Short story:
Copa cancelled our (myself and my girlfriend) return flight from Ecuador to LAX without notifying us, then refused to rebook us on another flight over the phone. We had to wait 8 hours for someone to show up at the local office to rebook us on CO the next morning. They did put us up in a hotel for the extra night, but refused to upgrade us to business class for our troubles.

Long story:
Booked Copa for LAX-PTY-UIO outbound and GYE-PTY-LAX return. Outbound flight was without incident, return was another story...

We arrived at the airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador at 1pm, 2 hours before our 3pm GYE-PTY flight, but no one was at the ticket counter - strange. We found a family who were booked on the same flight, so we all go to the COPA office in the terminal to ask what the deal is, but it's closed. So we decided to wait another hour for someone to show up at the office or ticket counter, but to no avail.

I finally call the local COPA number, and are automatically routed to their only call center in Panama. The agent explains our flight had been "removed from the schedule" one month prior. I asked him to confirm that COPA had our contact info, which he replied in the affirmative, and then why we were not notified. He didn't know. He informed me that the next available flight to PTY and then LAX would not be until the next day, but he would be unable to rebook us since that must be done at the local office.

Well, in Ecuador almost EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday, and the local Copa office was no exception. After explaining this to the agent, and the fact that we were stuck in a foreign country with no way to get home, and no where to stay for the night, he again explained there was nothing he could do as he was in Panama. I asked for his supervisor and asked that they put us up in a hotel for the night. The supervisor also explained that he did not have the ability to do so as he is in Panama and we were in Ecuador. However, he did note that there was a flight coming into GYE later that night, at 9pm, and someone MIGHT be at the airport COPA office about 2 hours prior.

So we wait, at the airport, until 9pm when someone actually does show up at the local office. We explain our situation to the agent, who is completely unsympathetic. Both outbound flights GYE-PTY the next day have plenty of open seats, but the PTY-LAX flight is booked solid (in fact overbooked anywhere from 10-15 seats) for the next 5 days. She explains that we need to go to PTY and fly standby. This is a 737 mind you, and an overbook of 15 is NOT going to get us on the airplane. Unacceptable I explain, we need to go home no later than tomorrow. She relents, and finally finds a flight on CO from GYE-EWR then EWR-LAX leaving early tomorrow morning.

I kindly ask that she upgrade us both to business class to compensate us for our troubles. 1 - We were basically stranded in a foreign country with no way to get home, and phone support was completely worthless and unable/unwilling to help. 2 - I was forced to miss a day of work as I now wouldn't be returning home until late Monday night, as opposed to late Sunday night. After pressing further, she calls her supervisor who also refuses the upgrade. I ask her to call again, but she "feels bad because she was sleeping." WHAT??? Your airline stranded myself and my girlfriend in a foreign country and for 8 hours, we had no idea how we were going to get home, and let's not forget my lost wages for the missed day of work. She again called her supervisor, of whom she refused to let me speak with. Again her supervisor denies our request. Fine, at least we have a flight home returning a day later. As for a hotel, she agrees to put us up in the local Hilton, free of charge.

The flights home GYE-EWR-LAX on CO were uneventful and on time.

Moral of the story:
Don't EVER fly Copa unless you want to face the VERY real possibility of being stranded in a foreign country with no where to sleep and no way to get home. The phone support is completely worthless: They couldn't rebook us on another flight or even put us up in a hotel for the night. For 8 hours, we had NO idea how we were getting home, where we would stay, or what we would do.

Had someone not shown up to the local airport office. We probably would have taken a taxi to a hotel and checked in for the night, before returning to the local office the next morning, all at my expense.

This experience and Copa's total lack of support was completely unacceptable. I will gladly pay $100-200 more for a flight on an American carrier in the future. At least I know they have the power to rebook flights and book hotels over the phone.

When did you book your flights?

I think the real moral of the story is to check your flights if you book them more than a few weeks out.

Flights were booked 8 months in advance.

Thanks for reminding me - We DID check our flights both the night before and the day of. Everything checked out. In fact, the agent at the local office pulled up the flight number on her computer (using their primative system) and the entire flight info and even seat map showed up!

