Copa Airlines

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.

ORD-PTY-GIG-PTY-ORD. Overall I think their service is consistent with 3 stars; they're the United of Panama. I'll fly them again if I have to and only when they offer the lowest fare. One thing that really turned me off was that they didn't hold the connecting flight for late arriving passengers delayed due to bad weather in Chicago. We took off 1.5 hours late from Chicago. When I arrived I was greeted at the end of the jet bridge by a staff member already holding a new boarding pass for me. They put me on the next flight 6 hours later. They could have and should have held that flight for 10 minutes for me and other passengers connecting to Brazil. Seat pitch is very tight but that's expected for a 3-star airlines and on a B737. Their turnaround time on the ground was so short that I don't think their cleaning staff had enough time to clean thoroughly. As a result seat pockets still have trash in them. Equipment shows sign of ageing even though they claim to have one of the youngest fleets; I flew on a B737-800. Hot meals were served (all of my flights were over 5 hours) but portion was tiny. Typically airlines food. Dessert was a cookie. On the way back the meal choices were exactly the same no variation between routes. It looks like either chicken with rice or spaghetti with beef whenever you get on a COPA flight. I did notice that their alcoholic choices were better than on United. One thing they were free. Another thing is you could get more variety: red white whiskey vodka and rum. FAs were very average in their service. I asked for tea but the FA completely forgot. Another time I asked for water but my request was also forgotten. They were clearly overworked. Only 3 FAs serving a full economy section with meal and drink service. If you're in the back you can expect to wait for 1 hour before you can get a meal or a drink.

POS-PTY-LIM. Overall fairly positive experience but very expensive at $800. Aircraft in Trinidad was a new Embraer and while roomy and comfortable - we had exit row seats - the most noticeable feature was how cold the plane was. Given that it was 30+ degrees outside this seemed a bit ridiculous. I mentioned it to one of the crew and was given a blanket promptly. One of our party was told in Port of Spain that 'due to a computer issue in Panama' one of our travel party - who had been unable to check in online - would have to have a standby boarding pass for the connection to Lima but that she would definitely be able to travel on the flight. This was not true. In actual fact the flight was massively oversold and the airline had suspended check in that morning. If we had done as we were told and wait there is no way she would have boarded and she would have been stranded for 2 days like many other passengers were. We were lucky. The second flight was of course full but the crew worked hard and food/drinks were fine as was the IFE on overhead screens. Crew were slightly less friendly on this second flight but they were much busier. Overall a good onboard experience only marred by a degree of ineptitude by some of the ground staff.

MAO-PTY-MAO in Business class. I can say that Copa has a very consistent product but their business class model is ageing and not worth the price paid no PTVs seats are 80s model does not recline properly. On embraer aircraft you feel cramped even in business FAs provide blankets and pillows for everyone take your orders on arrival with welcome drinks. Food is good you get entree main dish and deserts the service is friendly but will avoid spending my money on Copa business class they say they are fitting their newer planes with ptv and skyinterior I hope they are.

PTY-CUN. Good experience on all counts. The crew was very warm and accommodating the seat was comfortable but standard for premium class. The food was well prepared and presented. Overall a god solid performance.