Last Friday, on IAD-PTY, I had my first experience with a really bad COPA FA in clase ejecutiva.

She was one of the few FA's I have seen who spoke English as if it were her first language, but she must have learned while working in a diner. Passengers had to do things to her schedule, and she was going to make sure that everything go done early. Apparently a smile and friendly greeting would have gotten in the way, so that never happened.

My seatmate was a fellow FT'er who was flying COPA for the first time, and as somebody who is a flag waver for COPA, I was embarrassed by how we were treated. First, when she distributed the menus pre-flight, he did not happen to be in his seat, so she just dropped the menu on his seat. She quickly returned to take lunch orders, he just had time to pick up the menu. She impatiently hovered over us while he quickly tried to read through it, and then quickly grabbed them from our hands. You would have thought she had let us get a peek at a top secret document.

By the way, lunch on a flight that leaves at 9:13 a.m.? Really? Maybe if you intended to serve it close to noon, but this FA made sure we were eating by 9:45.

The drinks and nuts came out seconds after take off. She was clearly annoyed when I asked for water too. We got a whole 5 minutes to eat the nuts before she was back for the dishes. I gobbled my last few while she waited, and my seatmate just gave up on his.

The appetizer was a flavorless quiche, and the shrimp entree was very over salted. I at the two lonely shrimp and two forkfuls of rice and gave up. I saw my seatmate and the person across the aisle do the same. He took up the offer for ice cream. It was completely melted. When she plopped it in front of him, she said, "Well it's hard in the center." No, it was a dish of sugary milk.

After that, maybe 75 minutes into the flight, she was not to be seen again. I did finally push the service button to get some more water, and after a while another FA showed up to handle it.

Of course, we had to have electronics shut off and be sitting up straight 25 minutes before touchdown. Heck, we were not even over land when the announcement came.

Fortunately, my PTY-MDE flight was a completely different experience with great FA's and a good bagel and smoked salmon (much improved from the last time I had that meal). I hope my seatmate had a similar experience on his next leg.

Sorry for such a long post, but I just had to rant. Everything else about the flight went fine. We left on time and arrived a little early, which is typical in my experience. Upgrades did not clear until T-18, but at least we were upgraded. I have dealt with not-so-good food and early "electronics off" on COPA before, but never such bad food and never such surly service.