Which Saturday? Pope is coming to Panama and place is a disaster for next ~2 weeks

People work saturdays here, and finish between 12-1pm, so traffic is not great at all then. If you arrive into PTY at 6am and are departing at midday, I would stay in the airport

Sundays are generally ok

A Saturday in June, just before the total eclipse.

What are people's thoughts on renting a car to drive to the canal area? Advantages of renting a car are that I can stash carry-on bags in the trunk instead of lugging them with me wherever I go; advantages of Uber are no time overhead for picking up/dropping off a car.

I believe it would be the 5th Saturday of the month.

Have rented from the airport Enterprise location on several occasions in the past. It is reasonably quick to pick up and return, nothing out of the ordinary time wise. The only issues with driving are the potholes, finding parking if you are in the city and the traffic. Make sure to have them mark all the damage on the car when you pick it up so you have no issues returning it.

My one bad experience driving in Panama: car in front of me slammed on their brakes to pick someone up standing on the side of the road, I stopped short, guy behind me rear ended me (no injuries, the bumper cover did pop off slightly though), I get out of the car to see damage, the guy who hit me pulls up beside me curses me out and drove off. Was able to pop bumper back in place and the bumper was in such a mess when I picked up the car that they didn't even notice the damage when I returned it (blessing in disguise I guess). This also happened within the first few hours of picking up the car which I had for 2 weeks. Again that was my only incident and again I've rented for long periods of time and on many occasions.

If you are only going to the canal I would say just take uber so you don't have to deal with it.

Definitely, do not drive in Panama. Especially if you are not absolutely 100% fluent in Spanish, as in speaking it as a native.

The driving itself is madness and if you are unlucky and have a collision, even just a minor one, you can be sure the other part will try and have you blamed in any thinkable way, regardless of reality. You need to know handling procedures to perfection and be able to formulate them in fluent Spanish, while possibly dealing with aggressive even violent behavior from the counterpart.

I lived 3 years in PTY and thank God never had to deal with anything unpleasant, but the stories of how non Spanish speaking foreigners (including foreign residents) were bullied in traffic are countless.

And the Panamanians gladly fight each other over traffic accidents.

It makes the Nicaraguans seem tame by comparison. I have a driver in Managua and he's said if we have an accident casually stroll to the curb while he waits for transit police and insurance and then slowly get out of there to a mall or whatever so they don't see a gringo was in the vehicle even if I wasn't driving and it's not my car.

I just booked a flight LAX-PTY-LIR in November, and we'll have about 4hrs 20min layover in PTY on a Sunday morning (8:11am - 12:30pm). Is that enough time to visit the Canal/Miraflores Locks on our layover?

Short answer: NO.

I agree that it's unfeasible. But... it's fun to consider the concept given that it's a Sunday morning, the only time to really try such a trek.

What if......
1) first class pax, and carefree vacation travelers.
2) close arrivals gate
3) early arrival from LAX (flightaware shows the last two Sunday arrivals at 7:30 a.m. and 8:33 a.m.) Let's say 8 a.m.
4) 15 min to clear immigration and customs (I've done this before, but I have no opinion on crowds at that hour). 8:15
5) PTY to Miraflores Visitor's center, google maps predicts 30-45 min. I'd say 30 min. 8:45
6) 1.5 hours at the locks (not sure if it's open, and be careful of the holidays 3-5 & 10 Nov). 10:15
7) Back to PTY, assume 45 minutes. Can't take Cinta Costera, closed on Sundays for bikes. 11:00 a.m.
8) Immigration and security on a Sunday morning. 30 minutes is very safe, and first class pax can use the Gold Lane. 11:30
9) 10 minutes walk to gate for LIR flight. 11:40

Doubtful that Copa will be boarding a 12:30 flight at that time. Their boarding passes always say an hour, but it's usually 30 minutes or so. If you're in first class, maybe you're not worried about overhead space and could board later.

Of course, the above is perfect timing, and you could hit a snafu with any of these projections above. But you could just take the next flight out, right? Which is at ..... oh, Thursday. Nevermind!

2) They are all close arrival gates but they sometimes use remote gates and a bus.
And they will board an hour before departure time. Copa often leaves before the departure time to keep their 90+% OTP.

Change to a later flight to LIR and improve the odds. Or do it on the return with a longer connection or stay a day extra.

Great information on this post. I am thinking of booking CM for the very first time on points for business so have a few questions; planned route is EZE - PTY - YYZ
1) how's CM's business class? worth spending the points? I see it is not a POD style seat so already a negative
2) I can choose between 1.5 hr vs 8 hr layover. 1.5 hr seems enough based on comments here as I do not have to clear immigration nor pick up luggage. But what about track record of on time (it is out of EZE so not much faith there) factoring in the need to clear gate security even for YYZ
3) Is the COPA lounge still under construction and hence not worth the 8 hr layover? Can I visit the canal if I take that route?

Thanks in advance

1) Some EZE flights have the new MAX9 with POD style lie-flat seats. These are easily identifiable with a MAX9 logo when choosing flights. Other flights might (should) have the 737-800 Version B, with better lounger seat and longer seat pitch, this is trickier to determine, only through evaluating the proposed seat map, and may change. CM coach still provides alcoholic beverages and a meal (2 on EZE flights I think).
3) The Copa lounge is long finished. Bigger, but still pretty uninspiring and certainly not worth planning for. An 8 hour layover permits a canal visit depending on avoiding rush hour.

Both topics are covered in several threads on this forum and in the Central America forum.

They hold YYZ if long haul inbound are late, I mean not forever, but they held it once 90 minutes when I was in PTY for a late flight in from Buenos Aires. They do not want 20+ people stranded in PTY for missing a once daily flight to Toronto. That said Copa has about a 92% OTP record and they shade the arrival times (hence the 92%) so I would not waste 8 hours on this contingency. 1 1/2 hours is boring enough. The lounge is as crowded as a bus station as well which does not add to the ambience.

If you are in the (short and fast) queue for the YYZ gates they are not shutting the door on you, clearly. And J gets to go ahead of Y.

I have no idea why they persist on this silly behaviour, other than to parrot the USA. It's fun to watch them chit chat with each other, you, anyone, while stuff goes through the x-ray with nobody looking at the screen. Computer out? Shoes off? Nah, don't bother.

SJO does nothing of the sort for AV or WS flights to Toronto (nor does HKG though they still segregate USA flights) so it's not all airports nor both countries, all the time.

And MGA has stopped with the segregated gates to MIA though they do "randomly" inspect people at the jetway, "randomly" being defined as people dumb enough to shove to the front to be first in boarding in J. I let 3 people take one for the team then never get stopped, so quite a foolproof system. SAL still does but it is amazing to watch them handle 500+ people at 7 a.m. in about 15 minutes. Like a Ford assembly line. I doubt it is all that thorough either.

Not to worry in PTY other than the gate areas post inspection are on the small side. Central America - the hobgoblin of inconsistency with this security theatre.