Copa Airlines Reviews

Then they stole my passport from me. One agent asked me to give her the address of the relative I would be staying with. I was refused access to phones, so I got out of line and went to make a long distance call at a phone booth to retrieve the exact address. Then after returning to the counter, she demanded the ZIP code to go with it. I left again and obtained the zip code. Then I came back, and this time she was insisting that I had to purchase another ticket or I could not fly. She was waving my passport in front of me, in the air, and refusing to give it back to me. I was already holding my boarding pass and other documents.

After arguing for half an hour and being told I might still be able to catch my flight if I cooperated, I finally agreed to buy a ticket on the condition that it was 100% refundable. She told me the cost of a refundable ticket was more than $1100. Mind you, the only possible route is Miami - Panama City - Toronto. An outrageously long journey for what is normally a short flight. I again told her the price was irrelevant as long as the ticket was refundable without penalties.

I was forced to climb under the baggage scales, into the employee only area, and put my PIN into their credit card machine WITHOUT VIEWING ANY TICKET, PRICE OR AGREEMENT WHATSOEVER. My credit card company called me immediately to alert me to possible fraud, as there was no recognizable transaction associated with the charge. As I ran to catch the flight, which was thankfully delayed, I flipped the ticket around to read "NON-REFUNDABLE. PENALTY FOR CHANGE". As I got on the plane, the pilot apologized for the scorching heat in the cabin that was due to a mechanical error with one of the engines. That lasted for the rest of the flight.

I called the office twice that day, and was told different things by different agents. I had to go downtown Miami to their headquarters just to get my complaint registered, and I was told there that I'd have to pay a penalty of a few hundred dollars for cancelling my ticket. They eventually waived that, but not until I spent weeks emailing and calling with no responses before contacting the CEO directly. He apologized profusely and told me the agent was in the wrong. They have the audacity to charge more than double (sometimes triple) what other airlines charge for the shortest journeys. All 3 of my flights were delayed more than half an hour. Staff was rude and inconsiderate. They do not address any concerns from their customers.

When I finally retrieved my flight information, they told me that I had a 'hold' on my flight through the travel agency and wouldn't be able to fly until the third party agency lifted the hold. So I called the agency and they had to recollection of the flight so they called Copa to find out what was going on. Copa then told the other agency that I hadn't paid for my flight, only reserved it. I told them, "Yes I paid, it was clearly taken out of my bank account and I will have proof." They said "She doesn't really have a ticket because she hasn't paid." I told them the date I paid and said I have proof on my bank statement.

Now, I have to go back months to find my bank statement, and go into the Copa Airlines ticket counter and prove that I paid for my flight. As of now, I have paid for a flight that I am not allowed to travel on. I am furious. It's been a horrible experience, and I am going to potentially demand a refund due to this horrible service. I do not want my money going to this company in any way. Don't fly COPA!

And you are in airline? How can you limit your self in Spanish? Look, I'm not looking for a special treatment, but I deserve the same treatment as a passenger not as an animal. If she can't be a manager then don't. I'm here flying your airline, not boarding in a cargo. Or unless your staff is just racists. I thought you're star alliance member and a well known airlines in the South America, I think you can do better in finding a manager.

I did not mind paying for the upgrade, however why would he penalized me for just changing the class of service for upgrading to a higher class and retaining the same traveling dates? Well I had to pay the penalty as I did not have a choice, however I am extremely disappointed. For some reason most agents are trained to behave like robots or computers.... Copa, you need to work on your customer care.... At the end of the day if you have no customers left.... your business will go belly up as so many airlines.

A week later, the price that was originally on my account of $1,160 changed to $935 and a second charge was processed for $1,135. I was in complete shock. We had worked so hard to save the ticket for my first daughter and then without my authorization, COPA AIRLINES decided to charge me an additional $1,135. I contacted them and they stated YES it was a mistake but unfortunately, I would have to follow their policy of requesting a refund and that it would be processed in 30-60 days. I was left with $18 in my account. They have no shame. I just hope my bank is able to fix this for me. DO NOT TRAVEL WITH THEM!!!

