As someone who loves working remotely from Medellín, Colombia (I go a few times a year), I often fly Copa Airlines and am usually in their “Dreams” business class on the airline’s 737 MAX.
After dozens of long-haul business class flights with Copa, I wanted to finally write a review, which will take into account my flight yesterday, as well other experiences.
How I booked Copa Airlines business class
Copa offers the ability to bid for a business class upgrade and/or confirm an instant upgrade if you book the flight directly from Copa. So if I’m booking more than a week out, what I’ll normally do is pay for a basic economy ticket (Copa calls it “economy basic”) that I can cancel within 24 hours and see if there are any instant upgrades available for purchase.
For this one-way flight, booking business class with cash would have cost about $2,400. Instead, I paid $559.49 for a one-way the basic economy flight from Medellín to Panama City to Los Angeles and then checked if an upgrade was available. Luckily it was, and I paid for an instant upgrade to Copa’s flat-bad business class for $447.00. I also decided to upgrade my flight from Medellín to Panama City for $178.00 given the tight connection (more on that below), which brought my total to $1,184.49, a roughly $1,215 savings from if I purchased business class outright from Copa.
The seat
On flights with Dreams business class, Copa has four rows in a 2×2 setup so that there are 16 business class seats total. For this flight, I was in Seat 2E, which is an aisle seat. I prefer aisle seats on Copa’s business class since the window seat does not have direct aisle access.
The downside to being in rows 2, 3, and 4 is that the footwell is quite small compared to the the footwell in row 1.
While I almost always sit in the bulkhead row because of the extra leg space, I actually enjoyed sitting in row 2 this time and may do that going forward for two main reasons:
- In my experience flying Copa quite often, the flight attendants can be pretty loud during the flight, but in row 2 I couldn’t hear them at all.
- The flight attendants also often use the overhead bin space above row 1, but this wasn’t an issue in row 2.
In terms of the seat itself, it was comfortable but nothing too extraordinary. In other words, I have nothing bad to say about the seat itself but nothing great to say about it either. Each seat has a bit of storage space in a small area right next to your shoulder, where there is also plug if you need to recharge your electronics. I appreciated being able to put a few belongings in this space.
Food, amenity kit, and entertainment
After boarding, business class passengers were offered a welcome beverage of water or orange juice in a paper cap, and I chose the orange juice. The flight attendant was super friendly and I’m not much of a drinker, so I didn’t mind not being offered wine.
After takeoff, the flight attendant gave everyone in business class a water battle (and I appreciated that the water bottle was made of paper instead of plastic) and an amenity kit. The amenity kit included an an eye mask, socks, chapstick, hand moisturizer, and mouth wash.
Since the flight left Panama City around around 7:30am, we were offered breakfast service shortly after takeoff and had the choice between banana bread with nuts or a cheese omelette. I chose the omelette, which also came with sausage, a croissant, and some fruit.
Before the meal came, the flight attendant offered business class passengers a warm towel, which I thought was a nice touch. When the meal came shortly after, I found everything to be quite tasty, although I was still a bit hungry after the meal.
Copa Airlines does not have internet on its flights and the movie and TV selection is usually pretty dull. Additionally, Copa does not usually give out headphones to listen to the in-flight entertainment until after take off. So if you’re planning to fly Copa business class, I recommend bringing an iPad with movies and/or TV shows already downloaded, which is what I did.
That said, I did check out the movies playing on Copa Airlines’ entertainment system and there weren’t really any exciting choices, other than Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
About two hours before landing, business class passengers were offered a small snack consisting of either a small vegetable sandwich or a small salmon sandwich and some chocolate. I went with the small vegetable sandwich, which was tasty enough but was not filling at all.
Since the flight from Panama City, Panama to Los Angeles is almost 7.5 hours, I wish Copa offered an additional snack in between the main meal service and the snack prior to landing, or had snacks available to grab in the galley.
Service and flight experience
There appeared to be only a single flight attendant who was catering to the business class passengers on my flight and she was very friendly during service itself, although I didn’t see her much aside from the main and snack service (i.e., she didn’t check to see if I wanted a drink or needed anything aside from during the main meal and snack service). I was fine with this as I wanted to sleep and relax as much as possible, but this might have bothered me if I was hoping to drink wine or if I wanted other drinks in between those two services.
There is one restroom at the front of the plane that’s just for business class passengers, although it’s also the restroom that the flight attendants and the pilots use. This may sound odd, but the bathroom is blocked pretty often for use by the pilots (more than I’ve seen with any other airline). That said, on this flight I never had to wait more than a few minutes to use the restroom.
Tight connection
Copa allows for very tight connections in its hub airport in Panama City, Panama. On this flight, my flight into Panama City was scheduled to land at 6:42am and the flight to Los Angeles was scheduled to take off at 7:21am, making it a 39-minute connection.
Given the tight connection time, I’ll usually pay for business class on the Medellín to Panama flight so that I can race to the gate (and sometimes, I do literally have to run). That said, this time I got very lucky and my flight into Panama City landed just a few gates away from where my flight to Los Angeles was taking off, meaning I didn’t have to run to catch my flight.
If you do book a flight in Panama City on Copa with a tight connection, here’s some advice:
- Try to sit as close to the front of the plane as possible, so that you can get off the plane quickly.
- Look up what the flight alternatives are if you miss the connecting flight in advance, so that you already know what your next flight option is if you miss your second flight.
- Book an early morning flight if possible, as there are usually less delays in the morning as there are in the afternoon and night.
- Don’t worry too much — while the connection time may seem impossible, I’ve flown through Panama City with a flight connection at least a dozen times, and I’ve never missed my connecting flight (though your mileage may vary).
Bottom line
Copa offers a decent “Dreams” business class product on its 737 MAX, which has a 2×2 setup. The food, the seat, and the flight experience are best described as “adequate,” so I wouldn’t book Copa’s business class thinking that you’re going to get a truly memorable experience — instead, book it if you really want a flat-bed and extra space on the roughly 7.5 hour flight.
