got a bit over three hours of solid sleep, which is pretty good for me, at least on such a short flight. I can’t overstate how much I appreciate the combination of a comfortable seat, excellent bedding, and individual air nozzles.

Boliviana de Aviacion business class breakfast

Around an hour before landing, the crew passed through the cabin with a light breakfast. This consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich (it looked and smelled to me more like ham, but the crew insisted it was turkey), a side of fruit, and drinks. It was a basic service, but then again, a second meal is hardly necessary on such a short flight.

I had a coffee to drink, and the only quirk was that there was no milk onboard, but rather just powdered creamer.

Boliviana de Aviacion business class service

What was service like on Boliviana de Aviacion? The crew was quite young, and they were generally friendly and well intentioned. That being said, I’d say service most definitely wasn’t polished, and there was a lack of attention to detail on the safety front.

When it comes to service being polished, admittedly the crew only has so much to work with, given the carrier’s lackluster soft product. That being said, it sure would be nice if there were a drink service prior to the meal, given that meals were only served 75 minutes after takeoff.

The crew wasn’t very proactive with drink refills or clearing service items. They fulfilled all requests without hesitation when I asked, but they never proactively offered another glass of wine, cup of coffee, etc.

It doesn’t really bother me, but it’s interesting to note that the crew napped in the empty business class seats. That simply reflects that the airline obviously doesn’t have super strict standards for crews, as you’d never see that happen on a carrier like Qatar Airways or Singapore Airlines.

Lastly, the crew was just rather lax when it came to enforcing safety. For example, when the cabin was prepared for landing, they never came to check that my seat was upright, and didn’t even clear the glass at my seat. For that matter, some passengers were still standing standing up when the gear came out on final approach.

Boliviana de Aviacion A330 arrival in Santa Cruz de la Sierra

We made great time on our flight, and at 4:50AM local time, we began our descent.

Our descent was gradual, and we ended up landing at 5:20AM. From there we had a 10-minute taxi to our arrival gate, where we pulled in at 5:30AM, 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Once at the gate, the crew announced that the plane would be disembarked five rows at a time, and to my surprise, most people seemed to listen, and stayed seated until they were instructed to get up.

Bottom line

I found Boliviana de Aviacion’s A330 business class to be a pleasant but unmemorable experience. The carrier’s business class represents a phenomenal value — the seats are comfortable and the bedding is excellent, which is the most important thing on a long haul flight.

The rest of the experience was okay, from the mediocre food, to the lackluster drink selection, to the well intentioned but not very polished service.

I’d fly with the carrier again in a heartbeat, because the price for this product is tough to beat. And I do intend to fly with the airline in the future, as I hope to properly visit Bolivia, and this is the most convenient way to get there.

What do you make of Boliviana de Aviacion’s A330 business class?