We parked in the old 1978 built terminal of Panama City’s Tocumen International Airport. This was good because most gates on the new North Wing, which is dominated by COPA Airlines, would have resulted in a much longer walk to the main terminal where the COPA Club is located.
Panama City COPA Club
Panama City COPA Club
I set up shop at a cubicle in the Business Center and then headed over to the bar for a nicely chilled Heineken. Judging by the crew at the bar, I could just as easily have been at a pub in most any local barrio. The bartender was not particularly attentive and as for the patrons… well, check ‘em out.
The bar at Panama City’s COPA Club
I find it interesting that airlines go such effort to provide a clean, attractive business casual atmosphere in their lounges. Their employees are always very well turned out in their crisp, clean uniforms – often presenting quite a contrast to a significant number of the patrons, many of whom dress as if they’re going to a trailer park barbecue or an afternoon at the gym. What if the lounges were furnished and operated in a style better suited to decorum more in keeping with that of their users? Like a hippie crash pad, perhaps… or some college dude’s basement apartment.
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A glance at the television monitor revealed that my flight to Sao Paulo would be departing 35 minutes late. This was not of great concern given my eleven and a half hour layover in Sao Paulo. Of greater concern was the assigned gate, located waaaay down at the very end of the new concourse. A quick check of the airport terminal map revealed that it was the farthest possible distance that a gate could possibly be located away from the COPA Lounge. After a few muttered curses I gathered up my gear, bid farewell to the pretty receptionist and commenced the long journey down to gate 8.
Along the way I passed a small café selling Chester Fried Chicken. I’ve often seen Chester Fried Chicken being sold at gas station convenience stores throughout the American south. I don’t recall the prices but they never seemed high enough to be noteworthy. Here in Panama City however, a 2 piece chicken and biscuit was selling for the extraordinarily high price of $10.45!
I took my time getting down to the gate, mainly because I didn’t want to work up a sweat enroute. The terminal was air conditioned but per my standards it still felt pretty sticky. As such, rather than walking briskly down the concourse as per my usual gait, one could more properly say that I “moseyed” or “ambled” down the concourse instead.
A good sized crowd was gathered at the gate lounge when I arrived. By all appearances this was going to be a full flight tonight, making me all the more grateful to be in possession of a boarding pass directing me to the spacious accommodations in the Business Class cabin, seat 2F in particular. The aircraft was just being towed into the gate as I arrived, so I continued my mosey on over to the big floor to ceiling windows so that I could enhance this report with a photo of the waiting aircraft.
My plane awaits
When boarding was finally announced, I was appreciative of how orderly the initial process went. Granted, as a Business Class passenger I was amongst the very first to board and yet – despite having commenced my approach to the jetway from a seat some 50 feet away – I encountered surprisingly little resistance to my path. In retrospect it was almost dreamlike in how calm everyone was.
I’ve been looking forward to this flight for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that this will be my very first flight aboard COPA Airlines. Flying aboard a new airline is always cause for heightened anticipation, even after having flown 4.8 million miles aboard 176 airlines up until this flight.
Ranking a very close second is my excitement at flying in COPA’s Business Class, especially given the new and considerably more spacious seating that COPA has been installing aboard its long haul 737-800s over the past year. The new Business Class cabins feature leather covered recliners with leg rests and deeper recline while offering a generous 50” pitch between seats. If one must fly 3160 miles in the middle of the night aboard a 737, COPA’s Business Class looks like one of the better ways to do so.
COPA’s 737-800 Business Class cabin
Indeed, I’ll be interested to see how this flight compares against my flight of similar length flown aboard Turkish Airlines’ Business Class a year and a half ago between Istanbul and Kigali, Rwanda. That flight was flown aboard a 737-900ER that featured the most spacious Business Class seating I have ever experienced aboard a 737.
COPA’s long haul configured 737-800s offer 16 seats in Business Class and another 138 behind the curtain. Tonight’s aircraft featured the new Sky Interior and I must say the spacious Business Class cabin looked at once fresh and inviting. At my seat was a pre-packaged blanket and pillow along with Pieter, my seatmate in 2D. He was just wrestling his bag into the overhead compartment and getting ready to sit down as I arrived so my timing couldn’t have been better.