Well, I went ahead and bought it knowing that if I didn't, they wouldn't let me get on the plane. Although, they assured me that it was flexible, as well as refundable. A few weeks before my flight, I looked at the ticket more closely only to realize that they had booked leaving out of A DIFFERENT CITY than the one I was coming to Mexico. They just picked any random city it seems. I called to try and take care of this problem, and they kept telling me I had to talk to Copa Airlines at the airport here since I bought my ticket at the airport; it can't be taken care of any other way. The only problem is that there is NO COPA AIRLINES IN THE AIRPORT HERE. This is a concept that they didn't seem to understand as I told them I need another solution, and they told me there not one. I told them there needs to be because the solution they offered me is not possible. Do they think I will fly to another city to talk to Copa to get my ticket refunded?

To sum things up, I talked to about 10 people on the phone who all gave me other impossible solutions, including telling me that I had to be at the airport where the ticket was purchased in order to change it or get a refund (how much sense does that make?!). The only thing I was able to accomplish was to change the flight of my ticket to a littler later in the day so that I would have time to take a flight to the other city they had me flying out of. So, not only did I not get to change or refund my ticket, I had to spend an extra $150 to fly to a different city to take my flight.

Not to mention, everyone I spoke with at Copa was completely rude, unsympathetic and unapologetic about the fact that one of THEIR employees made a mistake. What is the point of buying a refundable ticket when the airline does everything in their power to not give you that refund??? If you have to buy from Copa (though I highly advise against it), do not waste the extra money for the refundable ticket; it will be a fight to the death (ending in your death) to get the refund. I was so frustrated with them that I was red and the face and crying by the time I finished my 3 hour battle of calling this person and that person. They’re the WORST COMPANY EVER!!!

Everything seemed in order until the next day when I wanted to pay for my reservation. I called Copa Air to make the payment, and they told me that if I'd like to pay over the phone, it would be $25 additional. Ok, so that was the first inconvenience, fine. I logged on with my confirmation code and noticed that the price of the new ticket still corresponded with the price of the old one. I figured, once they process the card, the difference in price will show (of course if I had done it over the phone, this wouldn't have been a problem).

Minutes later, I received my e-mail confirmation, with all the wrong info - the flight was wrong, the price was wrong. I checked online and everything was correct as it should be. I called the company and they said that payment process could take up to 6 hours so I shouldn't have gotten a confirmation already (?) and that in their system, they saw the correct flight.

My mind was put at ease when they told me their system showed the correct flight. The next day, I did not get a new confirmation, but online it still showed the correct flight information. A few days later, I received an e-mail confirming my flight (which was 2 days away). This e-mail confirmation was still incorrect! So I went online to verify the info and the flight had changed! So I called up Copa Air and I spoke to a lady who said she'd look in to it. "Can I put you on hold for 3 minutes?" she asked. I was on hold for over 11 minutes until I decided to hang up and call back, hoping for someone who knew what they were doing.

I immediately called back and spoke with someone new. I told the new representative (a man) the entire situation. I made sure to be extremely calm and enunciate carefully as all of the representatives spoke broken English (it appears) and I didn't want to use my sub-par Spanish on something this important. After hearing the situation, the man simply said, "Well, you paid for the ticket leaving at 10:52pm, that's what I see here." Ummmm, hello?! Clearly he didn't listen to a word I had said. So I just said, "Ok, can I please just change my ticket to the 5:25 flight. I understand that it is more expensive and that's fine, I'll pay the difference." He literally just said "Ok, sure" and there was silence for about 2 minutes.

After a while I said, "Are you there? I just want to confirm that I'm changing my flight from 10:52PM to 5:25AM." With an attitude he replied, "Yes, that's what I'm doing, can I put you on hold for 3 minutes?" I'd heard that before so I said, "Do you know how long it'll be?" (since last time it was over 11 min). "Just let me put you on hold," was his reply. Eventually he corrected the ticket and sent a confirmation. The price was still wrong but the flight info was correct, so I just let it be.

