Copa Airlines

Not Verified | Montevideo to La Habana via Panama. The service was very good, the crew was very kind and the plane was clean. the food service could be improved but is not bad. In general all the flights that I flew with Copa Airlines was good.

✅ Trip Verified | Washington to Cali via Bogota. I was looking for a ticket so my son who is 14 years old. Copa classify the adults category as 12 years or more, so minors older than 12 years can fly by themselves. My son is 14 years old, so their system allowed me to purchase a ticket for him. The flight from Raleigh to DC (one of the connexions) was Copa operated by United airlines, but Copa Airlines in any step of the transaction mentioned any restrictions and they actually just allowed me to buy the ticket knowing it was for a 14 year old boy. After 3 days I received a call from United saying that my son was not going to be allowed to fly by himself if he was not 15 years old or older according to their policies, and that they didn't understand why Copa Airlines allowed me to get this ticket knowing his age and their policies. so they suggested I called Copa Airlines, ask them to cancel the United flight and give me another option for Caleb to go to DC for the connection to Colombia. So I called Copa airlines asking for help on this matter, and I spoke with 3 different representatives plus what they call a "supervisor" and heir response was: "you should have read the "migratory requirements" that says that minors of more than 12 years old can flight ONLY in flights operated by Copa, so to cancel the flight with United that you purchased trough our website, you are not only NOT going to receive the refund but you are actually going to have to PAY 360 dollars for the penalties that will be caused by the changes you want to make"" I was like wow! not only I'm going to have to drive my son to VA, not get a refund for a ticket he is not going to use because Copa Airlines wasn't clear or said anything about this restrictions, but I'm going to have to pay them for the changes? wow! this is serious!! so I read the migratory requirements, because how dare I didn't read the little letters right? Nothing. there was nothing on those requirements that even mention anything about a minor. Then they told me.. oh, what you didn't read were the "terms and conditions". So I went and read the Terms and conditions, every single little letter in there and... nothing. So they replied: Oh no! is not the terms and conditions is the "Transportation contract" what you didn't read, so I went to find the little link, and saw a 60 pages contract, and on 1 of the clauses, on page 15, they mention this weird clause that if any of you read you will not even understand that what they are saying is that minors older than 12 years old can only flight in airplanes operated by Copa. Seriously? Copa Airlines? you guys are telling me that because I didn't read a 60 pages contract, and a clause that nobody can even understand I'm going to have to pay penalties for a ticket I bought from you guys? when YOUR system allowed me to buy this ticket, when you don't even mention in any step that if the flight wasn't operated by Copa, minors cannot fly without an adult? What really worries me, is how they treat people, and how it seems like they just train people to act like robots that are only repeating a script over and over again instead of really helping the person. They treat people like they are dumb, like "How could you not read a 60 pages contract" right? and they give you the same answer over and over again, and there's no way you can talk with a manager or someone who can actually look at the case and be flexible and care about their clients not a stupid protocol.

c✅ Trip Verified | Washington to Panama City. We made 3 different phone calls and spoke to 3 different staff members to get clarification on their unaccompanied minor policies and the staff seemed very unfamiliar and we got the impression their main concern was to force us to change our $300 tickets for new $2000 tickets. They gave us a hard time regarding the departure flight and when that didn't work they gave us a hard time regarding the return flight. The two points of contention come from their own website: https://www.copaair.com/en/web/us/minors-travelling-alone "The payment of the unaccompanied minor service can be made 48 hours before the departure of the flight through our Sales Offices and Reservation Center." According to COPA, the above means we must call 48 hours before and submit the request for unaccompanied minor. We called 24 hrs in advance. The issue here is that the kids are flying in a direct flight. They do not have a companion service. We are dropping them off at the gate and they are being picked up at the gate in their destination, calling 24 hours in advance to provide names, phone numbers, etc. has always been sufficient in the past but now they said we missed our window, we were supposed to call 48 hrs in advance and we need to change our ticket. We called again and the two other staff members did not interpret the rule like that, and said 24 hrs was fine. "For connecting flights, unaccompanied minor service is not offered if the minor's itinerary includes a flight that is the last flight of the day at the connection point, unless the flight is the only flight of the day." According to COPA if you are flying direct from Panama to Dulles, this rule applies. We pointed out that this is not a connecting flight, it is a direct flight and the rule should not apply. One of the staff members we spoke to agreed with us, the other 2 said the website was wrong. The point here is that if there is no connecting flight, there is no concern of missing a flight and the kids being stranded in a connecting city. For staff members not to know the difference between a connecting and a direct flight is appalling.

Not Verified | Panama City to Los Angeles. I checked in using the mobile boarding pass. When I arrived at Tocumen they told me that their mobile system doesn't work very well and that they will print me the paper boarding pass. I was told the flight was delayed almost 7 hours but not given any reason. I spent the next 7 hours waiting in the airport which has only one filthy restaurant with terrible food on the outside of security. After being unable to eat and told once I go through security I cannot come out I went through security to find an in a massively overcrowded terminal with no air conditioning and people covered with sweat sitting all over floors waiting 7 hours with nowhere to set with no air conditioning was awful. There were long lines even for the filthy toilets. There was never an explanation or apology from Copa staff. The captain never said a word or even addressed the issue about why the plane was 7 hours late. Many passengers were connecting from other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States and they were very frustrated having to wait an extra 7 hours for their connection to the US.

