What do you do when you book COPA biz class. and you are told you are not allowed to receive a BP because you are "too intoxicated"? You then later approach the desk, after having slept 2h, and they willing push a BP on to you -- in Y. In the back row of Y. I asked "later flight in business" and was basically told go f*** myself . WHY?

Also, these idiots lost my bag,

You be grateful that they let you take a later flight without charge, if only in economy, despite being unfit to fly your original itinerary

At what airport did this occur? And in what part of the airport? At the check-in desk outside security? At a service counter inside the terminal? The gate?

Using the copa app to get a mobile boarding pass might have reduced the amount of interaction, although it appears you checked bags.

This seems unclear to me: did they rebook you on a later flight in Y after your nap, and you asked for an even later flight in J?

No good deed goes unpunished. You refer to the carrier which chose to allow you to fly without purchasing a new ticket as "idiots"?

PTY, at the checkin desk. I had an overnight stopover so the folks in my originating city couldn't produce a BP there.


Correct, they booked be on a later (mid afternoon) flight in Y back row, despite asking for J (when there was availability on the evening flight).

Yes - they are idiots. They lost my bag.

1) COPA has service?

2) COPA has a service center inside PTY? News to me! I had to use the lounge as a service center.

Count yourself lucky. Public intoxication is a criminal offense in Panam�. You might have instead enjoyed the hospitality of the 'foreigner's jail' provided by Migraci�n or the more 'authentic' environment of the public lockup provided as a public service by Polic�a Nacional. I have been known to prepare for my flight with one (or four) strong adult beverages before going to the airport, so one has to be pretty 'lit' to be refused a boarding pass for drunkenness.

COPA has multiple service centers inside the terminals, but you may have missed them due to your inebriated state, or were distracted by the women who dress to impress when they travel. Most (not all) generally try to be helpful, but the plethora of rude foreigners can ruin anyone's enthusiasm.

They probably put you in the back row for safety reasons, such as proximity to toilets in the event of 'airsickness' brought on by too many mojitos.

Yes, at least two, maybe more. I'm talking about simple desks with two persons in the middle of the terminals where agents can assist with rebookings and the like.

When did they lose your bag? Upon arrival in PTY for your overnight stopover, or in your final destination?

Ummm.... should I understand this was a "morning" flight for which you were denied boarding? Was this decision purely from a single agent, or do they need some supervisor to get involved?

Those service desks are basically impossible to find. Not well marked well at all. Thank goodness I had lounge access.

They lost it upon arrival in PTY for overnight stopover, or more accurately, failed to put it on the same plane I was to take back to the US. (They didn't put it on the flight I was originally supposed to take either). This created a massive headache for me as upon arrival at my final destination, my bad was not there - and had to fill out all sorts of property irregularity reports to to COPA's failure to positive-passenger bag match. I don't know how an airline can be so inept.

It was the morning flight for which I was unable to board. Got the boarding pass, went to immigration/security, and at some point there was sent back to the COPA desk, had my BP taken from me, and told to go take a nap. You're right that it could have been much worse (especially since it was the security authorities who deemed me "unfit"), but getting yelled at in Spanish by COPA didnt really help, as I had no friggen clue what they were trying to tell me.

Weird that whole speaking Spanish business in a place like Panama. I wonder why they would speak that? Maybe the OP thought he was in Panama City Florida, and even then there'd be more than a few speaking Spanish there also. If you heard "borracho" and "payaso" or "tonto" they were referring to a drunken clown or fool. I think being unable to board for being drunk you were lucky to get a seat at all even next to the bogs vs. them calling the police and having you removed.

Besides the lounge, there are customer service desks at the end of A (north) and B (South) near gates 19 and 26, respectively.

This is not correct, I was coming once from Amsterdam to Panama with a 23 hours layover in Panama and at arrival in Panama I was some kind of drunk, because of feeling bad and have been drunking all the flight.
The reason was the dead of my father during my vaccation abroad.
I was so drunk that even I didnt recognized that I have landed in Panama, I was thinking I am in Bogota. :-)
This was my next destination the other day.

Every body was so kind at immigration and beyond, no problem with Police.
I was able to take the Taxi to the InterContinental and even made a friendship with the taxi driver , he picked me up next day from the Hotel.