www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Anyone have a quick review or experience with copa air? I believe they are owned by continental. I just purchased a rt SJO during 1st week of october for 340 (incl.taxes) from NYC from their website. The flights connect in Panama. Website could use a bit polishing.

COPA is a Panamanian airline in which Continental has a 49% interest. I personally have never flown them but know many people who have and their comments are good. Like every airline they have the occasional delay or bitchy flight attendant but that is not the norm.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

COPA gets thumbs up from me. I've flown them out of JFK and SJO to BOG and MDE. The airline still feed you a meal and offer soft drinks and wine free of charge. Customer service both on the ground and in the air is pretty good. If you have Continental's One Pass FF membership, you can accrue mileage with COPA as well. I've flown them 8 times and never experienced delays or cancellations.

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Blue Devil

Pura Vida...enjoying life to the fullest...

Thumbs up from me as well. I've taken them from PTY to SJO twice. On time, everytime, friendly and efficient from my 2 experiences.

dapanz1

I use Copa from LAX to Cartagena and have never had a problem. The service is good and and flight attendants are usually friendly.
Zeus

I have used COPA once. They were very accommodating particularly with a serious glitch that I experienced.

I had purchased the ticket on-line using my nickname which is what I had always used when flying within the US and internationally. I had flown to Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Republic of China, Peoples Republic of China, Thailand, and other stops in between using my nickname on the ticket.

But at that time (2005) there was a change over in the ever confusing TSA regulations and they no longer accepted nicknames on tickets. The name on the ticket had to match exactly the name on the passport. The COPAs computer automatically cancelled the ticket but COPA never notified me of the cancellation.

So I show up at LAX, fat, dumb and happy to learn that I had no ticket. I did have a print out of the original purchase that COPA’s computer later cancelled. It was a pretty good fare too.

The counter representative saw the problem and she matched the original round trip fare. Usually last minute purchases have a brutal price tag. Then she moved me into very good seats.

I really loved Panama International. It is a shopping mall that doubles as an airport. I bought a lot of booze, brands that the Costa Rican airport does not carry.

I would use them again except that I rarely fly out of LAX anylonger.

I fly Copa 2-3 times a month and have never had any problems. I would actually prefer them over any of the US airlines.

FYI--Continental used to have a 49% stake in Copa but has sold most of it off and is looking to get rid of the rest. They do however still use Continentals FF program.

I once read ratings somewhere that had Copa as one of the top airlines for professionalism, safety and quality service. Too lazy to look it up right now though. Their hub IS here in Panama...and they are rarely the cheapest choice, but have the most flights out of here to most anywhere you can fly from Panama. While American has had historically better fares from here, I prefer flying Copa or Continental...flying anywhere BUT through Miami.

OH, They also often have specials direct from their site that are not available on any other online travel sites, so dont forget to check their webfares or discount list online direct.

Happy travels.

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All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts...

Thanks for the correction on Continentals ownership position in Copa. I somehow missed this:

"In May 2008, Continental Airlines sold its remaining 4.38 million shares of Copa for $35.75 a share, for net proceeds of approximately $149.8 million."

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Didn't know that already got rid of the rest of their shares. Wonder what will happen when Continental switches to the Star Alliance. Don't think Copa is going to follow them which means they'll have to start their own FF program.

In my opinion, one of the many things that make Copa and Continental so successful is the standardization of their fleet. In both companies their primary aircraft is a 737 with all of its various iterations. The 737 has a great safety and reliability record. By using one primary aircraft, the airline benefits with the interchangeability of parts. In that respect they follow the Southwest Airlines business model. TACA uses the same business model only with Airbus aircraft.

Selecting Boeing to standardize the fleet came from the leadership of Gordon Bethune, originally an airplane mechanic turned CEO. He is credited with turning around Continental Airlines from the worst to the one of the best and to profitability. He was General Manager of Boeing in the late 90s before moving into the CEO spot at Continental in 1996. The focus on Boeing was also due to an alliance with Boeing among the some of the biggest U.S. carriers. When Boeing bought out McDonnell Douglas the Europeans went to court to bust up the alliance.

From a management point of view, both Continental and Copa have empowered their employees to make decisions and management backs them up. The companies also both share profits with the employees. Continental ties its profit sharing tied to performance goals. Profit sharing is not some BS scam that some CEO came up with where the employees wind up getting nothing while the executives line their pockets millions (read that as American Airlines and fired CEO Donald Carty).

My guess is that Copa will continue to use One Pass system. It may not be worth creating its own.