If you want to know what a COPA traveling experience could be – It is not a piece of cake nor anywhere close to my cup of tea

Dear Blog readers, Finally I have managed to renew my domain name so here we go again

Recently 48 hours did put all my travel skills through a phenomenal stress test, But finally I ended up on the last flight home after 7 flights in 48 hours and all kinds of hassles on the road. It is clear to me that my first experience which COPA Airlines of Panama most likely is the last also, for a large number of reasons. Their logo is almost a replica of the Continental one, even use same font for the company name, but there all similarities stop. COPA turned out to be one of those non-dependable airlines, with poor understanding for road warrior needs and an attitude towards their customers that was absolutely stunning. The abbreviation seems to stand for Can Only Punish Airpassengers.

My reflection of having traveled with the SkyTeam group and the smaller airlines in Central America is that connections at the Central American “Hub-look-a-likes” should be avoided as far as possible for a number of reasons:
* On-time flights in the region are rare and highly unlikely (4 out of my 7 flights delayed more than 30 minutes and 2 by more than 2 hours) and a root causes from travel disturbances. This during late with clear weather, mid day traveling and very little passengers and airports.
* Few alternatives are available if you miss the connections in Bogota, Panama City, San Jose or Mexico City, where the options to major metropolises often are restricted to 2 per day.
* Poor integration of ticketing systems and boarding pass systems, especially within the Sky Team group, with COPA as the worst example, It is clear that their associate status in the Sky Team alliance signals significantly lower capabilities and status with regards to what you experience from the Big three alliances at their major hubs and airline members.
* Un-experienced staff in the customer services centers blended with a too stong Latin service mentality leave you on your own to find and re-book your connections.
* Smaller airports that are primarily feeders to the hubs are facing clear challenges in feeding Hubs across country borders, so if needed avoided them for cross country.
* Do not expect any preference to be secured or even given with premium status in the affected airlines, never have I seen my cards having such a low impact in the recovery process

As a direct result I think I have to refine the list of required pre-cautions and formulated the following new guidelines for hassle free traveling for days requiring triple and/or quadruple flights in a day
* Make sure that all flights are on the same ticket and the issuing party is the major airline in the alliance, i.e. Delta/KLM/AirFrance in Sky Team, AA/BA in One World and LH/United in Star Alliance
* Make sure that the reservation allows you to get ALL, without any exemptions, Boarding passes at the first point of check-in. Print the boarding passes in advance if possible or get them at first check in but do not leave the first airport without all Boarding passes for all the flights during the day in your hands. Any missing Boarding pass introduce a risk of having to leave the secure areas and/or expose you to challenges in case of re-ticketing.
* Make sure that you have all “Check-in” closure times explicitly printed out, Mot airlines do not publish them and confront you with more or less relevant “deadlines” that you can not judge/justify.
* Add 30 minutes extra check-in margin for your first flight on Triple/Quadruple flights days to get all required details in place at the first check-in desk.
* Always travel in sports shoes, running at airports to recover late incoming flights, is becoming the recovery norm more than anything else,
* Make sure that you have back-up routes, including flight numbers, in place for at least one recovery rout per potential delay incident.
* Schedule meals break on your route for Triple/Quad flight days. The nutirition standard on 2h flights or shorter is not down to soft drinks and soft drinks only.
* Adjust your hand luggage standard to the fact they that 737/MD-80 fleets are to a large extent being replaced by regional jet options for feeder flights and as normal never ever check luggage.
* When mixing Business and vacation flights, make sure you add vacation flights to business flights, never the other way around.

After all a happy camper that managed to get away without any dealys on the final return flight but the price this time was very high
* Three new flight tickets bought en route to recover from service desk abilities to re-book and re-issue tickets. Totally unacceptable!
* All phone calls to own 24h travel agency helpdesk, and pre-defined charges plus waiting & talking times at $4 per phone minute.
* Awkward transiting times waiting for clarity and options, e.g. 6h during day in Panama City, 4h during evening in San Jose and 5h at night in Mexico City. Acceptable if service is OK but not acceptable if you have to all work on your own and pay for it.!!!

Soon a new story subject to address……