Pieter had lived and worked in Panama City for the past three years and so was a veteran of many COPA flights. Interestingly, he also kept a flight log – a fact he mentioned shortly after we’d settled in when he noticed me jotting down the aircraft’s registration number prior to pushback. We talked logs for a bit and after he showed me my seat’s electric outlet and USB port, I fired up my laptop and showed him some of the latest entries as well as some of my upcoming flights on South African, Safair, Emirates and Alaska. Needless to say his head was spinning upon seeing that as of tonight’s flight I’d logged 5,003 flights covering 4,837,640 miles. Not that I’m one to brag but not many people have flown as much as I have and - on those rare occasions where this becomes a topic with a seatmate or anyone for that matter - I must say I do rather get a kick out of their reaction.
The cavalcade of preflight offerings continued with the presentation of menus and an amenity kit. The latter came wrapped in clear plastic, so rather than open it I placed it in my day pack for future perusal. Alas, to this day it remains unopened but imminently available should I decide to ever bring it along for a short trip. As for the menu, I wasted no time in opening it and checking out tonight’s offerings. Not bad, not bad! But more on that in a moment.
Following a surprisingly long take off roll, we climbed quickly away from the steamy environs of Panama and up into the cool night sky of the troposphere. In the 30-40,000 foot range down at these latitudes the temperature hovers between -30° and -40°F, but inside the cabin we reclined in the comfort of climate controlled technology that maintained a comfortable interior temperature of 68°F.
Service began with a presentation of tepid, damp miniature washcloths. It doesn’t sound nearly so refreshing when the product is described as it really is does it? COPA isn’t the first airline that has failed in its efforts to provide hot towels but what amazes me is how many other airlines also struggle to properly provide this most simple of inflight amenities.
Why is it that airlines like Singapore and Cathay Pacific can consistently provide a proper steaming hot towel service whereas others appear to be so challenged by this most rudimentary of offerings? I chalk it up to a combination of poor training and some flight attendants who simply don’t care enough to ensure that it’s done properly. Add to this the fact that most passengers are unlikely to specifically complain about such a seemingly insignificant aspect of the overall service, and improvement is unlikely to be forthcoming.
Now I realize that most people – including many of you reading this – are not likely to find service shortcomings such as sloppy hot towel presentations worthy of even half the commentary I’ve dedicated to it here. It’s a well-established fact though that attention to detail – doing the “little” things right – is a primary contributor to most any successful enterprise – be it operating a successful business or playing on a winning sports team. Our continued indifference towards these “insignificant” service shortcomings ultimately contribute to the gradual erosion in premium class service standards that from my experience on international flights of this length were generally higher.
More than anything though, the real reason I’ve gone off on this particular tangent is that I actually enjoy a good hot towel service and I’ve enjoyed a lot of them since my first international First Class flight back in 1976. Northwest Orient introduced hot scented Oshibori towels to the skies in the 1950s on its Boeing 377 Stratocruiser flights between the US and Asia. They proved so popular that other airlines adopted the practice and – initially at least – those airlines took the time and effort to provide a proper hot towel service. So call me spoiled but I’ve been experiencing quality inflight service for twenty years before FlyerTalk even came into being and I’m here to tell y’all that properly presented, those Oshibori towels are a nice part of a quality inflight service.
But enough towel talk! It’s time for dinner. Per COPA’s website, the Business Class meal service is said to include “
the best wines and liquors as well as exquisite gastronomical selections prepared by exclusive chefs”.
Exquisite gastronomical selections?! Prepared by
exclusive chefs no less?! Stop it! You’re making me hungry! Take a moment if you like to refresh your drink and when you get back we’ll check out tonight’s menu…
DINNER
Panama City to Sao Paulo
To Begin
Roasted nuts served with your preferred beverage or cocktail
Soup
Cream of Broccoli
Salad
Green salad offered with your choice of dressing
From The Bakery
An assortment of freshly baked rolls with butter
MAIN COURSES
Grilled Salmon
Accompanied by basmati rice and creamed spinach
Fettuccine with Grilled Chicken
Accompanied with Pomodoro sauce
DESSERT
Chocolate and Orange Cheesecake
Or
Vanilla Ice Cream offered with your choice of topping
SNACK
Offered prior to arrival in Sao Paulo
Cold Cuts Platter
Both Pieter and I chose the Fettuccine with Grilled Chicken. We also said yes, please to both the soup and the salad.
The soup arrived first. What it lacked in presentation (a little bit of soylent green substance in a bowl) it more than made up for in flavor. As cream of broccoli soups go, it really was quite tasty! All it was lacking was a few croutons. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the salad. For starters, the portion was pretty meagre – a few sparse pieces of greens highlighted by a half cob of baby corn – and all of it was doused in mediocre vinaigrette.
