"Worst experience to date"
Nancy Alava (United States)
Not Verified | Quito to Panama via Orlando. Worst experience to date. I have been flying on Copa Airlines for the last 5 years or so, traveling at least once a year. The food used to be good quality, like real food, cooked to perfection, and they offered pretty much every drink you could want. Now I see the steady decline on these last two or three recent trips. The last flight's meal was incredibly salty, the vegetables were cold, and potatoes tasted bad. I'm not super picky, but it was a new low that I never thought I'd see on what was my favorite go-to airlines. So no meal on the morning flight, inedible meal on the afternoon flight, and one drink of water in the afternoon because they didn't make coffee. I expect this with some other airlines, so cheap you have to suffer through your trip, but now with Copa doing the same thing, I feel it's time to shop around with different airlines, and plan ahead somehow with meals and drinks that I can bring on the plane.
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Quito to Panama via Orlando |
Date Flown | June 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"customer service is the worst"
E Geare (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Sao Paulo via Panama City. The aircraft is rather dated, but the flight crew does their best. The problems are divided between quality and service Quality. The food is fair at best, There is no WiFi. Some planes have no power supply or private video. Seat are just ok. Service - the flight crew are great, but customer service is the worst when you call into Copa. Expect them to do little of nothing for you. They is a never ending series of hoops you need to jump thru to get any help .. and even then they shift it to you. With the exception of RyanAir the is no other airline that offers less accomodative Customer Service.
Aircraft | Boeing 737 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | Los Angeles to Sao Paulo via Panama City |
Date Flown | June 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"not big on customer service"
Shawnta Pride (United States)
Not Verified | Two days before my flight was scheduled to leave from Orlando to Panama City then to Costa Rica on May 14, 2019, my 17-year old daughter went to ER and was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery the same day. I communicated with Expedia (purchased tickets through them). Expedia had me to send info from hospital detailing the events. Expedia has gone back and forth with Copa for two weeks with no end in mind to issue my refund for the flight. Finally, Expedia asked me to get involved with Copa directly. I have sent emails to Copa because no one will talk to you over the phone dealing with refunds. Every time I call, I am receiving the run-around and no one seems to know what I am speaking of. This is ridiculous. I have never experienced this issue with other airlines. I had an issue with American and within days my refund was in my account. Copa is not big on customer service. They are big on giving you a hassle. Several Expedia reps I've spoken with stated the same.
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Orlando to Panama City |
Date Flown | May 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"still trying to get a refund"
Eddy Ashton (Canada)
Not Verified | Panama City to Toronto. The flight itself was fine. The plane was completely full, however the crew did a good job of getting out the snacks and drinks early on and then it was uneventful. My complaint is with customer service, and the seat upgrade program, that they seem to push really hard at trying to sell upgrades to business class. Since this flight was over 5 hours, I thought I would bid for 2 business seats. I was informed the day of the flight that my bid was unsuccessful, however they had debited my card for the bid. Long story short, 2 months later I am still trying to get a refund for the failed upgrade. This should be an auto refund, why should I have to repeatedly try to retrieve these funds? Very poor in this department. I feel like they are trying to steal my money.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Panama City to Toronto |
Date Flown | April 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"practice of overbooking"
K Paschul (United States)
✅ Trip Verified |
Panama to San Francisco. Somebody wrote about practice of overbooking. We were told that they can’t assign seats on this flight (booked months ago) due to overload. For a 7 hour flight like Panama City- San Francisco B737 800 is not capable to get enough fuel for this flight if most passengers take allowed luggage.
Aircraft | Boeing 737 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Panama to San Francisco |
Date Flown | May 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"This flight surprised me"
S Beirner (Panama)
✅ 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.
Aircraft | Boeing 738 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | Panama City to Mexico |
Date Flown | May 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"no record of veggie meal"
Barry Bristman (Canada)
✅ 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.
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | Santiago to Toronto via Panama City |
Date Flown | April 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"best airline I have flown"
Jody Alcantara (United States)
✅ 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.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Panama City to Boston |
Date Flown | May 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"shameful practice of overbooking"
J Keane (United States)
✅ 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.
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Panama to Managua |
Date Flown | April 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"Unbelievably horrible experience"
Ilker Karakasoglu (United States)
✅ 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.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Buenos Aires to San Francisco via Panama City |
Date Flown | April 2019 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |