Copa Airlines

I've flown Copa twice, once from Washington, D.C., IAD, and once from Denver, DIA. Both, I thought, were great experiences. When flying from IAD, my flight was delayed from Washington to Panama City, resulting in me missing my connection to Guatemala City. However, although this was annoying, it was handled very well. Because I missed the last connection of the night, the airline put every passenger on the plane up in a hotel in Panama City, a very nice one called Hotel Megatropolis, at no cost to us. They also bussed us there, and gave us meal vouchers. They also automatically rebooked us on the next flight out in the morning, and then gave us a time in the morning to be bussed back to the airport, early enough for everyone to make their connections without a time crunch. I was an 18-year-old female solo traveller for this trip, and I felt very safe and relaxes with this hiccup in the trip. My morning flight to Guatemala City was easy and on-time, and my trip back to Dulles a week later was uneventful. A few months ago, in May, I also flew Copa again from Denver, DIA, to Panama City, and used Copa's stopover program for two days, which was very easy and unproblematic, and then flew from Panama City, to Nassau, Bahamas. I had some issues with seat assignment, where I booked my ticket and it said I had chosen my seats, yet when I checked the reservation a few weeks later, they weren't there, but I called Copa customer service and they were able to help me fix it very quickly, and they spoke good english. This was also a very easy flight otherwise, no hiccups with this trip, and the flights were on-time. I understand some people have had bad experiences with this airline, but I personally have only had good experiences and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to book affordable flights to/from Central and South America, or the Carribean.

Mediocre company

Scheduled itinerary would've had us fly from Quito to Panama City, then from Panama City to Lima, then from Lima back to Panama City, then Panama City to Atlanta. We spoke with a Copa Airlines desk agent about the possibility of staying in Panama. She ASSURED US that we could stay the night in Panama City and board our flight from Panama City to Atlanta in the morning. We did so but were shocked to find that because we didn't board the flight from Lima to Panama City our tickets from Panama City to Atlanta had been cancelled. We had been given assurances by Copa representatives in the Quito airport the previous day that this would not happen. We were forced to pay a $535 penalty fee to re-instate our cancelled tickets to Atlanta.