COPA AIRLINES review :  27 June 2009 by Brad Blacklaw   (Australia)

MEX-PTY-HAV return. Had to use them as due to the swine flu, couldn't fly direct from Mexico. They were 737s so not too bad. The flights were full in both directions. Cabin crew were ok and food ok.

COPA AIRLINES review : 28 April 2009 : by J Nikolova

Customer Rating : 1/5

JFK-PTY. Another case of oversold flight and incompetent staff. After waiting for 40 mins at the counter and asking a couple of times what the issue was, we were told there is an "error in the computer". After another 20 mins we were checked in, on seats different from the ones we reserved - the last row, right next to the toilets.It turned out these seats were double booked as well, so we had to go through discussions with the flight attendants.

COPA AIRLINES review : 15 April 2009 : by Tim Brown

Customer Rating : 4/5

LAX-PTY-BAQ. I have flown Copa 2 times a year since 2003 from LAX-PTY-BAQ roundtrip. The seats are uncomfortable for a 6.5 hour flight and little leg room, I am 6 feet tall. Food is usually good, drinks are limited and service is good on the plane and at the Copa Airlines counter. Never had a problem with delayed flights, missed connecting flights, being bumped or put on stand-by. Copa gives you your boarding pass for PTY at LAX so you don´t have to touch your luggage or check-in again, a very nice feature. Movies, food, drinks, blankets, pillows and 2 pieces of checked luggage are still FREE on Copa! (well you don´t pay extra)

COPA AIRLINES review : 6 April 2009 : by A Souza

Customer Rating : 4/5

VLN-PTY-HAV-AUA. FAs are kind, food is ok on short flights! Seats are a bit hard. On the leg PTY-HAV I booked my seat online and when I arrived they gave me then a seat on the business class!

COPA AIRLINES review : 19 January 2009 : by A Christopher

Customer Rating : 4/5

POS-EZE via PTY return. Good service all round. Modern clean aircraft, with friendly bi- lingual (mostly) crew who were helpful. Food on both sectors and two choices. Drinks however were only offered at meal time. Check in at POS was ok. The stop in PTY on both sectors was also fine. PTY is quite a nice airport and one that allows you to walk from one gate to the next without having to clear customs/immigration. Check in at EZE was a bit more chaotic with long lines and not many agents. Upon check in I was then asked which bag I wanted to check as priority as only one bag is guaranteed to your destination. This puzzled me as it was not the procedure on the POS-EZE sector. I however was lead to realise that all Argentine airports can be a bit chaotic.

COPA AIRLINES review : 9 January 2009 : by J Campos

Customer Rating : 4/5

GDL-PTY-GDL new E190 - weekend getaway from Guadalajara, MEX to Panama City, PA for New Year's. Check in was swift as no one on line and GDL agents were professional and personable. 3hr30min flight was comfortable in 2x2 configuration with ample seat pitch. Chicken or pasta options and beverages at no additional expense on both legs. Great aircraft (wife thinks of it as the Ken and Barbie jet) which avoids the long queues at the baggage pickup carossel. PTY airport is efficient and check-in was a breeze. Would fly them again even if slightly higher than competition.

COPA AIRLINES review : 16 October 2008 : by Tony Locantro

Customer Rating : 4/5

PTY to LAX B737-800 economy class. I was impressed with how quickly the line moved at the airport. The flight was held up by searches at the airport gate and misunderstandings re duty free perfumes caused some heated moments. On my flight I was fortunate enough to have reserved an exit seat and was reasonably comfortable on this flight. FA's were more bubbly then previous flights and seemed to be enjoying their night. Food was average, however Copa's drink service is excellent. Not speaking Spanish I did struggle at times, especially with the immigration forms but I am sure these issues will be rectified. I rate Copa now a 3.5 star airline, the 4 stars on this trip was the lucky exit seat.

COPA AIRLINES review : 14 October 2008 : by R Martins

Customer Rating : 4/5

MAO/PTY/MAO. My first flight with Copa airlines was on board a Embraer 190. The outbound onboard service was poor, but compared to the brazilian companies, it was ok. Maybe because of the time flight leaves Manaus - at 5pm - but anyway, compared to the service of the brazilian companies that departs at the same time, it was ok. The return trip started at 11:30am and to my surprise there were "hot food" to eat! It was a pasta, very simple but after flying within Brazil eating cereal bars and cold sandwiches, a hot service was very nice. The crew again was polite and nice to everyone. So, when flying to any Copa Airlines destination from Brazil, ask for the option to fly via Manaus. The flight is shorter (only 3h20m flight to Panama) and is a good option.

