I just flew copa/aerorepublica clo-bog, on a ERJ-190. 4 across, very nice and comfortable seats. Only a 50 minute flight so only beverage service. No IFE, Y only, but nicest RJ I've been on...

A couple of comments
 

In reading the thread, I thought a couple of comments might be useful:

1. Copa also flies PTY-LAX.
2. Copaair.com does not guarantee the lowest fair. The online pricing, Copa ticket office pricing, and pricing thru online travel agents such as Orbitz can all be different. They split the inventory in some way and sell separately, so it is good to check more than one source. One that sometimes has the best prices in my experience is orbitz.com.

Booked my first COPA flight. The return is in M. I called for the instant upgrade since it didn't automatically process online. According to the helpful agent, only available on the UIO-PTY leg. After getting the "okay" from a supervisor, the agent transferred me to the Star Alliance desk. After waiting on hold for 10 minutes, I hung up and will try again this evening.

I'm unsure if I should apply an RPU to the trip down. I'm supposed to fly IAD-PTY-UIO-PTY-IAD around Labor Day Weekend. Since it's a holiday weekend, hopefully my upgrade chances will be higher. It sounds like 1Ks and PPs usually get upgrades, especially on fairly high fares (U on the way down, M on the way back). I wish Copa's fare buckets were more transparent on the UA website - it's hard to actually know how many F seats are available. They tend to show 3 seats in First regardless of the bookings.

After spending 50 minutes with the Star Alliance desk, the very friendly agent comes back and says that M-fares aren't eligible for instant upgrades for Plats. I asked her to double check and she calls COPA. According to COPA, I'm waitlisted. Earlier when I called, there was availability from UIO-PTY but not PTY-IAD. Not sure what will happen.

Will my M-fare clear into F before my plat window if availability opens up? I guess I'll just hope for the best.

I'm not sure why something that seems fairly simple like this takes 50 minutes. It should clearly show in the system that there's no availability and I'm waitlisted or the agent should be able to quickly clear the M-fare into F.

I just had a couple of RPU's applied to a UA and CM trip IAH-PTY-COR and return. The process was nothing short of annoying and tedious and I'm apologize to the the fellow FT'er who also wasted his time helping me with this. To start, at least a couple of hours were wasted arguing with the phone agent about the upgrade chart. Even though the footnotes clearly says all CM flights are RPU eligible she kept looking at the chart and said COR is in Southern South America thus not upgradable. Finally, I suggested that this be escalated to a supervisor. After another waiting for a supervisor for about an hour the agent came back and said it appears they can do it but don't know how. I wasn't giving up so I said I would hold while they figured it out. After another hour they came back and said they figured it out and it was done. Total time on the phone was at least 4.5 hours.

Then, I wanted to apply more RPU's to another persons reservation that is also going on the trip. This time it took ~2 hours for the entire process to be complete even though the first reservation that had RPU's applied was references so they would know it was possible.

Clearly UA needs more training on this issue.

My RPU experience today
 

Tried to have the RPU that I applied to a SCL-PTY-EWR itinerary applied to the SCL-PTY leg. I was told be different customer service reps today:

1. It would require 2 separate RPUs (one for the SCL-PTY leg, another for the PTY-EWR leg)

2. That I could only use a GPU (supervisor eventually refuted this)

3. That there was no upgrade availability on the SCL-PTY leg, although I am able to book a SAVER Pass award on that flight using united.com.

What exactly are the rules regarding RPUs and Copa? Thanks.

Don't waste your time arguing with the front line phone agents. Tell them what you want to do and ask that they go straight to a supervisor.

It should only take 1 RPU for SCL-PTY-EWR. See my post above yours that involves UA and Copa IAH-PTY-COR. Copa's upgrade inventory comes out of Z class while UA's upgrade inventory comes out of R class. You should be able to see both when doing a revenue search on UA.com.

All is not well - Just called 1K desk to apply RPUs to MIA-PTY-SCL and back.
agent spoke with GS desk who said there is no availability right now and Copa will not put me on the waitlist.:confused:

Agent / GS desk said this was possible prior to March 3.
Told to call back later...and see if RPU seats were available.

I'll try again tomorrow...

consider getting an ExpertFlyer subscription ($10/month) to get alerts for when fare classes open up.

Yes - good advice. My alerts triggered at T-23 with 9 seats available on first leg (MIA-PTY) and 7 available on 2nd leg (PTY-SCL).

On hold for 20 mins with 1K desk trying to see if they will apply RPUs.
I doubt it (within 24 hours).
But it sure appears Copa is not releasing upgrade inventory.
I don't think they want to deal with it.
No waitlist, + with hold inventory until within the 24 hour window...
pretty much guarantees you cannot use RPUs.

I'll have to see how the CPUs work.
Last time - not so good as the PTY gate agents did not process them (both to and from).

Update. 1K desk did process a rpu at T-20.

Just flew the first half of my trip on Copa. I was upgraded on both legs without applying an instrument. One leg on my return cleared almost 6 days in advance. Both legs on outbound cleared the night before. I received an email each time. The process was very smooth although you don't know your position and it's difficult to accurately tell how many seats in business are still available.

Upgrade not possible if only one seat left?
 

Tried to sponsor an upgrade (business class award shows up as available on both legs in united.com), but was told no availability on the first leg.

When I tried to do an award booking with 2 passengers, I realized that the first leg had Z1 ...

Any suggestions on how to get instant upgrades on Y/B classes to process automatically? ExpertFlyer notified me when I was asleep that Z space opened up for PTY-SCL on which I have a Y-fare ticket. However, I have not gotten an instant upgrade, and when I called the UA 1K desk they told me that Z space is no longer available, and it is not possible to be waitlisted for instant or RPU upgrades on Copa flights.

UA confirmed (er, noted) that Copa upgrades still book into Z, not R class?