Copa Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Panama City to Mexico. This flight surprised me. Great crew onboard both flights. Good food. On time departures and arrivals. Copa should pick up its game and offer new services as wifi.

✅ Trip Verified | Santiago to Toronto via Panama City. 1) When I checked in at SCL, I was told that the business lounge Copa used was at gate 12. After going through immigration and security formalities, I went to gate 12 but found no lounge. I tried to use the airport map touchscreen nearby but it was out of service. I finally went to another lounge and they also told me that it was at gate 12. I walked around the terminal for 45 minutes and then back to gate 12. I noticed then that there were stairs to the basement, though there were no signs anywhere indicating what was down there. The Star Alliance Lounge was there. I walked in and I was one of only 5 people, which indicates to me that others also had trouble finding the lounge. The receptionist told me that they were going to move soon so they had taken down all the signs a long time ago. It would have been proper for Copa to have informed me at check-in of this issue. 2) Boarding flight 118 was also a problem. After the boarding pass check at the gate, there was a huge crowd of passengers that was not moving at all. It took a long time for this to clear and me being in business class made no difference. 3) On board, I checked the entertainment system and its offerings were very poor - worse than in any economy section even that I have flown in the last five years. 4) The seat was uncomfortable. 5) It took almost an hour after take-off for us to be offered any kind of food/snack. We were simply given bottles of water before take-off. Later in the flight, about an hour after the small lunch was served, I asked a flight attendant for a snack. She challenged me on this and said something would be offered in another hour. I have never encountered this attitude on any other airline ever. She finally gave me something but was clearly not happy about it. 6) At the Copa Air lounge in Panama City, there was little food and no vegetarian meals were offered at all - no sandwiches, no salads - nothing other than fruit and oatmeal cookies. Again, I have never experienced this issue in any other airline lounge in the world. 7) Shortly after I boarded flight 470 to Toronto, we were given menus and then asked for our choice for supper. I mentioned that I had ordered a vegetarian meal (I had in fact been given one on the flight from Santiago) and the flight attendant said he had no record of it. I said that I had booked the ticket about two and a half months ago and received veggie meals on every other flight. He said he would go "confirm." He came back and said no vegetarian meal was available. I asked what I would be fed instead and he said he didn't know. I asked him again - are you saying you're not going to feed me for 5.5 hours? He didn't answer. I told him that this was unacceptable. Then a second flight attendant came and told me the same thing, and asked if maybe I had ordered a veggie meal for 118 and but not for 470. I asked her, "why would anyone do that?" A special meal request is made for the whole flight, not for a single leg. Then a third flight attendant came to me and told me the same things. She finally said they would be able to give me soup and salad if I liked. I said that it wasn't a meal and she said there was nothing she could do. 8) I should note that between the time the first flight attendant told me I would receive no meal and the time we actually left the gate was over 20 minutes. Another Copa employee could have been sent to get me something from one of the airport restaurants. However, no one offered to.

✅ Trip Verified | Panama City to Boston. This has to be the best airline I have flown. From the crew to the food to the comfort, it was all 5 Star.

✅ Trip Verified | Panama to Managua. Arrived for the 3rd time in 2 months to check in at Copa at Panama airport to discover they had overbooked and bumped me off the flight. I had to wait 7 hours for the next flight. This was with a full price ticket. I fed up with Copa service (terrible), counter staff (rude and unhelpful) and their shameful practice of overbooking every flight to Managua recently.

✅ Trip Verified | Buenos Aires to San Francisco via Panama City. Garbage customer service. I am a gold Star Alliance member. Copa doesn't deserve to be in Star Alliance. The first leg of our return trip was delayed due to Copa's fault and we missed our connecting flight. Copa customer service didn't help in any way and offered no compensation. How Copa handled this situation was not professional or correct due to following multiple reasons: In Buenos Aires, Copa representatives assured us that despite the delayed flight, we could still catch our connecting flight in Panama and Copa reps would greet us as soon as we land in Panama in order to direct us to the connecting flight. No such thing happened. We saw no help from Copa in Panama to help us catch our flight. So the representatives in Buenos Aires wrongly informed us. We were again misinformed by Copa representatives this time in Panama while rebooking our missed flight. We were told there was no flight to San Francisco the next day (Monday) so we must wait and leave two days later (Tuesday). But as we learnt 10 minutes after receiving this information, another passenger traveling to San Francisco was rebooked on a flight on Monday because Copa accepted to fly her to Los Angeles first and got a United Airlines ticket from Los Angeles to San Francisco. This passenger wasn't in business class. She told us she could get the flight the next day because she argued more and could speak Spanish. So we were lied and put in a disadvantaged position just because we didn't argue and politely accepted what Copa offered us. At the end we could get to San Francisco after a 40 hour delay. We both missed 2 days of work. Now I can't reach customer service via email or phone. The customer service email given to us is a black hole. My emails are only returned with an auto response. Phone customer service said they can't offer any help. Unbelievably horrible experience with Copa.

