Previous Trip Notes
A Week in Argentina – Part 1: The Setup & Arrival to Hell (ORD)
CM236: Copa Air Business Class, ORD>PNY
We boarded the flight a bit late, given our morning issues. While there would have been time for a pre-departure drink, the flight attendants didn’t offer us any. All other travelers in business class had either water, orange juice, or champagne. While it would have been nice to start off with a mimosa, it wasn’t a big deal. It’s funny how time and experience changes perspectives. Six years ago, Copa Airlines was one of the first business class flights I experienced. The food was GREAT (or maybe it was just relative to our experiences in economy). Looking at flight reviews of Copa, there tended to be an overwhelming amount of negativity towards to service and in-flight experience. I received first-hand that type of experience the night before our flight. I first chatted online with a Copa representative asking if they had Copa Showpass on our flight. After waiting 10 minutes to be connected to an agent, we chatted for a few minutes and then the chat window closed down and said “chatting is out of the service hours.” Which continued to say that for the next 20 minutes even though it was two hour prior to their stated chat service hours. So I gave them a call. I asked three questions:
- Did the flight have Showpass?
- Did the flight have power plugs?
- What was the latest we could get to the airport and check our bags (our boarding pass stated 90 minutes, but just wanted to confirm)?
The answers were: yes, yes, and three hours. I said three hours seemed strange, since online and the boarding pass said 90 minutes. He then confirmed that 2-3 hours is the time. I hung-up and told NSPwife: “I’m not sure he even works for the airline, but my guess is we just received incorrect information. Which we did. The reason for the Showpass question was to determine how many shows and movies we would need to download for NSPpeanut. Power plug availability would determine if we needed 1-2 computers (I wanted to get work done while flying, even without wifi). So we planned for no Showpass and no power plugs. Good thing, there was neither. Even despite this page in the magazine in my seatback
Copa Airlines Phantom Amenities
Copa Airlines Phantom Amenities
Ya, this didn’t exist.
Prior to takeoff, we gave the flight attendant our orders. Choices were between a quiche and pancakes. I ordered the pancakes, but unfortunately there was only one left, so switched to the quieche so that NSPpeanut could have the pancakes. As it turned out, breakfast was pretty good. Nothing to write home about, but it definitely hit the spot:
Copa Airlines Business Class Breakfast
Copa Airlines Business Class Breakfast
One of my favorite things about flying internationally is trying the different beers from various countries. I went with an Atlas beer from Panama, and it was pretty good:
Copa Airlines Beer Flight
Overall service was friendly, but somewhat inattentive. Despite having two attendants manage the business class cabin with 16 seats, only one attendant handled most of the food service, which meant it took nearly 20 minutes to serve everybody. Seats were large, and fairly comfortable, but the lack of wifi, inflight entertainment (other than a shared drop-down screen that played pre-selected movies), and power plugs really limit ones productivity on the flight. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we were soon landing in Panama.
CM111: Copa Air Business Class, PTY>SCL
We had a 70-minute layover in Panama City. We scoped out where our gate was to ensure we wouldn’t be late for boarding, and headed to the closet Priority Pass lounge, The Global Lounge. We were on such a tight schedule, that we only had about ten minutes in the lounge, so I didn’t get a chance to snap photos. I was too busy trying to find food that NSPpeanut would eat. She’s not the pickiest eater in the world, but she is also not the easiest. Luckily the lounge offered four of her favorite dishes: pasta, rice, tomatoes and cucumbers. She didn’t like the pasta (until I put Parmesan cheese on it) and didn’t like the rice, but she demolished the tomatoes. We were there long enough for me to have one beer and burn my mouth on a cappuccino. NSPwife had a club soda and we were on our way.
We boarded the plane 28-minutes before take-off, and noticed this plane was much nicer than our previous ride. This plane had individual entertainment consoles, power plugs, and USB chargers:
Entertainment Screens and Power Plugs. Check.
Thank goodness. This also helped NSPpeanut survive another long flight, as the kids selection was fairly decent: Mickey’s Roadster Racers, Moana, and Frozen are NSPpeanut favorites that were all offered. And since they were on a personalized TV vs. her iPad, it was extra special. Pre-departure drinks were offered, and the flight attendants took meal orders. Choices were chicken with rice or pork empanadas. Meal service started with a salad, asparagus soup (which was really good), and warm bread:
Copa Airlines Business Class Meal, PTY>SCL
Copa Airlines Business Class Meal, PTY>SCL
Meal service was then served. My pork was pretty good, although nothing special. And NSPwife’s chicken and rice was pretty good. The main courses were followed by a dessert cart offering brownies and lemon cakes, as well as Bailey’s, coffee, and/or cognac. The dessert was average, but the Bailey’s on the rocks hit the spot. After the meal, I sunk back into my seat and finished watching a movie.
Even though the seat had far more options than the seat on the earlier flight, I did not find it very comfortable. The seat naturally reclined a bit in it’s fully upright position, and since the leg rest was an extension to the seat, you couldn’t bend your knees at a 90-degree angle. This forced you to sit back a bit and have your legs at a weird forced angle. Throughout the flight I would try to reposition myself, and the seat, to no success.
Overall the service was good, but nothing particularly special. Amenity kits were basic:
Copa Airlines Business Class Amenity Kit, PTY>SCL
Copa Airlines Business Class Amenity Kit, PTY>SCL
We arrived about fifteen minutes early, which was great given it was 12:05am, and we had a central market and cooking tour the next morning at 8am. Unfortunately, it was roughly a mile walk to immigration. Despite being in business class, the fact that we had to wait for our gate-checked items meant most of the plane was already in line in front of us. Luckily, a security officer pointed us to a secondary line for pregnant women, disabled patrons, and kids with strollers. Thank goodness. Five minutes later we were out to get a taxi, since…as noted previously, we didn’t have any checked bags.
I had read that you should only hire the official taxis outside of the airport. What I didn’t read, or maybe realize, was that you had to pay for the taxis inside. I thought they were your Cancun-like private car companies that would try to scam you. So we went outside, jumped in a taxi, and when they asked for my ticket, meant we had to go back inside and buy one. We got to the hotel a little after 1:00am. We were all exhausted, ready to go to bed, and set our alarm for a quick six hours of sleep.
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