In terms of the actual flying experience, the planes themselves are relatively new (at least the ones I flew in), I found there to be sufficient legroom, they were very clean and even comfortable. They tended to arrive and depart on time and there were minimal disruptions here. The problem lies within: 1) Booking anything on the website and; 2) Making any small misstep along your journey. I work in digital design and UX and like to think of myself as quite adept when it comes to booking flights online, either on my laptop or mobile. Until I needed to book flights with Vivaair. It works by automatically sticking on all these little extras through their "Combo++" packages, confuses you to the point where you don't know what you have paid for (they have these three packages which come pre-selected, or you can handpick your extras, and oftentimes "inadvertently" making you double up). I had to start again many times over, as it just became so convoluted - obviously intentionally designed to confuse you. Vivaiar's booking system is at best misleading (not to mention unethical) and makes Ryanair's website seem like a walk in the park. I just hate to think of the number of people it has conned out of their money this way which I'm sure is part of their business model. 2. So maybe this was partially my fault, I'm not sure. On one occasion I had to pay a proportionately hefty penalty for not having checked-in online and doing this at the airport instead. Fair enough. The second, was when at the time of my booking, I selected check-in luggage instead of extra carry-on luggage and paid a premium for this (my luggage was actually just a standard carry-on sized suitcase, I just had a backpack on me as well). On the day I arrived quite early to the gate. The staff at the desk here (who I struggled to communicate with in Spanish or English) made me aware that there was an issue, as I had not checked-in my bag. He said he would come back and rectify this for me (to which I was oblivious at the time), as he gestured for me to sit down. He, of course, never returned, and I was forced to pay £60 for this misdemeanour (this is in Colombia, mind you.). I would have been ok to pay a small fee as it was a misunderstanding on my part .. but £60 is enough to pay for one night at a very good hotel in the capital. Finally, one of my flights was cancelled from Lima to Bogota due to the COVID-19 crisis and government borders closing down. Vivaair sent me an email to say that this flight was cancelled (as expected), as Peru had already shut down all air traffic. Once I was back in London, I spoke to one of the customer service agents via their chat service about requesting a refund for this cancelled flight. The response I received was from their agent was "Sorry refunds aren't allowed. Any flights can('t) be refunded, besides the flight was not cancel(ed) by the airline, it was cancelled by the airport". Not to mention that I had to reconnect to the chat so many times, as the moment it takes you to the front of the queue, it gives you a mere few seconds until you are automatically disconnected sent to the back of the line. All in all, I now know why I was warned against this airline - it's just really dishonest and should really be called up on it.
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