Her only explanation was that the flight was not "cancelled" but was "rescheduled". Not quite, rescheduling would involve the airplane actually FLYING at some point.

Sorry for the difficulty - I have nothing to add other than I LOVE your handle ^

Haha, and I yours...^

To me, it sounds like you got jerked around a little bit. But, to be honest, this is pretty much par for the course in that part of the world, especially Ecuador. Where I would find particular fault is that the agent that showed up the evening of your flight should have more understanding.

Having said that, and having seen (and, yes, authored) some gringo blowups in those parts, I confess that I imagine that you were not in a terribly polite frame of mind after waiting in the airport until 9:00PM. (You didn't have to do that... go on a city tour, or something... well, okay, it's Guayaquil.) :-)

And finding a hotel really isn't hard. And I'm really not at all sympathetic to the business class upgrade demand.

Anyway, yeah, you've got reason to gripe; but taking it all into consideration, I think it's not quite as egregious as you think.

Flying out of CLO to the US in years past, my wife and I used to always try to get on Copa. It was a lot easier than other options, especially the crush of people, rude CSRs, and obnoxious security for AA (at that point, CO didn't go to CLO).

.

We'd already spent a few days in Guayaquil. There really was no desire to see any more of the city. And what would we have done with our luggage? The airport didn't have a baggage check, hell, they had to pull the plane back from the gate with mules (haha, okay maybe not, but it wouldn't have surprised me).

How can they just cancel a flight without notifying any of the passengers? It just boggles the mind. And then to refuse to rebook us over the phone, despite the fact that the local office was closed? Give me a break. I'll take the crush of people, rude CSRs, and obnoxious security of a US airline over this sham of an airline. Like I said, at least a US carrier has the power to take care of me over the phone, regardless of whether or not a local office is present.

Also realize that we had NO idea if anyone was going to show up at the office that day. The Copa supervisor in Panama said someone MIGHT show up. True, taxing a taxi to a hotel would have been no problem, but having to incur any out-of-pocket expense for this debaucle is absolutely unacceptable.

I aslo had to press the agent at the local office to put us on the CO flights from GYE-EWR-LAX. She was ready to send us to Panama with no way to get home. There was one flight per day from PTY-LAX which were all overbooked for the next 5 days. Her thinking was that we would be Panama's problem at that point. It wasn't until I explained that the possibility of spending ANOTHER night in ANOTHER foreign country was absolutely out of the question, that she finally relented. I was already missing one day of work over this, and I wasn't about to miss another.

On the plus side, the rebook on CO cost Copa about $1000 per ticket, so at least we fleeced them for a bit. I have to say that made me pretty happy, even though $2000 for them is a drop in the bucket.

I'm fairly confident had it been the same situation with CO or AA, the surly CSR at their call center would have at least rebooked us on the next available flight and taken care of a hotel, or even have someone open up the local office for us.

While waiting for someone to show up at the office, I even called CO and explained our situation. They were very sympathetic, but were unable to help us since Copa is obviously another airline (though partly owned by CO).

Basically unless you want to face the very real possibility of being stuck in a random third world country with no support, don't fly Copa.

Copa left me for 24 hours in Panama. My flight to Chile left 30 minutes early and they knew beinig a platnium that I would be coming in from Houston. I was in Business First on both flights.They didn't care and were suprised when I showed up at the gate.....it took m e1 hour to get someone to help me and re book me on the same flight the next day

I had a similar experience when fog caused our SCL-PTY flight to depart late and arrive after the PTY-IAH CO flight had departed. However, the Presidents Club employees in PTY could not have been more helpful. (COPA has no liability for the fact that SCL had fog.) They arranged a room at the Marriott in Panama City, at no charge, covered cab fares both ways and walked me through customs and immigration. They even obtained an F seat for the next day on the PTY-IAH flight. Through many transits of PTY, I have found that the Presidents Club personnel in PTY to be particularly helpful.

Similar incident happened to me traveling to Buenos Aires via PTY on Houston storm delayed flight, however, I was met at the gate by a COPA person, given a voucher for the Hilton, and rebooked in First (my class of service). They were on the ball and I was protected for the next day flight.

I have had good experiences with COPA, but I have seen how actions and customs at certain airports could be considerably less than we expect traveling here in the U.S.