COPA AIRLINES review : 6 October 2008 : by Alejandro Canton

Customer Rating : 4/5

PTY-CNF return. COPA recently added this route so both legs had less than 40 passengers. FAs at ease, one even helping a passenger to fill out an immigration form. Entertainment system on the below average level for an almost 7 hours flight both ways. Appreciate the free spirits, meaning wine with meals. Was impressed by the Panorama inflight magazine. Word of caution - make sure your yellow fever shot is valid 10 days before your arrival in Brazil. And, since Nov. 1 it is also required to enter Panama. Arrival and departure from CNF is late midnight, but the Executive Bus has altered its schedule to handle passengers from this flight. Nice touch!

COPA AIRLINES review : 18 September 2008 : by Alejandro Canton

Customer Rating : 3/5

PTY-LAX. Flight smooth enough and usual free drinks were available with two rounds at the beginning of the flight and one two hours before arrival - included breakfast-snack. Dinner was not very appetizing. I wish their routes to the US were not red-eye flights. It would make them more enjoyable. Arriving in LAX may be annoying as the immigrations officers just take off in the middle of the process, leaving just a few to handle a long line of passengers. This takes place a bit after midnight.

COPA AIRLINES review : 2 September 2008 : by K Georgiana

Customer Rating : 5/5

LAX-PTY-SCL. Was upgraded on the second leg there, and both legs back, because of my NWA Elite Status. This was surprising since Northwest won't even upgrade their Elites on international flights. Business class was great. Lots of good food selection. Friendly FAs. Movies were older, though, and the seats did not have individual television systems. Otherwise, perfect flights!

COPA AIRLINES review : 17 June 2008 : by John Little

Customer Rating : 4/5

Havana via PTY to Port-of-Spain. Check in at Havana was a little chaotic with a long line but no major problems. Flight from Havana was on a 737-700 and almost full. Flight was ok with FA's a little harassed by awkward passengers but pleasant enough considering and we also got a snack and drink. Only had 90mins for connection at PTY but this wasn't a problem as I just went from one gate to the next for connecting flight. Plenty of cafes/bars and lounges etc at PTY so no problem there. Flight to POS was on an an almost new Embraer 190 which was just over half full and again FA's were polite and we got a decent meal and drink on this leg as well. Plane had plenty of room and was a pleasant flight. On return I arrived at POS check-in early but there was only a small queue and again flight back to PTY was good - was a shame the flight was again only just over half full as its a good service on that route. After staying a few nights went back to PTY airport for flight to Havana and arrived early but there was no real need as there were plenty of check-in desks and only a small queue. If using COPA again I would pre-check in when leaving from Havana if you can. As commented previously they advise to arrive 3 hours early but on most of my flights there was no need to be so early but I guess it depends on which route you're flying as to how early you should turn up. Service was better than I expected and I would fly with COPA again

COPA AIRLINES review : 10 May 2008 : by N Polikoff

If you have flown in business class on the Embraer 190, please post information about seat width and pitch. I am considering it for PTY-LIM.

Copa Airlines review - by R Rodriguez

16 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

MIA to PTY return. The check in process was quick, with minimal lines at either end of the trip. The only annoyance was that it was too quick in that they advise you to show up 3 hours early for any international segments. As such, there we were sitting at the gates 2 hours early. The flights were pretty good, hot meal service. Both flights had a choice of entrees. Seats were tight, and if you have a window seat, you'll be in a 'hole' for the 2.5 hours of the flight. Pricing was right, and as I watched the prices almost daily fluctuated about $50 from high to low - with no patterns evident. Inflight entertainment was standard tv monitors every 10 or so rows, with a movie shown each way.

Copa Airlines review - by C Fromel

12 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

I had a quick Panama City-Orlando trip. I was flying with a 4 month old and a 2 yr old. Not only did I receive a child meal for my 2 yr old (nearly unheard of now), but there was a wheelchair waiting to escort me and the 2 children to customs in Orlando since the stroller isn't brought up. Through the flight the staff was very courteous to my screaming 4 month old and asked if we needed extra water and juice. The same went for the ride back. We were allowed to board first (priority boarding, which again is not heard of with other airlines) another child menu. Leg space is minimal, but with attentive staff, I'm not complaining!

Copa Airlines review - by P Sorenson

9 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Purchased ticket from Cancun to Panama in January for flight in March. Arrived to the airport and told that the flight was oversold - this after standing in front of the check-in counter for a long period of time with lots of typing and "checking" going on. Only after I asked, was I informed that they were looking for someone to volunteer seats so we could fly! Ignorant customer service people - no solutions or customer service oriented. They bumped us to a flight several hours later - turned into an overnight ordeal (we were flying to Buenos Aires) and we had to re-arrange airport transport and hotels in the meantime.

