Copa Airlines Reviews 

My Copa Airlines Experience – Never Again

I want to share my recent experience with Copa Airlines, and unfortunately, it has been one of the worst travel experiences I’ve ever had.

Firts of all the Copa app wouldn’t confirm my check-in. I spent over two in a half hours at the airport counter while agents tried to fix my APIS number. My reservation had to be deleted and re-entered. There was no supervisor on-site, only phone calls to Panama. I almost missed my flight because of this.

Once on board and about to take off at 5:50pm the pilot ,announced that Cuba closed its airspace, forcing the plane back to the gate. We sat inside the plane for over four in a half hours with confusing and contradictory updates before being told at nearly 10 PM that the flight was canceled.

I was rebooked the next day, but that flight was also delayed, making me miss my connection in Panama. I had to wait six hours in Panama for another flight to Colombia.

Because of all these issues, I was forced to extend my trip. I had to pay:
• $193 for an Airbnb extension
• $172.99 in airfare change fees
• Plus additional expenses from delayed medical appointments and rescheduled surgery.

My bag was returned scratched and dented, but Copa brushed it off as “normal wear and tear.”

After filing a complaint, Copa’s response was basically, “not our problem.” They blame Cuban airspace closure for everything and refuse to reimburse me, even though their own system failures and poor handling caused much of this mess.

I will be opening a case with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and filing with the aviation authorities. And I will keep sharing this story so others are aware before booking with Copa Airlines.

Travelers deserve better. Airlines should take responsibility when their customers suffer this much stress, expense, and disruption.

#CopaAirlines #TravelNightmare #FlightDisruption

I had a very negative experience with Copa Airlines. Although I booked a Classic fare, which already includes one checked bag, and Copa Airlines has a clear special rule for golf equipment (up to 45 kg and 294 cm linear without extra charge if it counts as the regular baggage allowance), I was still charged USD 184 extra at Lima Airport.

On my outbound flight from San José (Costa Rica) to Lima, my golf bag was accepted without any issue as my regular baggage – exactly as stated on the website. On the return from Lima, however, it was incorrectly categorized as a surfboard, and despite over an hour of discussion at the counter, I was forced to pay the fee. Even the supervisor insisted on this charge, although the official rules are very clear.

This was not only frustrating and time-consuming at the airport but also forces me now to file a refund claim, upload receipts and photos, and spend additional time to get my money back. This whole process is unnecessary if the staff simply applied the airline’s own policies correctly.

The customer service in the U.S. was also not helpful at all. Instead of offering a solution, they gave robotic responses and repeatedly referred me back to the website – which I already know. My issue was not understanding the policy, but the fact that the Lima staff did not follow it.

Overall, a very disappointing experience: inconsistent handling, long delays, unnecessary charges, and no real support from customer service. If zero stars were possible, I would give zero.

It was pretty okay. From Guayaquil (Ecuador) to Panama and Curacao.

Website always down, app always down, no customer service, DO NOT TAKE THIS AIRLINE. I would add screen shots but I dont have the option here.

wow beware they write on the side of their planes that they are the most on time airline in latin america. My first flight was over two hours delayed, which I accepted and thought happens from time to time, but my connecting flight they chose to depart 30 or 40 minutes early. UNBELIEVABLE I was at the gate 30 minutes early even after the terrible delay just sitting in the plane for a 2 hour and 20 minute delay on the runway. Then they said well there is nothing we can do your flight departed ealier than schedule and they said they had the right to do this without my consent. I waited in Panama for 7 hours and I missed my next connecting flight for 10pm and spent all night/morning from midnight until 8 am without sleep and had to purchase another flight with another airline because they chose to have a flight depart early. I have never seen or heard of a flight every leaving before the time WRITTEN ON MY BOARDING PASS. I am still shocked I asked for a refund and they claim that is against their policy and offered 100 dollars on a future flight if used within 12 months. I do not ever want a future flight with this airline it cost me a day, several hundreds to purchase airfare at the airport and a day of work. I am not even able to use it as I have a work contract for 1 year nowhere near Panama.

Messy.
That is the best way to describe it.
We couldn't check in online because the app told us we had to check in at the airport. This is a common experience for me flying from this airport so fine. We'll do that.
Arriving at the airport they tell us the flight is overbooked and we'll have to see whether or not we will be allowed to board the next flight's tickets we will receive at the gate.
Arriving at the gate they tell us that they will give us the tickets when boarding starts.
In the end we were allowed to board but they assigned my wife and I seats that were not together and didn't give us the tickets. Instead they told us to ask for the tickets at the gate of the next flight.
Really messy communication which causes a lot of stress which you don't need when you are already doing something stressful like flying.

Flight from Quito to Panama cancelled. Miscommunication and lack of leadership. Awful service. We lost our connections and the entire day.

They have lost my one piece of luggage that contains critical work equipment and not responding to my emails, I’m truly disappointed as there is absolutely no customer service. I also reported it and got a form but have no feed back on anything as there is no reference number on the form I received.

