The following cease on my two journeys to the Southern Hemisphere was Lima, Peru. I had flown Copa’s Boeing 737 enterprise class from Miami to Panama, after which I related on the identical sort of airplane from Panama to Lima. Nonetheless, this airplane didn’t have refreshed interiors…
How I booked my Copa enterprise class ticket
Copa Airways makes fairly a little bit of award house accessible, so I ended up reserving the next itinerary in enterprise class for 50,000 Air Canada Aeroplan factors plus $49.40 in taxes & charges (and I took benefit of a switch bonus from Amex, so I wanted even fewer Amex factors than that):
9/15 CM227 Miami to Panama Metropolis departing 5:59PM arriving 8:10PM
9/16 CM493 Panama Metropolis to Lima departing 3:43PM arriving 7:17PM
Initially my first flight was speculated to be operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 9, that includes Copa’s flat mattress enterprise class, whereas the second flight was scheduled to be operated by a Boeing 737-800. Sadly there was a airplane swap on the final minute, so each flights ended up being operated by a Boeing 737-800.
Copa 737-800 enterprise class cabin & seats
My flight was departing from gate 121 in Terminal 1 — Copa in fact has the thrilling new Terminal 2, however each of my flights operated out of Terminal 1, which isn’t best. Boarding was scheduled to start out at 2:43PM, one hour earlier than departure, and positive sufficient that’s when it began. These needing additional help had been invited to board first (which appeared to be 1 / 4 of the airplane), adopted by enterprise class.
The seating configuration for this flight was equivalent to what I had on my earlier flight, so I used to be anticipating the identical interiors. Nope, this flight was operated by a 737 with Copa’s “authentic” interiors, as they hadn’t been up to date. These interiors had been roughly equivalent to what you’d discover on Continental Airways again within the day, since Copa piggybacked on Continental’s order on the time.
The airplane featured a complete of 16 enterprise class seats, in a 2-2 configuration.
Legroom was fairly good, as there was 38″ of pitch.
I had assigned myself seat 3F, the window seat on the fitting aspect within the third row.
Sadly the airplane has seen higher days — the seats had been in unhealthy form.
There was a middle console with a small tray that could possibly be prolonged for drinks. Sadly very like on the final flight, the tech on this flight was terrible — there have been no energy ports, private televisions, Wi-Fi, and even streaming leisure.
The airplane did have overhead displays, although there wasn’t a lot in the way in which of programming, except for destination-specific adverts.
The monitor above my seat additionally didn’t retract absolutely, so even throughout takeoff and touchdown it was half down.
The tray desk prolonged from the far armrest, and could possibly be folded in half.
The overhead consoles had been additionally a throwback — for no matter cause it gave me American Airways MD-80 vibes from again within the day.
Because the inside hadn’t been up to date in a very long time, the airplane additionally didn’t have Boeing’s signature temper lighting or up to date bins.
Copa 737-800 departure from Panama
The flight was fairly full — each seat in enterprise class ended up being occupied (after upgrades), whereas there have been round 30 empty seats in economic system. Throughout boarding the enterprise class flight attendant, Guillermo, got here round with pre-departure water or orange juice, and in addition to take meal orders.
Our departure was off to a great begin, as the primary cabin door closed at 3:35PM, almost 10 minutes forward of schedule. About 5 minutes later the captain got here on the PA to inform us we’d be leaving shortly, and that our flight time was three hours.
There was no motion or additional announcement from the cockpit for 25 minutes. Lastly at 4:05PM the captain introduced that we had been delayed as a consequence of plane spacing enroute to Peru, and he didn’t but know once we’d be capable of take off. We ended up pushing again a second later, although.
At 4:20PM we began our brief taxi to runway 3L. Nonetheless, we then simply stood wanting the runway.
At 4:30PM we lined up on the runway, solely to taxi down it after which take the primary exit — clearly we had been blocking the way in which for one more airplane desirous to take off, and wanted to make room.
