Travel Announcements Only (No questions or comments please)

[Tom 33]

It has actually evolved to the point of absurdity over the last few years. When I leave CTG for MIA now, all my luggage(checked and carry-on) is hand-searched. Just before you enter the secured departure gate, you walk through a metal detector and get wanded and patted. Your carry-on is X-rayed. Then, just before you board, you walk through a different metal detector and get wanded and patted. Your carry-on is X-rayed in a different machine. I was told that one set of security checks was for Colombia. The other one was for Avianca. After all this, I was stopped once just after leaving the terminal for the plane for an additional pat-down.

Inefficiency and redundancy are very Colombian.

[Slumlord]

What airline?

I'm sorry - all my flights this year have been on Avianca. The flight from JFK leaves at 7am.

COPA is another good option, and costs about the same. With COPA, you connect through Panama. COPA leaves JFK at 5am and there is a Panama-Medellin connection with AeroRepublica (a new COPA partner) around 11am. This is a new connection and they don't show it on the COPA website - but it's there, 7 days a week.

[Escort King]

Either routing costs about the same. The cheapest I've paid is $545 r/t including all fees and taxes - but they don't sell many seats at that price - you have to book at least a few weekes in advance to find one. I usually pay about $650 total.

What airline?

[Slumlord]

What are the cheapest flights using either method? I come from NYC area.

Either routing costs about the same. The cheapest I've paid is $545 r/t including all fees and taxes - but they don't sell many seats at that price - you have to book at least a few weekes in advance to find one. I usually pay about $650 total.

[Dashing Don]

There was so much security leaving MDE when I left on 3/20, that I remember counting 10 different steps from arrival at the airport to actually walking down the jetway.

The outrageous airport tax of US31 actually involved two steps. You get a slip of paper from a minion first, and later you hand that over with the cash to another minion at another counter.

Even after checking in and going through immigration, there are several more identical security checks, some within no more that 50 feet of each other. Stop, put carryon through the scanner; remove shoes and step through that doorway thing and get 'wanded'.

Travel 50' and repeat.

I kept my passport in hand as I was asked for it several times within the space of a hundred yards, as if anything had changed.

It was so over-the-top that I started counting the steps and came up with 10. Manila airport is the only other that I know that has as much security.

Why post about this? To let people know to allow extra time.

And man cannot live on flames alone!

Don

[Escort King]

The details were fresh in my mind as I just returned this morning.

It costs the same and gives you an extra 6 hours on the ground + no waiting in lines. No big deal if you're in MDE for 2 weeks, but huge if you're there for the weekend.

What are the cheapest flights using either method? I come from NYC area.

[Slumlord]

Great detailled response... may have to try that way for my trip.

The details were fresh in my mind as I just returned this morning.

It costs the same and gives you an extra 6 hours on the ground + no waiting in lines. No big deal if you're in MDE for 2 weeks, but huge if you're there for the weekend.

[Escort King]

For what it's worth, I've flown JFK-MDE on Avianca 7 times this year (already hit Platinum) and these are my observations:

On arrival into MDE, I get frisked EVERYTIME. I don't hang around and see what happens to everyone else, but it appears everyone else gets frisked as well. What they are looking for is money.

They rarely go through my luggage (small bag anyway) although on the last trip I hit the button and got the green light but was referred for a luggage search. 2 minutes and I was out the door and in the car.

Leaving MDE (internationally) is horrible. Immigration gets backed up and I get frisked EVERYTIME and pretty much everyone else does as well (though the females don't always get frisked). Once past the metal detectors they open up EVERY bag and go through everything. And they aren't quick about it either.

As my trips are usually very short, I now return through Bogota. Why? Because the Avianca flight to JFK from MDE leaves at 6pm, but you really need to be there by 3pm to get through the lines (my experience on three trips this year). That means you need to leave the City by 2-2:15pm.

By going through Bogota, I take the last Avianca flight MDE-BOG which now leaves at 10pm (was 9:20pm up until a few weeks ago) and because it is a domestic flight and there is little traffic on the road at that hour, I leave my apartment at 8:30pm and I'm checked in, past security and in the lounge by 9:30pm - and that includes getting the departure tax waiver (which you do in an office near the chapel at that hour) and then paying it at the Avianca counter and then getting the boarding pass.

Once in BOG, I take the connecting bus to Int'l Departures and because I have my boarding pass I go right to immigration and it's totally empty at that hour (10:45pm give-or-take). Then I head to security and walk right thru - very quick and easy. Just past security there are a few soldiers and they frisk EVERYONE. But hardly anyone gets their bag checked - which is a much different story than in Medellin).

I then hit the lounge and wait for final boarding (about 11:35pm) then it's off to gate 4 or 5 and you go through Avianca private security, usually very fast and only once did they open my carryon.

The flight leaves pretty much on-time at 11:55pm and gets into JFK at 5:30am (with the clock change in the US next week, it'll get in at 6:30am). At JFK I just walk right thru - have never been checked once at JFK (was given a secondary once at Newark last year).

As a side-note - because they are widening the road going from Medellin to Rio Negro on the Las Palmas route, traffic slows to a standstill at times. On one trip we were at a dead-stop for 45 minutes and I made the driver turn-around and take the BOG highway - luckily it was on the way into Medellin - not to the airport. Until they finish the road (which will take quite a while) I strongly advise that you instruct the driver to take the highway. It is a little longer mileage wise, and the toll is 2,000P more (some drivers make a big deal over this), but the trip is 40 minutes via the highway - you gotta count at LEAST an hour going via Las Palmas.

