I handheld an agent through an excruciating (prolly for both parties) 60+ minute phone call, and we were finally able to book the tickets I wanted

Their entire system is manual it looks like, so maybe agents just give up if its too complicated. Manual calculation on both the taxes and the amount of miles

I suppose this somewhat benefits me if no one else (or very few) are able to book such award redemptions with Copa, but its insanely tilting to deal with