I can almost guarantee there will be problems once I reach the airport. However, I honestly don't have the strength to deal with it now. Hopefully, others will learn from my mistake and choose another more competent airline. Honestly, I blame myself for trusting an airline with such obvious poor quality. Their websites and confirmations are filled w/ typos and it should have been a sign.

At that time, the lady that printed my boarding pass handed my passport and boarding pass to a gentleman standing beside her. He then took the boarding pass out of the passport and called someone from his phone and stated my name and that I would be a no-show for the flight. He then returned my passport to me and simply stated to me, “I am sorry but you will not be flying today.” He put my boarding pass in his coat. I asked him what his name was and he zipped his coat to cover his name tag completely. At this point, I asked to speak to a supervisor at which time he blurted out, “I am the supervisor.” I then told him that I would not be checking the third bag and my mother would take it home with her. He then stated, “I am sorry but you are ** out of luck.” He walked away after this statement.

A family was standing in line waiting to check in behind us was a witness to this entire event. Sadly, they were not helped either and were denied their flight as well. The lady at the checkout counter advised me that I should contact the Dulles Airport Police and file a complaint. At 2:25, I contacted the airport police and filed a formal complaint. Officer ** was the officer that took my complaint. The official report number is: **. After I filed my complaint with the Dulles Airport Police, I attempted to get another flight with Copa and they responded that no flights were available until December 28, 2012. I am attempting to try and fly tomorrow, December 20, 2012. If there are no available flights, I will have no choice but to book another airline at a higher cost. Copa Airlines gave no reason for denying my boarding pass and has offered no assistance in either putting me on another flight or refunding the ticket price. This airline was not only disrespectful toward me but behaved with ennui, with no regard to the many problems they caused regarding my travel.

On my way back from Colombia to USA, Pereira Airport was closed due to a volcano. Copa said to come back at 0800 because they were going to announce if the airport will open or not. We came back at 0800 to wait online for two hours. Finally, they announced that the airport will open at 3pm and Copa would not give me a ticket to fly out from somewhere else. Copa said if the airport opens at 3, then they will bring a plane. They took our information to call us in case it opened earlier.

I drove to the airport again at 3pm and found out that it had been open since 2. Every airline was working fine with planes leaving Pereira, but the only airline that decided not to show up was Copa. I had to call the 1800 number. They told me Copa had canceled all flights for 6 days! I'm in the military. I had to get back. Finally, they were able to get me a next day flight leaving from Medellin which is 5 hours from Pereira. I had to buy my own bus ride that night. This trip was worse than a deployment.

After my claim to Copa Airlines, the answer was that "We appreciated the time taken to send this email. As per your baggage claim, Copa Airlines policy do not include any payments with regard to damage to the exterior of bags." If this is the Copa Airlines policy, why did nobody tell me that detail? Second, if this is the Copa airlines policy, why did they fix the first luggage in Bogota? Did Copa Airlines management people ever sit by the window where the passengers wait and see how they load the luggage to the planes or did ever try to call customer service? After all these, I would like to say that next time, when I am going to Bogota, I'll never ever be going to fly with Copa again. I would pay a little more to a Canadian company, but at least it is a direct flight and they cover luggage claims.

I used Continental's affiliate out of trust for great service. When we learned our father died, the last thing I expected was to be harmed by our airline. I know Continental has a bereavement policy; however nobody would help us at all. We were passed around from Expedia to Copa and back to Expedia. After a night and day on the phone and online, we were charged $50 per ticket to cancel our vacation tickets, then charged full price through Expedia to get my wife to Panama on time to bury her dad.

Even though the flights were not overbooked, and our reservations had three confirmed seats paid for, nobody would change flights, or make any effort at all to help us. We were unable to get the service rep to simply change my wife's flight and were forced to max out credit cards purchasing a completely new, separate flight for my wife even though seats were available. As a result, Edilma missed participating in much of the visitation, and consoling family members.

To make this issue even worse, after forfeiting the $50 fee per ticket to cancel our vacation ($150), I found a surly voice mail message on my phone a day later advising we would now be charged an additional $100 per cancelled ticket, ($150 per cancelled ticket for a bereavement issue that shouldn't have cost us any penalty). It took weeks for the funds to get back on our accounts and sure enough we were overcharged not the $50 fine per ticket but a massive $150 each ($450), then $900 on a separate flight to get my wife on scene for the burial.