✅ Trip Verified | Guayaquil to Panama City. Overall not a bad flight however for a nearly 2 hour international flight, one would expect a meal instead of a small chicken and cheese pastry. Also they apparently had only one bottle of wine aboard for an entire almost full economy section! I realise that Latin America is not a wine culture but one bottle? On the plus side we took off and arrived on time which is a rarity these days.

✅ Trip Verified | Cancun to Sao Paulo via Panama City. I was pleasantly surprised. CUN-PTY is a short flight and lucky too. The plane was old, with no IFE, no power sockets, and little service. However the plane was punctual and the FAs attentive. I was really not looking forward to the 7 hour PTY - GRU leg on a 737. However this was a much newer plane, with a recently refurbished cabin. Again the FAs were attentive, the IFE was fine and the seats were comfortable reclining to around 150°. Not your flat bed but comfortable enough. The food was reasonable and the flight arrived early.

✅ Trip Verified | Toronto to Cuzco via Panama / Lima. Copa airlines rebooked our tickets when their partner airline we were flying with was late (we were in the check in line more than an hour before our boarding time with our 2 hour layover - our priority marked luggage also came later than anyone else on our flight). They made us wait in an airport for 24 hours without any vouchers or support and did not tell us they were giving us standby tickets the next day. So we did not have a guaranteed way to get home though we were not informed of this and ended up spending a ton of money for the 24 hours stuck in an airport which could have gone toward us rebooking our flights with another airline. When we got to the next layover, we had standby tickets again (even though we booked this flight months in advance & had assigned seats), and one of us was not allowed on the plane and had to fly with a different airline. During this flight they did not give me a meal as I had booked a vegetarian meal months ahead of time and they didn't pass the information forward when they rebooked our tickets (even though I requested it again at the check in). The entire time they put us through this the COPA representatives did not clearly communicate what was happening and they treated us like it was our fault and we were an inconvenience. They also have not been supportive at all in reimbursing us for our costs or our missed services (ie. Food) and have continued to communicate poorly and treat us with disrespect. I will recommend people against flying with this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | San Francisco to Montevideo return via Panama. Seat belt signs were left lit for the entirety of all 4 flights even though the rides were smooth. Announcements over the speakers are often unintelligible in English (they’re fine in Spanish, and Flight Attendants can communicate in English in a face-to-face conversation). I was unable to use the web check-in for the return flight at MVD (a Chat agent told me this happens at random), so I had to endure a slow check-in process at the counter; 40 minutes is a long time to wait when you are 15th in line and there are 6 agents behind the counter but only 2 of them are processing passengers. It gets cold in flight, and on some flights you get blankets, on others you get pillows, on others you get both, and sometimes you get neither (so: be prepared and bring your own). The aisle seats (C and D) have much smaller foot space than the other seats. For the PTY - SFO flight, there is a security check at the gate, and you cannot bring your bottled water on board (I like to sip water during the ascent and descent). Now, the good parts. The price was very competitive for a same-day flight I had to get for a family emergency. Check-in and boarding were very smooth at SFO and PTY. The Boeing 737-800 planes were modern, clean, with large overhead bins, and seat-back screens with a decent amount of movies and games. All flights departed and landed on time, and my suitcases arrived at the destination in good shape. The FAs were excellent, always readily available (the few times a call button was pushed, I observed that an FA responded within 1 minute --no kidding!). Seat comfort and meal size were OK for economy (meals were better quality than Avianca’s, which I also flew recently). For my return flights, I decided to pay the extra $50 per segment, to move to an emergency exit row, and it was worth it for each ~7-hour flight. Note, though, that there are 2 over-wing exit rows, and the forward one (row 17 on my plane) has seats that don’t recline, while the rear one (row 18) DOES recline and thus you get the benefit of great leg room and you can recline normally. I’d like to reiterate: the FA's seemed eager to provide professional service, and they are the most memorable face of the airline, so in recognition of their efforts I would recommend Copa to my family and friends.

✅ Trip Verified | Lima to New York JFK via Panama City. Almost everything about was fine. Check in went smoothly and both legs of my flight departed on time. The hot meals were ok and the inflight entertainment offered a reasonable selection.But there was a very serious and very design flaw on both the aircraft: the magazine rack on the back of the seat in front of you consists of fabric stretched over a metal frame. On one side the frame stuck right out- into my knee.The only way to avoid it is to spread one leg into your neighbour's space.

✅ Trip Verified | Panama to Guatemala. This a terrible airline. On the way in to Panama the flight was over 1 hour late because one engine was “not working”, which then got miraculously fixed in 5 minutes making it impossible to enjoy the flight when thinking what could have been wrong. On the way back flight was delayed for more than 3 hours because the crew was not there. A 9pm flight became a midnight flight making a very late return to home. The people at the counter were also rude and lied about the reasons for delaying the flight at the beginning. Avoid Copa if you need to be on time or catch a connecting flight. They also sold more tickets and were then giving money away for those who would accept to fly the next day.