Great detailled response... may have to try that way for my trip.

[Slumlord]

For what it's worth, I've flown JFK-MDE on Avianca 7 times this year (already hit Platinum) and these are my observations:

On arrival into MDE, I get frisked EVERYTIME. I don't hang around and see what happens to everyone else, but it appears everyone else gets frisked as well. What they are looking for is money.

They rarely go through my luggage (small bag anyway) although on the last trip I hit the button and got the green light but was referred for a luggage search. 2 minutes and I was out the door and in the car.

Leaving MDE (internationally) is horrible. Immigration gets backed up and I get frisked EVERYTIME and pretty much everyone else does as well (though the females don't always get frisked). Once past the metal detectors they open up EVERY bag and go through everything. And they aren't quick about it either.

As my trips are usually very short, I now return through Bogota. Why? Because the Avianca flight to JFK from MDE leaves at 6pm, but you really need to be there by 3pm to get through the lines (my experience on three trips this year). That means you need to leave the City by 2-2:15pm.

By going through Bogota, I take the last Avianca flight MDE-BOG which now leaves at 10pm (was 9:20pm up until a few weeks ago) and because it is a domestic flight and there is little traffic on the road at that hour, I leave my apartment at 8:30pm and I'm checked in, past security and in the lounge by 9:30pm - and that includes getting the departure tax waiver (which you do in an office near the chapel at that hour) and then paying it at the Avianca counter and then getting the boarding pass.

Once in BOG, I take the connecting bus to Int'l Departures and because I have my boarding pass I go right to immigration and it's totally empty at that hour (10:45pm give-or-take). Then I head to security and walk right thru - very quick and easy. Just past security there are a few soldiers and they frisk EVERYONE. But hardly anyone gets their bag checked - which is a much different story than in Medellin).

I then hit the lounge and wait for final boarding (about 11:35pm) then it's off to gate 4 or 5 and you go through Avianca private security, usually very fast and only once did they open my carryon.

The flight leaves pretty much on-time at 11:55pm and gets into JFK at 5:30am (with the clock change in the US next week, it'll get in at 6:30am). At JFK I just walk right thru - have never been checked once at JFK (was given a secondary once at Newark last year).

As a side-note - because they are widening the road going from Medellin to Rio Negro on the Las Palmas route, traffic slows to a standstill at times. On one trip we were at a dead-stop for 45 minutes and I made the driver turn-around and take the BOG highway - luckily it was on the way into Medellin - not to the airport. Until they finish the road (which will take quite a while) I strongly advise that you instruct the driver to take the highway. It is a little longer mileage wise, and the toll is 2,000P more (some drivers make a big deal over this), but the trip is 40 minutes via the highway - you gotta count at LEAST an hour going via Las Palmas.

[Latina Passion]

50/50 Here! Sometimes they go thru ALL of my things my person ask how much Cash I have the works, hell they even stuck my shoe to see if I had anything in my heel! Then other times I don't even get looked at!

For what it is worth, I got frisked by airport security on my arrival flight to MDE.

It may not happen to everyone, but it does happen, and IMHO, it might be helpful info to those mongers that are carrying a little something extra in their pockets, underware, or socks.

$Bill

[Dollar Bill]

For what it is worth, I got frisked by airport security on my arrival flight to MDE.

It may not happen to everyone, but it does happen, and IMHO, it might be helpful info to those mongers that are carrying a little something extra in their pockets, underware, or socks.

$Bill

[Tom 33]

Lighten up a little, Don. Surfer can be opinionated, but he is helpful. Surfer may very well have seen everyone frisked on his flight.

I have arrived in MDE directly from the US twice(American Airlines), most recently in Jan. of this year. I didn't see anyone being frisked. No bags were searched that I noticed.

I normally come from the US directly to Cartagena(Avianca). In Cartagena I have always been patted down. At least one bag has always been opened and hand searched. Like MDE, you also have to put all of your bags through an X-ray machine.

[Tequila Texas]

DD, I do not know either you or Surfer but I will assume you are both nice guys. He has experiences and opinions and you have different experiences and opinions. This is OK. It does not mean either of you are bad. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing agreably.

Peace brothers,

TT

[Dashing Don]

Not true, Surfer.

I arrived on Thursday, 3/16 in MDE on the direct flight from JFK. There was no frisking, of anyone. Of nobody. Nowhere in the terminal. They didn't even check my luggage.

So where do you get this stuff about 'they frisk everybody arriving on international flights'?

We could debate this over and over, but to protect the membership and lurkers out there, I'm gonna fast forward and get to the heart of the problem:


Surfer: You present 'facts' moreso to present yourself as
an online 'personality', than to actually help the readership.


Don

[Surfer]

in Medellin they frisk everybody arriving on international flights and they seem to check more bags than in Cali or Bogota (I have arrived at all 3). In Bogota, I have always breezed right through.

IMHO Tom is correct about Cali being the "poor sister". Medellin & Cartagena are much better for visiting mongers.

Re semana santa, I have always heard many chicas are with their families during semana santa and that it is a lousy time to go. I KNOW rooms and flights are at a premium, so I have always avoided it. I am still debating whether to go right before, or right after. I did go to the PI once during Holy Week (as they call it) and it was HORRIBLE!