The experience was difficult and frustrating, and it cost us $1,350. We had done everything correctly, purchased our passports and tickets months in advance to visit our family in Panama but now can't due to the financial burden this caused. Could your office make arrangements to assist us under the advertised bereavement policy, with our trip to Panama and credit the over-charged funds?

He started a long conversation with some people who are not passengers, so at this point I walked up to him and explained that I was checked in by my hotel but they forgot to print my boarding pass. If he had any clue, he should have printed my boarding passes right then instead of asking me to line up. I also told him I was an Elite/OnePass Member. I was the sole passenger on that particular line. After another 10 minutes or so, two females arrived to man the other check-in counters. Considering how long I have been standing and waiting at the Elite line, those two females should have helped me first instead of the other regular passengers & ignoring me completely.

Once again, I approached Gary ** and asked him politely, "How much longer do I have to wait?". It was only then, with a scowl on his face, that he said he can print my boarding pass. I went into the back of the plane with an empty cup for trashing. The guy I spoke with had a dark complexion and was bald. He never looked me in the face as he very reluctantly took the empty cup & ignored my polite request for a cup of water. I did not get his name and cannot recall the Flight number. In another flight, an older female snatched the boarding pass from my hand, gave it back then turned to her co-worker to make what I would assume to be derogatory remarks because they started laughing.

Elite status obviously means nothing to Copa. Your ground and flight crew are either poorly trained, so poorly paid that they have no incentive to provide even a pretense of customer service or they just plain do not care. I will never ever fly Copa again. I will also share these unpleasant experiences with everyone I can.

Once we arrived in Washington, I was told that none of the carry-on bags made it to the flight. They were about 30 people missing their luggage. Since I was only given 1 ticket, I was still missing 1 carry-on case. Unfortunately, the carry-on had all my jewelry and laptop- it;s worth about $10k. I was told by Copa that I was going to have to take them to court. Today is October 10, and no one from Copa has even tried to contact me.

On September second, Mrs. ** called my sister, claiming that they found her tote, but that tote was not her tote. Copa Airlines 800 number claimed that this is not their problem, that this falls under Guayaquil Ecuador territory. In Ecuador, we spoke with Mrs. ** and with Mrs. ** every day (twice a day), and they claimed that when they find it, they will call us, which never happened just yet. We would like Copa Airlines or your office to take actions, and investigate where is the tote of my sister. It is over 72 hours now. This tote contained personal and expensive items that can be only carried by hand. It looks to me that this could be a plot; starting from the Orlando Airport to Guayaquil, they know that a passenger carry on their tote only important belongs, especially when the two other luggage were already checked. We would like someone in your department to look into this matter, as it probably is not the first time that this incident occurred.

Spanish passengers due to the language barrier do not complain about these things. They may have used to getting away with these atrocities. Somebody in Copa Airlines has my sister's tote with all her belongings, which amounted to over $5,000.00. Please, let me know if you can help me to locate the tote, and to have justice for this incident. They should never offer to take the carry on from the customer, unless the passenger is willing to check in.

This flight also was later cancelled by Copa. # 47 Emails have gone unanswered. #5 Copa has refused help in any way with charging fees. #6 I was forced to take another airline back to Costa Rica for medical treatment. This is the worst service I've ever had from any airline. Costumer Service is a joke. And no one will take a complaint or offer assistance of any kind.

However I have hard copy of that ticket with me but he did not agree. Seems that he overbooked the flight and was trying to hide his mistake. He was making different excuses at different time. Once he told me, "Copa Airlines will not allow Indians to fly to Bolivia." Second time, he told me in his system, he doesn't have record for my return ticket from Bolivia.

He did not believe me by showing hard copy of ticket too. Strange thing is that two days before (Feb 11), Copa Airline issued me boarding passes for Bolivia but due to immigration problem, I could not fly and that was because of the immigration's guy mistake. So I just want to put a law suit against this guy because of this guy, my business suffered in Bolivia.

