Carrier Reviews: Copa Airlines Sucks

Monday, October 22, 2007

Don't fly Copa. American Airlines has better deals anyway you just gotta look ahead sooner. Copa's cheap and you get what you pay for. Taca is the worst, Copa is getting there in my book.

9 Comments:

At 10:05 AM, Joel said...: American Airlines? Really?

I just did a search, and for the same departure city and date, Air Canada was about $1000 cheaper.

Does Copa Airlines not offer complimentary alcohol on the flight or what? No peanuts?
At 11:01 PM, Anonymous said...: Your blog reaches new heights of fascination..

Wembley
At 4:43 PM, Chileno said...: "new heights of fascination.."

I love it.

Anyway, Joel, I didn't fly American Airlines because I lost their awesome price - like 650 after taxes for a multi-city trip - literally a day late! So I went with Copa which was 800 after taxes which is still alright. And they are much better than Taca because they feed you. I drank copious amounts of free red label whiskey on both airlines but on Copa I didn't have to do so on an empty stomach. Taca only accepted US dollars and I only had a card and pesos. So I was fucked. Taca also charged more and stopped like 5 times, when they said they'd only stop 2. Hang yourself rather than get on Taca. IF you can find an awesome price on American Airlines that doesn't go away, then go for it. Air Canada - good tip I never researched them for flights to South America.

If everything goes well Copa is actually fine for the price. The problem I had with Copa is I that at the last minute bought the wrong kinda ear plugs (the only kind the airport had). See, I always wear ear plugs when I fly or go to shows because I have tinnitus, constant ringing in the ears and need to minimize exposure to loud music so that it doesn't get worse. Airport only had fucked up earplugs for kids, with really badly written instructions so I had to get off the plain lest I get them permanently lodged in my ear and lose hearing or something. So I got off the plane, got help removing the ear plugs without damaging my ears and waited 24 hours. I didn't delay the plane, yet they charged me a $100 fee for getting on the next plane which was at least 50% empty. I asked the guy as a professional courtesy to waive the $100 fee and he wouldn't budge. Then I asked to see the fee policy and lo and behold ILLNESS is grounds for waiving the fee. I defined the situation as illness, he didn't. He blamed me for the problem, and I'm not blaming Copa but neither is it entirely my fault - the product comes into question. In any case I didn't harm Copa, it would be EXTREMELY easy to waive my fee - I didn't delay the first plane nor did I overcrowd the second.

I told him that based on the complete lack of good reason to charge me, I would never fly on Copa again and he accused me of "threatening" him. Totally unprofessional. On top of that they were charging everyone in the check -in line for something extra, the guy who I asked about his $25 charge looked like a day-laborer campesino but said "money didn't matter, I consider my health to be more important than arguing over extra charges." He's right. Avoid that blood pressure spike and bend over.
At 3:24 PM, Anonymous said...: I'll make a note not to fly Copa. Did you have a stop over in Panama?

Another Airline not to fly with is Monarch Airlines (doubt you would, its British based); Dirty planes making strange noises, 20+ years old, pilots who tell the passengers over the system 'I dont know where to land this thing' and miserable staff all charging $12 for extremely overcooked pasta. Oh and 28'' leg room, delays, petty charges etc...

Strange question but out of interest;

Do they reduce fruit and veg in Chilean supermarkets when its getting near its sell by date or do they just let it go rotten and still try and flog it at full price?
At 4:37 PM, mamacita chilena said...: That's odd, I never had any problems flying Copa. Actually the two times I flew with them were some of my better flights. I left out of Miami and with a stopover in Panama, even counting layover time, it was a shorter traveling time than Miami directly to Santiago with Lan, or American Airlines (same thing although the Lan planes are MUCH nicer if you can get on a new one). Delta is good too and used to have cheap deals if you kept an eye on their website but I stopped flying with them because the only route from FL was through Atlanta and that airport is Hell on Earth.

Fly Lan, I never pay over a thousand and their new planes are SO nice!
At 6:13 PM, Chileno said...: Well, I probably would be raving about Copa because the flight did seem pretty fast if it weren't for the 12-hour layover in Panama on the way up (although I did buy a $5 tourist visa and meet the locals which was semi-cool), it's just that the guy was such a fucking asshole and wouldn't waive the charge, even though it was quite arguably an illness which caused me to do the responsible thing and get off the plane before holding it up. So if you don't face a minor medical emergency while boarding the plane your trip'll be fine, just know that they'll lie and bully you and do everything not to give you the benefit of the doubt if something comes up. Then the third world livestock treatment comes into effect. Not pretty.

So because Copa reared it's ugly head I've vowed never to ride them again, and I encourage everyone and anyone flying to or from South or Central America NOT to fly Copa Airlines. As Kyle points out you've waaay got options - choose a carrier that won't treat you like a sulaco.
At 6:45 AM, Anonymous said...: Next time try British Airways!
At 6:05 AM, Anonymous said...: I googled "Copa Airlines Suck" and your blog came up, so I felt compelled to enter something... We flew through Panama City and although there was plenty of time for us to get on our next flight with Copa, apparently, there wasn't enough time for our luggage. When our luggage refused to come out while we stood there waiting (forever), the Copa asshole (I mean, baggage guy) told us bluntly that it would be on the next flight in 25 minutes. No apologies or even a semblance of sympathy. Okay, 25 minutes.. fine. An hour and a half later, the luggage for that flight started rolling in. Nada.

We talked to the baggage asshole again and he said that it would be on the next flight, but it would be delivered to us. Why he couldn’t have said this before making us wait next to luggage turnstiles for an hour and a half, I have no idea. So, we left the airport, slightly pissed off. Of course, they don’t provide any compensation for this, so having not showered since 2:30am and without any toiletries, existing on 2 hours of sleep, we weren’t the happiest of campers.

The “next” flight would apparently have our luggage on it… 7 hours later. Nope. They have no idea where it is, after assuring us twice that it would definitely be on the next flight. They don’t care at all about the inconvenience and if they had handled it better, with some fucking sympathy, then I wouldn’t hate them as much. We’re going to stay away from them from now on. Should have paid the extra $50 to fly another airline.
At 9:57 AM, Anonymous said...: Thanks Chileno for ur input. I stick to LAN Chile, those guys are 1st class all the way, they are prompt, educated, good looking people. No, don't need to change if it isn't broken.