If I were CM, I would be looking for a partner to distinguish me from AV. The obvious candidate is Delta in a similar relationship to the one they now have with UA, or their own program as a member of ST.

Copa's quality of service is a good match for what Delta passengers now seem to expect, and Delta is definitely lacking in South American access. It could be a win/win move.

With Latin American airlines as their primary competitors, don't look for Copa to be changing their mileage-flown based RDM policy any time soon. It would be suicidal for them to attempt such a move alone. While Copa probably carries the largest number of O/D North American pax of all Latin American airlines, their flights are still filled with mostly Latin Americans.

... and how is Delta's 2015 program any different? CM can still opt out of the miles per $ game on their flights unless ticketed on 016 stock. Wouldn't be any different w/ 006 tickets.

Exactly the point. Since UA has dismantled the big advantage of being aligned with M+ for those connecting to UA for domestic USA travel, CM's only distinguishing factor is their mileage-based earning when compared to AV.

Delta would be a more consistent partner in terms of flight experience, and it would separate the two programs completely in the eyes of Latin Americans who never set foot in North America. For those pax, they are currently offering identical benefits.

I have long thought that the entry of AV into *A probably caused a lot of resentment at Copa, who has been a long time valuable partner in this region. While it was good for Gringos and Canadians, it probably made things a bit harder on Copa. Joining DL/ST would at least give different benefits to the passengers of the two competitors.

Whether or not those benefits are better would be an individual decision for each passenger. Keep in mind that Copa was a ST member prior to the merger decision by CO/UA, and they did just fine with that alliance.

This has to be the dumbest thing I have ever read on the internet.

Your update at MP via VFTW.....

http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/...-1-2015.90452/

Overall, seems like Jeff wants us to fly Copa. Alrighty then!

Next MVD and EZE for me is on CM.. That's an easy one now.. Happy Fathers Day to all and Safe Travels..

^^^^ Unless one is spending way more money than necessary and puts extremely high value on lay-flat J seats, it is definitely a no-brainer. Just check with me before booking please, as I don't want any new competition for my CPUs.

The only other issue is scheduling. O/D dependent, sometimes Copa has really easy schedules, but sometimes they are pretty challenging. I really dislike that the only way to fly to ORD is to accept an arrival after midnight, for example.

The only U.S. trip I currently have booked which is outside my personal CM-Only rule is a July return from DFW-SJO and back because my current situation requires that I only travel on weekend days unless nothing else is available.

Funny thing is that I got my one and only ever TOD UG offer on that booking at $49 each way, so naturally I snagged it. Because it's a July out and August in booking, I'll earn the 150% bonus on PQMs AND RDMs. The original fare was only $650 a.i., and I was planning on applying RPUs and hoping for the best. $98 for a lock on that ticket beats using 2 RPUs for a maybe in my book. I have no idea what prompted them to make that offer, as the lowest J fare was a few hundred higher still. The only negative is that it is priced as an add-on, so the $98 won't count toward PQD, but as a Latin American resident, it doesn't affect me anyway.

While I'm glad it worked out that way, it's not enough to sway me. I have since purchased BOS-PTY-MDE-PTY-BOS on CM, and I'll continue to do so as long as CM remains in M+.

With two key exceptions - no Wi-Fi and no TSA Pre-Ceck - CM offers a far superior travel experience with much better reliability than UA. I know that they are working on getting Pre-Check. WiFi, because of their core market, is probably going to be a considerably more distant addition.

United remains, far and away, the best USA partner Copa Airlines could possibly have. Delta's loyalty program brings the same challenges as the proposed changes to MileagePlus...and Delta's hub network is far less useful to Copa (Add MSP/DTW/SLC-PTY? And lose codeshares and/or feed on EWR/IAH/DEN/YYZ/YUL-PTY? Not gonna happen.).

I don't think you understand CM's US strategy. They fly nonstop from numerous US gateways to their PTY hub (including many non-UA hubs, such as BOS, JFK, MIA, MCO, TPA, LAS, etc.). They also take UA feed from EWR and IAH into PTY. Their strategy is not dependent on the location of UA's hubs. Apart from the historical CO connection, they could easily swap DL for UA.

They're also one of the most profitable airlines on earth, so most likely they don't see a need to make radical changes just because we're all mad at Jeff.

I hope united keeps elite bonus on opaque fare tickets and copa,lh group, ana and ac.100%,75%,50%,25% respectively.

Copa has been trying to divorce MP for about 6 months now, and still plans to within the next year or so. The problem is, creating a new loyalty program from scratch is very expensive, and CM is very cost conscious. So it will be interesting on many levels since MP is so intertwined between the carriers. How does CM carry over certain customers? Not all Copa MP customers are in panama, will they let customers choose? It's a unique situation for sure.

FWIW - The last COPA annual report that I read (2012) said that their contract with MP runs through 2015. They did not say anything about whether they hoped to extend it or not.

While there is certainly expense associated with setting up a new program, I am sure there are outsourcing companies that can handle the whole thing. God help us if COPA IT is given the task. There would still be a lot of marketing costs, of course. And, as noted above, the divorce would be messy - maybe lots of COPA-only fliers with miles orphaned with UA. One thing we don't know are the exit provisions of the contract with MP, so maybe it won't be as bad as I expect.

One thing COPA would get with their own program is the opportunity to sell miles. If the AV forum is to be believed, a lot of people are buying Lifemiles to use on other airlines.

Personally, I would prefer they stay with MP, as I don't need the complication of tracking an additional program. Also, if I chose to go with one or the other, then I lose privileges with one of the airlines. For me, even though I fly roughly the same number of miles on CM and UA, I would probably stick with UA since I would rather have the privileges during travel in the USA and the occasional Asia trip. That said, I'm on an AA EXP challenge right now, and plan to split my flying between OW and *A in the future. If the change makes life tougher, I probably go with AA. As a Colombia resident, I would also take another look at AV too.

Why?

Copa copied some of the worst decisions from CO -- dated interiors, uncomfortable Y seats, a 1991 paint job, a lame logo in a square, and they even use SHARES (which is a joke of a platform in the industry). They clearly had no standards and needed guidance. It's quite obvious.

Now that they're more established and have made some changes (e.g., EMB aircraft, new J seats for longer-haul, etc.), it's clear they're starting to revisit some of these things. The talk about the discontent with MileagePlus is another example.

CO might have helped Copa ages ago, but they've learned a thing or two since then. Maybe it is time for them to fledge.

Same here. I am now exclusively flying CM for my trips to LatAm, a mix of C/D/B/M fares, at the tune of $8K or more/year. M+, CPUs/ability to use M+ instruments to upgrade and PQD accrual balance the occasional 5 to 6 hours on a 73G or 738A and the less than ideal schedules (e.g. planes arriving, leaving at 2:00 AM) or long connections in Panama if flying to BOS, IAD, ORD. If CM leaves M+, I would probably revert to flying UA (gasp), with an occasional CM thrown in. Even with the drastically reduced network and less than stellar product, I still need UA for my US/Europe/Asia travel, and I rather keep 1K with it. If CM were to leave *A, I would probably not fly them again.

Safe travels to all