Copa Airlines

CM 278/279 (EZE-PTY-EZE). Sep 30th - Oct 12th. 7.5 hrs flight. Seating in Economy in emergency rows (rows 18 on 738). New 737-800 Sky interiors with individual TV screen also in Economy. Plane full as always and on time as always on both legs. Emergency seats definitely have more space for a 6 ft 1 passenger like me. Decent and heated economy class food and wide availability of beverages. Nice smiley flight crew. Plane clean and new. Full lunch plus sandwich prior landing. Overall a good experience.

I traveled from Chicago to Recife-Brazil on Copa Airlines on 12-17-2012. They state on their website that passengers in economy class originating in the US can take two extra checked-in suitcases under 32 Kg for $175 each. She had one extra suitcase and Copa Airlines refused to check it in because there were not allowing this for the month of December. They never updated the on-line information about luggage limitations for the month of December.

We flew Mexico to Panama as a connection to San Juan. Check in was fast. The food was surprisingly good. The staff is very friendly. I highly recommend Copa Airlines.

Flew Mexico - Panama and back in Economy Class. Travelled with an infant and requested a front row seat. Request was denied. Online check-in was not permitted for passengers travelling with infants. At Airport check-in staff were slow and after several minutes they suggested my wife and I sit on different seats. When I strongly protested with the suggestion they reassigned us so we were seated together. In flight service was poor and comparable to budget airline standards. Food was cold and not fit for consumption the only thing was the metal cutlery which is rare these days. Flight attendants were cold and not open to requests. On the return flight I called Copa Panama to request a front row seat I was told it was assigned when I got to the airport I was told there was no request made and no seat assigned. Inflight entertainment on the way into Panama was not functioning. Overall a bad experience.

Flew Toronto to Panama City Direct got a great seat-sale. Did the web check-in for way down got row 11 and when you do the web check-in for the first leg it automatically did the web-check in for our return flight but somehow we got row 30 not sure how that happens? We checked in at Panama City and were able to get row 32 (only row where a seat hadn't been booked). Agent gave us aisle and window and nobody booked middle seat so we got lucky and had all 3 seats to ourselves. Service on way down was outstanding but I think they were short-staffed on way back because service was slow and they ran out of chicken meals (to be expected I guess when you're at the back of the bus). Blankets pillows drinks meals and headphones were all provided without extra cost. Would definitely fly Copa again.

Flew Chicago - Panama City - Guayaquil on Oct 16 return on November 5. All flights on time. Employees at airport friendly and helpful. Same for FAs. Overall good experience and will use them again.

October 14 2012. The first leg of my trip was a 1.5 hr flight from Aruba to Panama City and to my surprise we had a choice of warm sandwiches chips cookies and beverage. The chicken sandwich was pretty good for airline food but I can't complain because my flights from LAX to Las Vegas was a beverage and peanuts or pretzels. The second leg back home to Los Angeles was over a 5 hr flight leaving Panama City about 6:40 pm. After a couple of hours flying the beverage carts started serving drinks followed by a hot meal real silverware roll and salad. Before the flight ended there were two more rounds of beverages. The seats are roomy and the planes are fairly new and clean.

Panama to Orlando. Service was hopeless not up to most Economy standards. Flight Attendants were very lazy and serving the very basic food and drinks took an eternity. Flight got rerouted to Miami due to weather. I had a connecting flight in Orlando with Lufthansa and tried several times to get their help to ensure communication with LH but they refused to say or do anything. While on ground in Miami the Copa official was very unhelpful and clearly didnt care about a connecting flight. Finally arriving in Orlando I just missed the connection by about 1 minute and LH was furious at Copa and had tried to get info from them without luck. Copa refused to rebook me to another flight pay for hotel or in any way be helpful. Eventually the LH manager stepped up to the plate and said "never mind them we will take care of you". LH booked a hotel and new flights home. COPA used to be a very customer focused airline but after this I will go out of my way to not fly with them again!

Rio-Panama-Toronto. Late departure from Rio but offered dinner vouchers for compensation. Overall comfortable flight decent food options and entertainment. Doesn't shine in any particular category but no major faults either. They fly to many destinations so would recommend if flying in South/Latin America.

In April I took flight from New York (JFK) to Port of Spain with a layover in Panama. Employees are more concerned with conversing with each other than they are helping passengers. They mostly stay hidden during the flight and they don't make many announcements. The food wasn't that great either. Tocumen International Airport is dirty. The furniture has stains and rips. I will not fly Copa again.