Copa Airways’ hub not too long ago acquired an enormous overhaul. The airport’s new Terminal 2 has opened, which is an enormous enchancment over the outdated terminal. As a part of this, the airline additionally has a brand new flagship Copa Membership in Terminal 2, which I used to be trying ahead to testing.
What’s my take? Nicely, it’s bodily a stupendous lounge, and an enormous enchancment over the outdated one. It’s additionally good that it’s open to Precedence Cross members. Nonetheless, the meals & drink choice leaves quite a bit to be desired, and this lounge will get ridiculously crowded.
Copa Membership Panama location & hours
The brand new Copa Membership Panama is positioned airside in Terminal 2. Copa’s check-in facility on the airport is attractive, and there’s even a Star Alliance Gold Observe, for expedited safety and immigration.
As soon as via passport management and safety, flip left, and also you’ll see the escalator and elevator main as much as the lounge.
The lounge is open each day from 5:30AM till 9PM. By the point the lounge truly opened, there will need to have been a number of dozen individuals in line ready to get in, together with some passengers arriving on Copa Airways flights that had landed early.
Copa Membership Panama entry necessities
In the beginning, the Copa Membership Panama is open to Copa Airways premium passengers. All enterprise class passengers, in addition to Star Alliance Gold members, have entry to the Copa Membership.
On high of that, this acts as a contract lounge for different airways serving the airport, together with Air France, Eurowings Uncover, Iberia, KLM, and Turkish Airways, amongst others. Lastly, the lounge is open to Precedence Cross members, and that’s out there via many premium bank cards.
The lounge has a pleasant entrance with a “inexperienced wall” behind reception. Apparently there are two totally different queues to enter the lounge — one for Copa Airways enterprise class and Star Alliance Gold passengers, and one for these getting into the lounge via different means. That’s type of good, because the means of getting into as an eligible Copa passenger is way sooner.
Copa Membership Panama seating & format
The Copa Membership Panama Terminal 2 is 1,925 sq. meters (~20,000 sq. ft), so it’s a superb measurement. It has a capability of 420 visitors, and admittedly it felt prefer it was approaching capability for a lot of my keep.
Simply inside the doorway to the lounge was a assist desk, in case you want help with journey. Throughout from that was the departures board, in addition to a quote on the wall from Rubén Blades.
The lounge has a number of distinct areas. Inside the doorway and to the left was extra of your conventional lounge seating, with rows of chairs dealing with each other, and in addition some seats with facet tables. Truthfully, the design is kind of considerate, between the crops and the sunshine fixtures.
Additional into the lounge is the eating space, which has fairly a couple of tables, most of which seat two individuals (if solely there have been first rate meals to eat!).
The lounge then additionally has a big indoor terrace, searching over the terminal. The bar opens up each to the inside of the lounge, in addition to to the terrace. Whereas the terrace was massive, this gave the impression to be the a part of the lounge that was least utilized.
I appreciated that shops had been available all through the lounge, making it straightforward to cost (which is critical, as a result of many Copa planes don’t have energy shops, even in enterprise class). The lounge additionally had good signage, and had a number of small artwork shows all through.
Copa Membership Panama enterprise heart
The Copa Membership Panama had a fairly good enterprise heart, which is a function I appreciated, given how a lot time I spent within the lounge. The enterprise heart had over a dozen workstations, with partitions between them.
There was additionally a single PC, in addition to a printer.
My favourite amenity, although, had been the 4 absolutely enclosed personal places of work. The one on the far finish was the largest, in order that’s the place I spent my total day. Whereas I want there would have been some pure mild, this was an superior place to work from throughout the day, provided that it was quiet and spacious. If you happen to can snag one among these, I’d extremely suggest it.
Copa Membership Panama leisure room
The Copa Membership Panama has an leisure room. The room had a dozen chairs and an enormous media console, for many who wish to watch TV.
Copa Membership Panama quiet room
The Copa Membership Panama additionally had a quiet room, that includes six seats. The seats had been pre-reclined a bit and had an ottoman — this isn’t a super place to truly sleep, however it’s a good place to relaxation.
Copa Membership Panama household room
The Copa Membership Panama has a household room, which can most likely be appreciated by each these with and with out children. 😉 The room was fundamental — there weren’t any toys, however reasonably it simply had small tables for teenagers, in addition to some TVs.
Copa Membership Panama baggage storage
The Copa Membership Panama includes a baggage storage space close to the doorway. There have been a dozen lockers that might be locked with a code, whereas the remainder of the storage space consisted of open cubbies. That latter choice doesn’t precisely appear to be a protected place to go away belongings, however…
Copa Membership Panama meals & drinks
Bodily the Copa Membership Panama is nice. The meals choice is sadly a special story, although. For starters, the lounge has a single buffet, which isn’t enough. Most visitors right here appear to be hungry, so the under buffet isn’t sufficiently big for a lounge with as much as 420 visitors.
The meals choice was downright pitiful, most likely the worst I’ve seen in a service’s “flagship” lounge.
For breakfast, there have been stale bagels and cream cheese, pan bon, yogurt, fruit, cereal, granola, and oatmeal.
Lunch consisted of some sorts of (not very interesting) finger sandwiches, three sorts of veggies, ranch dressing, hummus, bread, chips, and cookies.
I can’t even start to explain the extent to which individuals congregated on the buffet like vultures. They couldn’t change the meals quick sufficient, and suffice it to say the hygiene requirements left a bit to be desired (individuals sneezing over the buffet, individuals selecting their nostril after which utilizing the shared serving utensils, and so forth.).
It’s unhappy when the under is roughly the perfect lunch plate you can also make your self…
So far as drinks go, the lounge had a self serve machine with delicate drinks and water.
There was additionally a Nescafe machine, in addition to some Lipton tea.
There was a second self-serve drink station in one other a part of the lounge.
Alcoholic drinks had been out there from a bartender, however the choice was fairly restricted.
Copa Membership Panama loos & showers
The Copa Membership Panama had loos behind the lounge. For the lads’s restroom, there have been each stalls and urinals.
The lounge additionally had six bathe suites, every of which had a sink, a bathroom, and a walk-in bathe. Copa has quirky guidelines about utilizing these — you may solely use the bathe when you have a similar day Copa flight of at the very least 4.5 hours. Whereas the bathe rooms appeared fairly good, I’ve heard that they’ve horrible air flow, so get actually scorching.
Backside line
The brand new Copa Membership Panama Terminal 2 is bodily lovely, and an enormous enchancment over the outdated lounge. It’s a shiny, ethereal, and trendy lounge, and it has some first rate facilities. Precedence Cross members will even recognize that this lounge is obtainable via this system, so it’s fairly straightforward to entry.
There are two main points with the Copa Membership Panama, although. For one, the meals choice is abysmal. Don’t come to the lounge hungry, since you’ll be upset. The opposite problem — which isn’t shocking, given the Precedence Cross participation — is that the lounge is packed all through the day. Even throughout non-peak hours, there have been nearly no seats out there within the lounge.
If you happen to’ve visited the Copa Membership Panama, what was your expertise like?