✅ Trip Verified | Washington to Panama City. Departed out of IAD - At Counter - Could not Check-in bags directly to my destination DAV, In-flight the airplane is dated and need upgrades to be consider Business class. The attendant did no mentioned where to plug electronics and there were no entertainment at all on the plane. I follow the United Airlines instructions to login with no luck. Copa should not assume that travelers know all these things especially on this old type of airplanes. Arrived to PTY - Picked my baggage and pay for a luggage cart to go through customs after that I could not take the cart to go upstairs to drop off my bags to the COPA domestic counter I have to actually find a gentleman that carried my bags by hand . No signs, no directions, no one from COPA to ask what was next. Waited in line for about one hour, very hot and crowded counter with only one staff assisting in the web checked in counter. I had to asked twice to the staff at the counter where to go next, he seem not very knowledgeable. Return Flight from DAV - I was charged for my baggage and they could not send my bags directly to IAD. I was very frustrated because I did not want to go through what I experienced on my arrival to Panama.The lady at the counter said because my tickets were not purchased together, but I explained that I purchased the tickets at the same day and time. I found with today's electronic age that this simple change could not be made possible, I asked the staff to please call the manager. The "not too friendly manager" seems bother by my request and said that I have purchased my tickets separately and this was the policy and since I was flying domestic I needed to pay for my luggage, At this time I told the manager okay even though I think that the entire situation was absurd I will pay but please check my baggage directly to IAD - The manager literally looked at me, say nothing and then she tell the staff to check my baggage through and say nothing to me and walked away as if she was doing me a non desire service, it was very humiliating to beg for an hour. I was the last one entering the plane. Departure from PTY to IAD - the complete COPA terminal gates 1 through was extremely hot - about 90+ degrees no place to purchase water or cool off and all the belts for fast walking were not working. Even though I did stay in the COPA lounge I walked to the gate one+ hour earlier, but still very uncomfortable unhealthy environment at the gates. Again on this leg the aircraft was dated and no entertainment. The young man that attended was extremely polite and very nice, he really made the difference on my frustration of the whole trip. I purchased upgrades for the complete flight and felt as if I was flying economy (For an international Flight) The business class did not feel as such. I used to fly on COPA all the time until three years ago. I started using Delta or United planes and then go to DAV on AirPanama. After three years I decided to come back to COPA to be even more disappointed. I am not a complainer and I think this is my first review to an Airline ever, yes Copa seems convenient with the direct flight to PTY and DAV but living in the DC area, I have many choices on airlines, quality service and amenities. Very disappointed that I traveled with COPA.

✅ Trip Verified | Panama City to Salvador. Excellent on time performance. Friendly staff. Over-aged seats, with limited recline. No foot rests. No plugs either, a 6 hours flight might be too much for your laptop. IFE about nonexistent. Food might as well come from a local hospital. Tasteless.

Not Verified | Chicago to Panama City. Writing this review after sitting on the tarmac for 1.5 hours. Pay the premium price for an airline that can afford timeliness and WiFi infrastructure. I know I will next time. I have them a 5 for actually having planes. They met the basic requirements for a 5. Remove these airline from the Star Alliance, it’s giving you a bad name.

✅ Trip Verified | Panama City to New York. After having gone thru 2 security screeners we where herded like cattle into a small waiting area where their where not enough seats for everyone and air conditioning was not working. Very hot and unpleasant experience. I will think twice before flying Copa again.

Not Verified | Curacao to Panama. A very pleasant experience. We had a smooth flight going from Curacao to Panama. The flight was on time, more comfortable legroom than some airlines, the cabin temperature was fine and the plane did not smell funky. The flight attendants were pleasant and the restrooms were clean. We had a ham & cheese sandwich which was hot and very nice- the best short flight snack ever! The only downside was we couldn't access the website to check in and get seats assigned from our hotel which was not a big deal. When their ticket counter at the airport opened, check-in was quick and efficient. We would definitely fly COPA again.