Copa Airlines review - by R Haney

26 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Constant problems with Copa airlines in terms of service and efficiency. Most recent flight bumped to standby, tickets purchased in November - no explanation, other than to say it was random. Got assigned seats, on plane 40 minutes - Copa switched planes, had to disembark, no explanation, nowhere to get drinks. Second plane, very hot the entire trip, beverages limited to one small glass entire trip. Spend the extra money, fly another airline. Copa is Panama major airline so they have you over a barrel in terms of flights offered. Some staff however are very courteous and helpful.

Copa Airlines review - by Andrey Gerasenkov

19 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

JFK-PTY-SCL in Economy. Both legs on newer 737-700. JFK to PTY the service was non-existant: some food literally thrown at us, bathrooms were dirty and smelly, and FA's who disappeared right after collecting garbage, were grumpy. The second leg was the opposite - nice, smiling and cheerful FA's, excellent food, free alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (non-stop). This made the 6-hour flight feel shorter than the previous 5-hour flight. I cannot recall when (if ever) I encountered an economy class service which was this good! The seat pitch is the usual 32", the movies were presented on overhead LCD screens. If it wasn't for the JFK-PTY leg, the airline would receive 5 stars from me.

Copa Airlines review - by Cory Bunyard

10 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Lax to Rio via Panama City was ok - nothing spectacular, nothing terrible. I have however been having a horrible customer service experience with the airline since. I cancelled my return to LAX to spend holidays here. At the time of cancellation I confirmed with the agent three times that I would have the value of the ticket for one year, and would just need to pay the fare difference to return, and after 30 days a 125 dollar change fee. Now that 30 days has passed I am being told that the value of my ticket has decreased and there is a set fare difference, and after Feb 8th, it will decrease again. I have had a very difficult time communicating with the airline and getting a clear explanation and keep getting pushed off to another department or just not answered. My main complaint is that I was very clear about understanding the fare rules when I cancelled, since I am an experienced traveller - and now the rules are changed with no explanation, documentation, etc. I have accepted that there is no customer service for this airline (25 days through email) and will most likely never use Copa again.

Copa Airlines review - by Luke Smith

3 January 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Washington Dulles to Bogota, via Panama return. Economy class has tight legroom and uncomfortable, while business class has leather seats and is quite comfortable. The seats and service in both classes were similar to Continental domestic product. The food was awful on all flights. There were movies with free headphones on the flights to/from the US. Other than an hour delay from Panama to Bogota, the flights were on time. Nothing special but just as good as USA carriers (which is not saying much).

Copa Airlines review - by Alejandro Canton

9 December 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

Pty-IAD. B737-700 clean with two rounds of drinks plus dinner and a later snack. The plane was about 75% full. IAD-PTY. Same plane, quite empty. Started meal and drinks service two hours after take-off. I was quite hungry since taking off from Dulles is at 5:43a.m., which turns this flight into a red-eye flight - in the airport very early, no real previous sleep etc. Only one drink pass. Guess that the crew wanted to take it a bit easy. The flight back and forth is a bit past four hours each way. Since they joined SkyTeam - I stand corrected, not Sky Alliance - they still maintain their free alcohol policy. Hub in PTY very smooth, the same as immigration procedures.

Copa Airlines review - by Kenneth Mackie

23 September 2007  Customer Trip Rating :

PTY-EZE-PTY. Tocumen Airport is a great improvement on 2 years ago and the check in for Elite Access was swift and friendly. The planes used were 737-800, modern and clean although too "tight" really for a flight that is not far short of London-New York run. FA's friendly on both legs and free bar service. The food however was dreadful. Outbound lunch was a mean salad, congealed pasta and dessert, a packet of Oreo cookies. A warm sandwich served before arrival. Plane was late into EZE, then they couldn't get the airbridge to connect so we waited 15 minutes to be collected by bus. The return trip started with arrival at EZE to be told that the incoming flight from Panama was delayed due to a technical fault and had been reprogrammed for 0530 the following day. However the Copa staff at EZE were apologetic and very friendly, and I was sent in a taxi to a 5 star hotel in the city, lunch and dinner included and then collected in the early hours for the flight back to Panama. Slept for several hours, however no pillows or blankets made it less than ideal. And the breakfast was another dreadful meal - this time a congealed omelette. Arrival in Panama after a 17 hour delay to be greeted with a 35 minute wait to clear immigration. On the plus side, friendly staff, on the minus too small an aircraft for the flight time and dreadful food. Copa is investing over $350m this year and some $250m in 2008 according to reports. It is expanding mightily but I feel that a few Dollars more on passenger comfort would be really well spent.