Cancún operations of Copa Airlines combines incompetence with outright hostility. If you’re American or expect basic respect, book elsewhere. Because they hate you *"Worst Airline ever!!"* isn’t hyperbole—it’s a consensus .

Worst Airline ever!!! Admit your mistakes and account for our damages you caused!!

Due to a mistake that one Copa Airline employee did in Lima we we‘re refused to check-in our flight. We arrived 48 hours later at our final destination and in this time were sent from airport to airport due to a sequence of mistakes all caused by Copa employees. This did cost us more than 2.400 Euro on top, caused us stress and stomach problems and destroyed our vacation & birthday.
Even though the Copa employees in an other country (Panama) admitted that these have all been mistakes caused by the Airline and taken into consideration that we have written proof that Copa employees did a mistake, we did not get any positive feedback from Customer Service. Also by sending an out-of-court payment request, the airline does not even react. This airline does not deserve to be part of the Star Alliance! It is a shame that they are part of the same alliance in which reliable airlines like Lufthansa is part of!
Copa Airlines, admit your mistake - that your supervisor in Panama did anyways - and account for our damages!

I had nothing but positive experience. The carry-on baggage allowance is generous, we were fed for free on our seven hour trip plus snacks, we had a screen with good movies to watch, and the service was excellent. Compared to its main competitor Avianca, it is well worth flying with Copa.

Do NOT fly Copa!

We bought tickets worth $1857.12 but there was an error in their payment system so it looked like payments were unsuccesful. However suddenly 3 transactions from Copa appear on my bank Account. I contact Copa but they refuse to do anything. They deny the transactions saying “Well we dont have the money”…!!!

So now we have 3 authorised payments of $1857.12 but only receives one set of tickets and Copa support deny everything!

Later they lost 2 out of 3 bags and left us up all night waiting for them.

Whatever you do its not worth the hassle. Find another airline!

Copa's website is often down. When talking to the office, their staff is untrained and incompetent. I have flown Copa 3 times and will not return soon.

I fly for work and in the entire world this has to be one of the worst airlines for customer service. I pre ordered my and my husbands vegan meals leaving Brazil. They not only didn’t have them available for us on our flight they didn’t even offer a veg side salad or fruit to make up for their mess up. They just said you have the options of “beef or beef” so rude and sarcastic. On my second flight on my journey home I had to run to the toilet as I believe I got food poisoning in the airport.. not only did they not let me in the bathroom the flight attendant basically threw a barf bag at me and demanded I sit now. The flight was still boarding and there was no reason for this at all. They didn’t want me being sick in private. Made me feel like a peasant. I also payed for row 5 seats… their staff is beyond rude. They are inhumane and heartless. They treat people like they are a joke.

If anyone is contemplating stepping onto an aircraft with this company, I highly suggest you reconsider. This is a company that can't operate a website or online reservation system so I can't even fathom what their maintenance would look like on airplanes that take people 35K feet above the ground. I tried to book a flight from Medellin to Panama literally a dozen times. Each time it would say here's my reservation code but it would not go through. I tried with one credit card and another. No go. I got an email saying their "revenue management" group declined the transaction. They said I would have to submit bank statements/ect to prove my card was good I guess. Literally a Chase Sapphire Reserve and Amex Delta Reserve and both with a credit limit where I could actually buy the planes if I wanted. I called them the first time and was on hold for 5 hours. Then today I got through and no apology or anything. I asked them to just forget about it and book it for me on the telephone. They said that would cost me $25 dollars per person service fee for phone reservations!!!! From a company where you can't make online bookings. We're done with them. The funny part is that because they can't take bookings they're crashing planes only half full. Stay away from this nightmare.

by far worse experience ever with an airline, they didnt process my children flights and emailed me in a different language from revenue protection, they wanted my id and bank statements, i forwarded them and they still didnt take my payment for unknown reasons and wouldn't tell me why. no one ever emailed me back, i had to call customer service several times, the reason they do that is to resell them for higher prices, now im having to send my children in a different flight and paid 400 dollars extra, buyer beware!