On the day of the flight, I boarded roughly at 18:07 PM Panama time. About 5-10 minutes before take off, I was approached by Jazmin ** with a very stern look, directive demeanor and tone of voice to vacate my seat. She said, "I need this seat for a passenger that's ill and she needs to lie down." I was very distraught by her rudeness and asked her in a proper manner if I had a choice in this manner, to which she responded "no" and walked away.

I felt that it was unfair but that I had no choice in the matter. Taken aback by her lack of customer service, I gathered my belongings and followed her as she expected me to. When she stood in front of the seat that she had picked for me, I asked her again if I had a choice in this but she said "no" again very rudely.

At this point, I was extremely angered by her attitude so I glanced at her Copa Airlines employee badge to take note of her name for the purposes of this letter. When she saw me note her name and noticed my annoyance at her incompetence in handling such situation, she seemed very annoyed with me (how dare she?) and recanted her original position. She said that, in fact, I did have a choice and it was voluntary on my part if I wanted to help another passenger out or not. Only after she saw my discontent did she offer to inconvenience the ill person to return to her seat and allow me to take my original seat.

It is obvious that she was either lying and coercing to get me to cooperate with her, or she has absolutely no customer relations training and her ability to handle Copa Airlines' paying customers is detrimental to your business. She contradicted herself as she, very rudely and in a perfunctory manner said to me that I had no choice. Then, she changed her mind only after it was obvious to her that this incident was going to be reported to the proper Copa Airlines authorities.

I was livid at her behavior and her approach as she clearly does not have the sense of mind to reason out and realize that the proper way to address a situations such as this one is to approach someone in a friendly, professional way with a smile on her face and explain the situation to that person appealing for their help. In that way, letters like this one are avoided and angry, unsatisfied customers that do not wish to give you their business again are not further inconvenienced.

And if she sees any unwelcoming on my part--as I had already purposely reserved a specific seat--it is her responsibility as a Copa Airline representative to try to accommodate everyone and solve situations as best as possible, minimizing conflict. There were many other passengers which she could have approached after I would have declined.

I understand that flight attendants have a certain responsibility and authority in a plane and, acknowledging this, I immediately complied with her direction to leave my seat. But I was not about to keep my mouth shut at her unacceptable demeanor. I truly cannot believe that a person like this is in a leadership position in your company. Her ability to handle herself in a customer-related atmosphere is minimal and her general unpleasantness, I assure you, is detrimental to the business of Copa Airlines.

I live in Los Angeles and work in a customer relations setting with different catering companies throughout the city. I am constantly handling very high profile customers such as celebrities, heads of state, private businessmen and also the average person you would meet on the street. I have extensive experience on how to handle people and different scenarios--from trivial ones to very sensitive ones--and I can tell you, for sure, that your employee, Jazmine **, needs to be retrained in how to approach people, how to manage a situation properly, and how to conduct herself as a representative of Copa Airlines.

In that way, situations like this are avoided and people like me, with an extensive email list, would not be tempted to send this to everyone I can think of and do my best to make sure that everyone I know never flies with Copa Airlines again.

I have 2 baggage with me. I lost the other baggage when I arrived in Santo Domingo. I talked to one COPA agent MR. Richard ** and he told me that my other baggage would not come until the next flight, and still that was not sure and I had to fill out a delayed form. I even went to their office and I provided my contact information the description of my baggage. I provided them information about the baggage, so that they can give me updates. It was the first sign of incompetence from the employee of the airlines.

One week has passed since I arrived and I have not heard from COPA Airlines. I started to worry. I talked to different people from their call center but there was no help at all. I wrote to their customer service and just received an electronic mail. It was hopeless. Now, it has been nine months and my baggage is still missing. They still don't know where it is and I am only receiving electronic mail.

I don't know when or how the documents were stolen right over my head on an airplane. It is very expensive for me to get the copies of all the documents over. And the manner in which my situation was handled and I don't even know if any emphasis is being placed on how the documents disappeared in the compartment. I am having a hard time with this because documents like that when it gets into the wrong hands any thing can happen.

