Copa Airlines

COPA Airlines bumped us (my wife and myself) off their 11.50 morning flight 472 from Panama City's Tocumen International Airport to LAX on January 6. Re-scheduled us to fly on their 6.40pm evening flight instead. Spent 11 hours at the airport. Given a lunch certificate and a $300 future travel certificate. Arrived at Panama City Airport 4.5 hours early for our flight. We were told at check-in that we were bumped. Copa routinely overbooks their flights. Apparently passengers who boarded our flight confirmed the flight days earlier. COPA never told us to do that. The gate crew gave us no information. Service desk staff gave us misinformation: they assured us that our luggage would be transferred to the 302 flight and they assured us that we would get our special vegan meals. None of these things happened. COPA not being able to transfer our luggage from the earlier to the later flight meant that we had to wait for our luggage for 3 days after we got home. Our wonderful trip to Panama had this unfortunate ending.

Aside from a small issue with the person doing check-in in Chicago all went perfectly. This airline was without a doubt superior to almost any US Carrier. Will use them from this point on for all Latin American and Caribbean travel. Great crews lose the chicken sandwiches. Aside from that on time friendly and flawless service.

I flew round trip from Las Vegas to Panama and back business class. Business class was the same as most airlines economy class. The stewards and stewardess never smiled and was nowhere to be found for most of the flight. They served snacks to some people and forgot the rest. Very strange set up I must say. If they train their personal in customer service perhaps it would make for a better trip.

First time flying with them going from BOG to PTY on April 8th and on to MEX two days later. They have a fleet of modern B737NG with new and comfortable interiors. Nothing to complain about the only minus was the food (ravioli) served on the 3.5 hrs flight to Mexico which was really inedible. Their hub in Panama City is a good and quite modern airport from where you can reach many destinations in Central and South America even if they should improve the immigration process which took almost an hour (about 150 persons to be checked and just 6 counters on duty).

We flew on 4 flights with COPA business class. I would only classify our flight from Rio to Panama City as true business class with leg rest and plenty of room. The other 3 flights were not even as good as most other airlines' premium economy - no leg rest and very little room to recline. The food and service were good for the most part. I would not take COPA again.

San Jose to JFK via Panama and we were seated separately on both flights even though our reservation was made together. The customer service personnel were unable to straighten the situation out. As business class travelers who paid for excellent service we were severely short changed in the customer service provided. As a traveler I do have a choice in my airline and I will not be choosing COPA.

BOG to MCO with stop in PTY. Upgraded to Business for PTY-MCO. Had applied for the upgrade via Internet but didn't receive notice on time (24 hours before the flight) - so I had to stay with the Economy line and my boarding pass was changed at the gate. Because of that I had no chance to try their Copa Club. Crew was attentive and spoke English very well. Food and drink (red wine) were good. Entertainment was poor on that old 737 800 - no individual screens/choices. For the flight back (MCO-PTY) I got the upgrade on time but the United Club is located at Terminal B-Airside 3 whereas our flight departed from Terminal A-Airside 1. Amenities were worth the money and I felt well treated during the flight.

MIA-PTY PTY-MCO. Both flights arrived early. Seats very comfortable. Service was OK - not great but not poor. Food was OK to good. Inflight entertainment was minimal - the same movie was shown on both flights. Upon arrival at MCO we were prevented from deplaning by MCO airport officials due to backlog of people in the immigration lines. I had a fairly tight connection and the Copa pilot was extremely helpful in persuading MCO officials to allow me to deplane. Overall very satisfied. I would fly Copa again.

Our fight from GRU to PTY was 3 hours late. The problem as Copa correctly told us at least half a dozen times was not their fault. The underlying problem was due to an airport power outage. But Copa did not deal with it well. When we landed at PTY we could not find anyone to help us with information on our connecting flight. The business class seat on the second flight - PTY to JFK had no leg rest and barely reclined. Then they lost our luggage on the connecting flight from PTY to JFK. No Copa employee could be found in the JFK baggage arrivals area.

I had never heard of Copa until I purchased tickets to Costa Rica. With one exception all went well. Generally on time friendly efficient service. We had a rather short connection in Panama City the plane was a little late arriving so we had to run to make the plane not easy to find the gate as the airport was in the process of changing the signs. The luggage did not make the connection but it was delivered to our hotel by mid morning the following day. The vegetarian request was delivered - very good food. One nice little surprise - you could get a glass of wine or a Coke!