COPA’s Soup & Salad over Panama
The Grilled Chicken on Fettuccine was pretty good though neither Pieter nor myself could discern what exactly “Pomodoro Sauce” was, Perhaps it was the red marinara type sauce barely visible in the lower right corner of the plate. The portion was so small that we were both surprised it even warranted mention in the menu description. Thankfully the noodles were moist and buttery and a few sprinkles of salt were all it took to make this dish more palatable.
COPA’s Grilled Chicken on Fettuccine
Is that red substance the Pomodoro Sauce?
Neither of us felt up for dessert. With a projected flight time of just six hours and forty minutes - and with just over five hours left in the flight – it was important to get as much sleep as possible. As such we traded in our meal trays for blankets and pillows and tried to make ourselves as comfortable as the limited recline would allow. It didn’t help that COPA’s new recliners are pretty hard as premium class seats go. Thankfully the blankets were fairly decent. Normally I prefer an aisle seat but if I must fly all night in a seat that doesn’t fully recline, I find I sleep better with a wall to lean into. And – with the help of a good book, half a melatonin and a quarter tab of Ambien I did just that, knocking off a good four hours before being awoken as we were well into our descent into São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport.
Overall, I thought COPA provided a decent service by today’s Business Class standards – especially one being operated exclusively aboard narrow bodied aircraft. The main meal was presented in a timely fashion and in both quality and quantity was quite sufficient. The service was pleasant and though the seats felt a bit harder than I’d like, I did manage to sleep pretty well in them, albeit with chemical assistance. So - in consideration of all of these things, would I fly COPA’s Business Class again? Yes.
SAO PAULO AIRPORT
Faced with an eleven and a half hour layover and operating on just four hours of airline seat sleep, I entertained exactly zero thoughts of going out and exploring hot and humid São Paulo. Back in my 20s and 30s I could’ve gotten by on four hours of sleep but not anymore. I still needed a proper rest, especially with an early evening trans-Atlantic flight aboard South African Airways’ A340-300 to look forward to. I wanted to be at my best in order to fully enjoy both the new Star Alliance Lounge at Guarulhos as well as SAA’s highly regarded Business Class service.
As I investigated the airport area hotel options in the days leading up to my arrival in São Paulo, I found a number of very affordable hotels located in the nearby Guarulhos suburbs and was ready to book with one of them when I stumbled across a place called
Slaveiro Fast Sleep. Located airside in the airport terminal, it offered small compact rooms similar to what you’d find aboard a ship or train. Each room was fully air-conditioned and contained a bunk bed along with a small television and internet access.
My humble accommodations at the Slaveiro Fast Sleep
Bathrooms and showers were located just down the hall. Best of all however was that by staying here there’d be no need to deal with long lines at Immigration and Customs, nor would I have to wait for a hotel shuttle going and coming. For a guy that just wanted to get a bit of undisturbed sleep, this was perfect.
Ten minutes after stepping off my COPA flight, I’d walked down to the Slaveiro Fast Sleep where I paid out $65.00 USD for 8 hours of room occupancy. Five minutes after that I was laying down on my comfortable bunk and settling in for another six hours of quality sleep. By 2:00pm I was showered and on my way over to the Star Alliance Lounge for a bit of food, drink and relaxation before my flight.
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Upon leaving the Slaveiro, to say that I was simply “on my way” over to the Star Alliance Lounge does not paint an accurate picture of just how long a journey this actually is. The Slaveiro Fast Sleep is located in old Terminal 1 while the Star Alliance Lounge is located in the new Terminal 3. I would estimate the distance at about half a mile - nothing for the average morning jogger but inside a building with so-so air-conditioning, wearing a 15 pound daypack and trailing a roll-a-board with a sore back and an uneven gait, it was quite a long walk.
Hikes such as this are not unheard of in some of the world’s larger airports. Last year I arrived on the C Concourse of Bangkok International only to be informed at the East Transit Desk that my onward flight to Ho Chi Minh City was departing from gate F-6 on the opposite side of the airport. Additionally, I would need to collect my boarding pass at the West Transit Desk, also located on the opposite side of the airport. Getting there would require me to walk across the world's fourth largest single-building airport terminal (563,000 square meters or 6,060,000 square feet). According to a sign posted above the terminal walkway, the West Transit Desk was located just 850 meters away. 850 meters! That translates to just over half a mile and this wasn’t even including the 200 meter walk from my gate at C8 to the top of the concourse in addition to another 200 some odd meters down to my gate at F6. People movers were available on the C and F concourses, but not the long crossover D Concourse. All told, I reckon I probably limped about three quarters of a mile. This afternoon’s journey across São Paulo’s airport was of similar distance.