At 4:35PM the captain introduced that we must always have clearance inside 10 minutes. It ended up taking a bit longer than that, however at 4:55PM we lastly took off, about an hour delayed. At this level there was some heavy rain not removed from the airport, which made for some fairly views.
We had a clean climb out, although did briefly find yourself in some heavy rain.
As standard, it was a gorgeous afternoon above the clouds.
The seatbelt signal was turned off round 10 minutes after takeoff.
Copa enterprise class meal service
Dinner was served on this flight, although the inflight service was a bit totally different than on the earlier flight (the flights had been roughly the identical size, with this one being marginally longer). Meal orders had been taken on the bottom, with the alternatives described as rice and rooster or ravioli with cheese. I went with the latter.
On this flight there was no snack combine or drink served earlier than the meal. Moderately the meal was simply served 50 minutes after takeoff on a tray.
There was a small aspect salad, with some lettuce and cherry tomatoes.
The ravioli as such was fairly tasty, higher than I used to be anticipating.
There was additionally a aspect of packaged crisp toast. Is that this actually the most effective Copa can serve, particularly by way of presentation?
Whereas this is likely to be a blessing in disguise, I used to be confused by the dearth of dessert? The earlier flight had dessert, and most airways serve some type of a dessert with meals, but that wasn’t the case right here.
I had sauvignon blanc with my meal, after which ordered one other glass after the meal. At this level I used to be supplied some snack combine.
After that tumbler they ran out of white wine, simply over an hour into the flight. So yeah, the tender product right here positively wasn’t pretty much as good as on the earlier flight.
Copa enterprise class service
The enterprise class flight attendant on this flight was fairly pleasant. He wasn’t fairly as attentive because the flight attendant on the earlier flight, although, and as talked about above, I discovered the service stream to be unusual.
My very unusual fellow passenger
Seated two seats over from me in 3B was a man who was pissing off nearly everybody within the cabin. I’m undecided what precisely his deal was, however:
- Through the delay he stored yelling on the flight attendants, as if it was someway their fault that we had been delayed; as we held wanting the runway he yelled to the galley to say he needed to speak to the captain… lol
- The man listened to music all the flight with headphones in, which is nice, besides he tapped his foot with nice pressure for all the flippin’ flight (so you’d consistently really feel it), would sing perhaps 20 seconds at a time, and would faux “play” the drums along with his fingers
Ordinarily I’d politely say one thing in conditions like this, however I felt prefer it wasn’t actually my place, as I wasn’t seated subsequent to him. Nearly everybody within the cabin gave this man offended stares, but he didn’t appear to get the message. I’m undecided if the flight attendant simply didn’t discover, or why he didn’t say one thing.
Copa 737-800 method to Lima
Given the dearth of different inflight leisure, I positive appreciated the attractive views enroute to Lima. This was my second night of having fun with sunsets from Copa flights, and this one was particularly lovely…
At 7:25PM the captain made his pre-landing announcement, and instructed the flight attendants to organize the cabin for arrival. That’s although our descent didn’t begin for one more 10 minutes, and flight circumstances had been good.
We ended up touching down in Lima at 8PM, and there was clapping all through the cabin. From there it was a ten minute taxi to our arrival gate, the place we pulled in subsequent to an American A321neo.
From there I headed by way of transit safety and to the lounge, previous to my LATAM redeye to Miami.
Backside line
This Copa enterprise class flight left a bit to be desired. The airplane had a really outdated and poorly maintained inside, the facilities had been restricted (no Wi-Fi, energy ports, private televisions, or streaming leisure), and the meal service was unusual (no dessert, they ran out of wine, no drink service earlier than the meal, and many others.). On the plus aspect, the flight attendant was fairly pleasant, and the sundown was fairly.
I gave my final Copa flight three stars, so I believe it’s solely honest to fee this slightly decrease, given the even older inside and not-great tender product.
