I was trying to buy a J ticket from SJO-SFO on Copa. It would not ticket on the Copa website of any major OTA for the next day which I wanted. I checked the flights separately and coach was available SJO-PTY, and J was available PTY-SFO. It is only a 55 minute flight to PTY, so that was not an issue for me. I got in my car and drove to the Copa office to purchase. At Copa, I showed them that the two flights were available but I could not book online, could they please book the ticket for me. They told me that mixed cabin bookings cannot be booked on Copa, though I could buy two seperate tickets.

The issue with two separate tickets on Copa is both the crazy increase in cost and the Copa policy where with two tickets,they will not check a bag through and you have to break immigration and customs in PTY and recheck upstairs. This has happened to me twice before with seperate Copa tickets. I have never seen an airline not sell mixed cabin before.

With AV basically not offering J class, Copa is now quite difficult to book J if not living in PTY. I have seen many one way fares in the $2500 range to the USA even when J is available on all legs.