It was interesting to note the transition from old to new during my trek across the airport. Terminal 1 airside was by no means the poor or rundown facility alluded to on many airport review sites though it did have a distinct 1980s feel about it.
One positive along the way was a good looking 737-300 I saw parked between terminals 1 and 2. It was wearing the attractive new livery of Boliviana de Aviacion and so I stopped briefly to admire it and fire off a couple of photos. A subsequent check of this airplane’s heritage revealed that I had flown on it twenty-six years earlier when it had worn the orange, blue and red stripe of United Airlines.
Boliviana de Aviacion 737-300
My journey took me from one lengthy corridor to another and then another and then yet another but after all that I must say that the long walk over to São Paulo’s gleaming new Terminal 3 was well worth the shoe leather. A harp glissando and a chorus from the heavens would have been appropriate as I emerged from an elevator into the high, wide and handsome environs of the new terminal.
Wow! My first impression was of how bright and spacious the new terminal was. This is a world class facility modelled after the best terminals seen in the newer airports across Asia and Europe. The ceiling was a good three or four stories high with the upper two stories comprising a wall of windows that allowed an abundance of natural light to illuminate the terminal. The lower floor and Mezzanine are populated with dozens of good looking shops, bars and restaurants as well as an attractive collection of high-end shops in an area called “GRU Avenue.” I stopped in a Hudson News outlet to buy a couple of postcards and was surprised at the collection of English language books and magazines available for sale. Continuing my meander to the Star Alliance Lounge, I briefly considered stopping in for a drink at what surely must be the southernmost franchise of Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. It was doing brisk business while enlivening the surrounding area with happy strains from the Coral Reefers Band. Still, I was really looking forward checking out the new Star Alliance Lounge and so followed the signs to the Mezzanine Level where the airline lounges were located.
São Paulo’s Terminal 3 atrium as seen from the Mezzanine Level
Designed to replace the old United Club - which was often described with adjectives like “dreary” and” dismal” - the new Star Alliance Lounge opened in July 2014 to much fanfare and – according to the receptionists – continues to be an ongoing sensation.
My first thought upon entering this lounge was how perfectly inviting it looked. And I do mean perfect as it relates to my perception of what constitutes inviting. I was immediately taken by how nicely the natural light flowing in from the terminal windows combined favorably with the warm glow from multiple lamps set throughout the seating areas. And what an attractive layout! Small clusters of warmly upholstered couches and chairs crafted from native Brazilian materials looked cozy and inviting set amidst an assortment of well-placed potted plants and palms. Each little grouping seemed to have its own unique appeal. Warm brown wooden floors were complimented by the use of carpeting in the central seating areas. A clear glass wall made up the perimeter of the lounge. The seating areas alongside it overlooked the colorful shops and restaurants in the terminal atrium below with some of them providing excellent views of the tarmac and airport grounds beyond.
São Paulo’s Star Alliance Lounge
After dropping my bags at a small group of seats overlooking the shops below, I sauntered over to the café area where a nice selection of coffees and teas were available. A bank of refrigerators was stocked with a variety of juices, soda, international beers and three different white wines. A nearby self-serve bar included a couple more red wines as well as a basic collection of everyday spirits and liqueurs.
Perhaps it was the tray of brightly colored full-sized coffee cups that caught my eye, but that was enough to sway me from the cold beer I’d been anticipating to a cup of good hot Brazilian coffee instead. A large buffet island provided an attractive bounty of sandwiches, soups, salads and pastries. I selected a half sandwich and a small pastry before returning to my little alcove to bask in the splendor of this lounge.
Buffet Area
Buffet Area
Complimentary wi-fi access is provided throughout the lounge in addition to a dedicated business center providing all the usual accoutrements typically found in such facilities. A visit to the restrooms revealed four well-appointed shower suites available to those looking to freshen up. I was tempted after my long walk across the airport but the lounge was nicely air-conditioned and t wasn’t long before I once again felt cool and dry.
Overall São Paulo’s new Star Alliance lounge provided a relaxing and welcoming atmosphere while promoting a very Brazilian look and feel. I’ve been in a lot of great airline lounges over the years and while this one was nowhere near as large, opulent or diverse in its offerings as some, on ambience alone it will remain one of my all-time favorites.