Was it the Wamos A330?

 

yes a330 with almost flat seats - still comfortable to sleep for 6hr.

 

I flew LHR-BOG on Aug 10th. The flight was better than I expected actually! Printed menus with 3 choices of main: Veal Stew, Fish or 4 cheese ravioli. I went with the pasta and was pretty good for airplane pasta, warm throughout and not chewy. Desert had 3 choices all looked good, I had caramel/vanilla ice cream and a fruit plate. There was also mousse available. Breakfast was eggs benny or pancakes, I asked for pancakes but got the former and was a bit disappointed. Pancakes are pretty hard to screw up IMO. Mid-flight snacks were available like chips, chocolate/cereal bars and fruit. The blanket and pillow were great, the pillow was not small and the blanket was warm/thick and not itchy. The amenity kit is nice with essentials. All in all, I would say minus the quality of some wines, its similar to AC which I've been flying lately. I wouldn't hesitate to book it. Perfectly good middle of the pack airline IMO, at least on long haul atm. AC, Swiss, LH all fall in there for me.

 

Are they still awaiting outstanding 787s on order as the reason the leased A330 is used?

 

No new order for long haul fleet in avianca. In addition those wamos a330 aee neweelr than aviancans 787.

 

Right now its showing October 29 as the scheduled start of the 787 on the LAX-BOG route. Has this been pushed back recently or was it always set for the 29th?

 

Can anyone confirm what kind of A330 this is from Wamos? They have aircraft in numerous different configurations. Their newest A330 that was subleased to Air New Zealand recently is actually quite nice in business - with fully lie-flat seats and all aisle access.

 

A330 EC-NUI is one (the only?) of them. Near flat business seats but not as nice as the 787. Y looks standard fare as per AV.

News sites suggests AV is taking further 787’s in due course.

 

Yeps. It seems to have been pushed back (at least) a couple times since I've been paying attention (which has only been about 2 or3 months). I booked a February 2024 flight LAX-BOG, ticketed in June 2023. At the time, Avianca appeared to be selling this flight with the expectation that a 787 was used on this route, which was clearly not true. End of June, Avianca issued a press release claiming that the 787 would be flying this route starting July 1. That still hasn't happened, last time I checked (about a week ago) it was all Wamos, every day. I do see an indication that the changeover to a 787 is now supposed to happen end of October. No way to know if that's just what they hope will happen and then it'll get pushed back another 6 months, or if there's any reason to believe it more than their still-posted press release that claims the 787 has been operating that route since July 1 (which was and still is utter nonsense). My flight is in February so I'm hoping the Dreamliner shows up by then...but I'm not counting on it. Maybe just another BS press release?

In fairness, Boeing has experienced plenty of delays in delivering 787s to many airlines worldwide. Don't know if that's the issue for Avianca or not. But since I started paying attention, Avianca has not been at all transparent about aircraft types and schedules, so I'm keeping my expectations low. We'll see.

 

Avianca does not wait for any new 787 deliveries. In october they would introduce winter schedule with reduced frequencies to Europe so this is why they will put 787 back on a route to LAX as they will no longer need to lease wamos during winter. For next summer it will be a330 again (which is not that bad). Keep in mind that avianca's 787 is pretty old cabin with heavy milleage. They start operating them long time ago.

 

Any updates on the onboard product?
MIA - BOG
BOG - GRU

 

MIA - BOG is a mix of a320 and 787 so you need double check aicraft type. BOG - GRU is always 787. I did BOG - GRU last week and was nice blanket with pillow. I went to sleep straight after getting to cruise attitude so can't talk about food and drinks.

 

Yes, I’m flying on the 787 on all sectors in Business.
I plan on doing the the same as you on BOG-GRU, want to maximize sleep time. I’m connecting in MIA for the MIA-BOG so may not have lots of time to eat so was wondering more what the onboard service is like on that sector.

 

I'm flying LAX-BOG- MAD in mid November. Has anyone flown the BOG-MAD route?

 

Do they serve Champagne or just some sort of cheapish Cava?