I need the airline to urgently help me in trying to find out what happen to my documents on the airline and how will I be compensated for the reapplying for copies, as it is going to cost me all over again to get everything back. I am awaiting an urgent response.

The next couple of days were a nightmare. I had to call each time to a call center and tell the same story to different people. They tried to be nice, but they did not have the least idea of where my suitcase was. Of course I had to buy clothes and toiletries because everything was in that suitcase. In case you ask, they did not offer to give any compensation at all. Now it has been four days and my suitcase is still missing. They still don't know where it is and nobody can tell me what I need to do, they tell me just to wait. Of course, I will never fly this airline again. If they are so incompetent as to lose a suitcase for such a short flight, I wonder how they take care of their machines and what type of mechanics they hire. If they use the same standards as with hiring the personnel that deals with these simple issues, then I must infer that by flying Copa, you are incurring in high risks. The best that can happen to you is that they lose (or steal?) your luggage. Any incompetence in an airline is a dangerous thing.

My next problem was (and still is) that I was charged by Visa $72 for a foreign fee charge over an above the ticket charge. After contacting Copa several times by phone and emails (with proof of charges), I received the following answer "Your request of refund is being checked. This process will be completed in a period of 4 to 6 weeks. I hope the flights will be more pleasant. In any case I will never fly Copa again.

On my last trip, on the day of my return, March 2, 2010, after being checked in the counter and the pet and pet traveling container measured, after passing security, after boarding the plane, after being accommodated in my seat, I was brutally, unfairly and illegally expelled from the plane. Not only was I forced to purchase an expensive ticket to come back to Miami, but I suffered five days of hardship in Guayaquil due to seat availability in the alternate airline and an enormous emotional commotion and indignity. Thus International and Ecuadorian civil aviation laws and fairness and decency laws were violated and I demand proper and just compensation for such an outrage.

I have been fighting with Celso and Ben all week for hours at time to get this issue resolved!They then said that i didn't pay for my tickets and so my bank did a conference call with the airlines and i!Their customer service was horrible and i was forced to wait on hold for hours at time, just for them to tell me to send emails and call back tomorrow.We haven't had our reservations re booked or have not received a refund and i am very close to settling this legally with my attorney. My husband and i were supposed to be in my brother in laws wedding on Saturday March 8,2008

My husband missed a week of work and doesn't receive and vacation pay from his job.I was fired from my job because i was going to Argentina for three weeks and now i'm not going. We are at a loss of wages. I paid $2,427 for those plane tickets and i haven't received a refund.I just recently got into a car accident and broke three ribs and have been in severe physical pain through all of this and the stress they have caused me.

copy of the Copa confirmation email.

The Copa representative shook
his head adamantly and said I would have to purchase two more tickets
if I could not produce the credit card that I used to purchase the
tickets on the Internet. I explained again that that credit card had
been lost, and that Copa Airlines had already been paid for these
tickets from the lost credit card. The Copa Airlines representative
said that if we wanted to get to Nicaragua, we would have to purchase

two more tickets.

I saw there was no use in arguing any further, and
I produced another credit card and paid an additional $507.84 for two
more tickets to Managua, Nicaragua with a different reservation
confirmation number V4AHWE. To add insult to injury, our Internet
confirmation from Copa Airlines had listed the wrong take off and
arrival times for our flights. Also, the Copa representative refused
to accept my Elite Northwest Airlines frequent flyer number even
though Copa is a definitive member of the Skyteam Alliance program.
Once back in the United States, I contacted Copa Airlines by phone and
after a one hour conversation and argument, Copa Airlines basically
said there was nothing they could do. All the Copa Airlines
representative could say is that I should have had the credit card at
the airport. I explained over and over that the credit card was lost.

He turned a deaf ear to this fact.

It seems to me that there is no way I should pay twice for two airline
tickets on Copa Airlines. Copa was paid the $430.04 for the two
tickets with the lost credit card. Why should they receive an
additional $507.84 just because I lost the credit card? How did it
make Copa Airlines suffer? I believe I should receive a refund of the