Our story started on May 12/2025 after spending 12 wonderful days in Panama City my wife and I were leaving Panama and heading to Rio Brazil for 5 days then back to Panama City before returning to Canada. We had upgraded all of our return flights to business class with Copa.
When I had purchased the tickets in January of 2025 I had checked to see if there were any requirements to enter Brazil at the time they had only mentioned some travel warnings about Rio and possibly needing a yellow fever vaccine, that was about it.
We checked out of our airbnb and headed for the airport, it was close to lunch time so we had a bite to eat and waited for our flight. Shortly after boarding when we were barely off of the runway the person sitting in front of me in 18D was located in the emergency exit row which has extra legroom decided to recline his seat as far as it would go which left me approximately 6 inches of room. I needed to recline my seat in order to avoid hitting my face on his seat. When the flight attendants started serving food my wife asked if they could please ask him to move his seat upright when she replied: he can do whatever he wants and we can not say anything. Needless to say I had my seat upright to allow the person behind me to enjoy their meal so I went without any food.
After a long 7 hour flight we finally landed in Rio at 12:20 am on May 13/2025
Tired and hungry we headed to immigration while heading through the officer asked for our visas to enter Brazil, of course I had checked in January and when we checked in for our flight the airline did not mention anything about needing a visa, I replied what visa ?
We were quickly taken to the immigration office, after waiting there for about an hour they escorted us to a room with two old dirty couches and a dirty old gym mat on the floor. The ac was maxed out and I did not have a jacket so I asked for a blanket, neither of the two guards there spoke English but the understood what I was asking for and shook their heads no. I am 66 years old and my wife is 71, we spent the whole night wide awake and frozen. At 7:00 am somebody from Copa picked us up, by this time I was exhausted and extremely stressed out. He escorted us out to the departure area where we waited for our flight, I asked him where they were sending us, he said to Panama City then probably back to Canada. So off we went for another long 7 hour flight back to Panama City. After arriving in Panama they brought us to the Copa service desk where they said that there was a flight leaving for Toronto in 2 hours. After having no sleep for over 30 hours I declined because I physically could not do it and said that we could leave the following day they then booked us on a flight for May14 back to Canada. So off we went looking for a comfortable place to wait for the next 22 hours before our flight. We contacted family in Canada and they suggested going to an airport lounge to eat and rest, so we found a place to sit and wait until 11:00 pm so we would only need to pay for 8 hours at the lounge and have a fresh breakfast. When we arrived at the lounge it was quite busy so I put a couple of chairs together so I could lay down, there weren’t enough chairs so my wife sat up. I managed to get some on and off rest for a couple of hours when I looked up and there was 2 immigration officers talking to my wife, it was only 4:00 am and they just started making breakfast. They told us that Copa had contacted them and said that they could not find us. Was this really happening ? Where are two seniors going to go when they had seized our passports ? They insisted that we leave with them immediately, so we did and to our surprise there were three more officers waiting at the entrance to the lounge. All five of them escorted us through the airport with people stopping and staring at us wondering what we had done ? We arrived at their holding cell around 4:30 am This place was scary, there weren’t enough chairs people sleeping on the floor and plastic chairs to sit in, like the airport it was freezing cold and we still did not have a jacket or sweater. They finger printed us and took pictures of us then told us to wait. We finally left there around 6:00 pm they escorted us to the gate, gave our passports to the flight crew and off we went to Montreal, We arrived in Montreal after midnight and went to a hotel. We stayed there for two nights before flying home.
I have tried to get some compensation from Copa but they do not want to pay for anything other than a partial amount spent on one of our flight upgrades. Look I am not totally blaming Copa about the visa as I should have checked the requirements again prior to leaving Panama but I believe that the airline could have notified us about needing a visa before boarding the flight in Panama. We have been travelling for years and been to many countries, this has cost us thousands of dollars in lost expenses.
Never again. JH

Copa charged me 360$ to purchase points to complete my flight but their "points system" has been down, meaning they don't post to my account, so I can't use them. So they charged me 360$ for nothing, no refunds, no flight, and useless customer service. I'll be reporting them to my credit card company as fraud.

They suck so bad they should porn. Change fees are whatever they decide, difference in ticket cost is whatever they pull out of there butt. Whatever they do they come up with bs excuses do not change or charge you more. I would do anything to avoid this sorry excuse for an airline.

On May 19, 2025, my family and I (5 passengers total) were on Copa Airlines Flight CM476 from Panama City to Denver. As we neared New Mexico, the aircraft suddenly reversed course and headed to Dallas. After we were well on the way to Dallas, the pilot announced that Denver had been “shut down due to weather.” This was an exact quote. No alternative explanation or weather reasoning was provided.

We sat on the tarmac in Dallas for more than 2 hours, waiting for fuel. Despite being told we’d be refueling soon after landing around 6 p.m. CST, refueling didn’t begin until 7:29 p.m. We eventually landed in Denver around 10:21 p.m., nearly four hours late — after spending almost 11 hours on the aircraft.

When we got to Denver, I personally asked multiple airport staff, TSA officers, and airline employees whether Denver International had been shut down or if flights were grounded. The answer was consistent and unequivocal: no flights had been grounded, and Denver was never shut down during that time.

This means the pilot lied to us, and Copa likely used the “weather” excuse to avoid liability or compensation under passenger protection regulations. It's clear this was either a fueling failure or an operational miscalculation that the airline tried to cover with a weather excuse. That kind of dishonesty is not just frustrating — it erodes passenger trust and exploits the weather exemption loophole many airlines hide behind.

We weren’t even seeking compensation at the time — we just wanted the truth. Now, I’m seeking an acknowledgment that we were lied to and a formal apology from Copa Airlines.

I’ve filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Better Business Bureau, and Copa Airlines’ executive office. I truly hope The Points Guy can help elevate this issue and push back against a system where airlines can hide behind false weather claims without accountability.