SFO_FT

YadiMolina

Not me, and I receive, and review, most of the Copa promotionals emails I receive (and I hold CPA). I saw something that said SFO was their "dedictated" route or something.Tooling around on the reservation page, I see they note the MAX flights on the search results. I only saw the icon for all SFO flights, and one LAX flight, and a couple of EZE flights, but not for BOS, LAS, YUL, or SCL, as examples. They only have ~3 aircraft and will be adding a handful in 2019.

bruce3404

I just booked LAX-PTY via UAL miles. I'm on the Copa website at the moment selecting seats and the aircraft description specifically says "Boeing 737 MAX 9". BTW, thanks for the great review pmarrsouth.

Alfonso XIV

I just flew BOG-PTY-ORD in Business, on March 03. The BOG-PTY leg was on the 737-MAX 9, and it's a very nice hard product. Yes, the foot well is a little small, and there is no direct aisle access from a window seat, but overall it's a competitive and very comfortable business-class seat. I liked my window seat very much.

The PTY-ORD leg was on a 737-800, and the 1990s-era business class seat is as depressing as it gets. Cabin service was equally lackluster and unimpressive.

Perhaps it's too much to expect that the in-flight magazine be reasonably up-to-date, but on the page listing it's fleet, it said COPA only had ONE 737-MAX 9. Recent reports on this thread indicate otherwise.

About lounges- the small COPA lounge in Bogotá was virtually empty for a good three hours, and how pleasant that was. We had an hour to kill in PTY, and I have never seen any lounge, in the world, more crowded, loud, and an absolutely intolerable zoo. Worse than the MIA Admirals' Club. Sitting in the main terminal at the gate was more pleasant than being in the lounge.

At the boarding gate for PTY-ORD, there was full-on security with luggage x-ray and metal detection for passengers. That was an unexpected pain point. And can anyone explain why, AT THE GATE, they were making everyone throw away plastic water bottles, including empty ones?

YadiMolina

Copa grounds their MAX9s and the aeronautical authority bans the craft. Also mentions they now have 6 MAX9 aircraft.
https://www.prensa.com/economia/Copa...257724201.html

pmarrsouth

Yup, 2 to SFO most days and 2-3 a day to EZE

Will be interesting to see what happens with the SFO route now with regards to comp upgrades etc. If this grounding lasts for more than a week or so, then its no longer a dedicated MAX9 route. I'll contact them later next week about it if they have not changed anything

Brandinho1

yoyobigo

I'm confused, because FlightAware is still saying the SFO-PTY route is 737-900s for CMP209.

Is this wrong? What planes are they now?

pmarrsouth

The newer of the 737-800s (better recliner business class seats, no row 11)

Regarding why they are not 737Max9s currently, please check google re flight groundings 737Max

yoyobigo

Thanks for the response! I'm still confused. I thought earlier in an earlier post in this thread you said that when Copa says 737-900 they mean the MAX 9s because they don't have other 737-900s? Are you saying that they're actually just the -800s? (What I think Seatguru calls the 800v2)?

Any link to what the business class seats are like? I guess they're not the lie flats we were hoping for :-(

pmarrsouth

I still do mean that when Copa says 737-900 they mean the MAX9s. All MAX planes around the world are now grounded, both MAX8 and MAX9. This occurred over the last couple of days. Copa will not currently fly these MAX9s. They are now using the newest of their -800s for SFO (and I believe EZE routes)

The seats are grand, lot of space, very decent recline for such a seat. Definitely not lie-flats. Do not choose row 1 or row 4 imo. Row 1 has the bulkhead, and it can be a bit close. Row 4 does not have the same recline as rows 1-3 imo. Row 2 and 3 should be the exact same. I usually pick 2A, so that I get my first choice of meal, and I prefer window

You can tell you are on one of these planes, rather than the older, less recline & legroom, 737-800s by checking the seat map and looking for row 11. If there is a row 11, then you are on the older model. If there is no row 11, then you are on the newer model

Copa were lazy (or hot fixed) their seat maps yesterday when they grounded their MAX9s for the SFO and EZE routes. They actually still had the MAX9 seat map image being displayed, with the name changed to just 737. However I just checked now, and they have updated it to the 737-800 seat map. No row 11, so its the newer models

yoyobigo

Okay thanks for the explanation!

pmarrsouth

They just replied on twitter to me that the comp upgrades are done on a flight to flight basis. The system will see if its a MAX9 or not and will either have the normal upgrade policy (5 days / 120 hours for Presidential) or MAX9 policy (starts at 48 hours) - though this does directly conflict what they told me on the 8th January 2019, when they said that its based on route, not on the aircraft

They confirmed that since the MAX9 is grounded, all to/from SFO flights are back to the normal comp upgrade policy

They said that they passed this information to the ConnectMiles team to clarify the information on their site

gbongc

I booked a flight that had a segment from SFO-PTY on the MAX9 (flying next month). I called into Copa and they said they aren't able to refund my nonrefundable ticket. How did you manage to get them to refund your ticket?

Brandinho1