Review of Copa Airlines flight from Buenos Aires to Panamá City in Economy

Hi everyone! Welcome to my latest series of reports from my trip to NYC last October.
Originally, this trip was scheduled for may 2020 and it also included a week in Canada. But of course, due to COVID pandemic it all changed. I bought this ticket in October 2019. It sounds like it was ages ago.

When Argentina closed its borders, I contacted the airline to cancel the flights and hold my ticket. Their changes policy permitted 3 free changes of date up to December 2021. All this time I had the intention to use this ticket, but my county´s air travel policy became extremely unpredictable. They set a quota of 7000 arriving passengers arriving a week only though the main international airport (Ezeiza). Because of this, airlines had to ask for permission to the government to schedule their flights. This meant that I only knew exactly which dates I was flight only 5 days before the flight (when my flights got approved).

Thankfully, now Argentina has opened its borders and most of the international airports. Almost a month after the ending of my trip

As I mentioned before, we are still living the pandemic. To get to USA I needed to get a COVID test, I got it in my city 2 days before the flight. I also had to complete a declaration to exit Argentina, saying that because I was traveling during the pandemic I wouldn´t recieve consular assistance to get back to the country.

The date of the flight I arrived the airport in a shuttle from my city, Rosario. I arrived almost 6 hours before the flight.

Ezeiza Airport COVID Testing place

Brand new Terminal B. They say it will open somewhen in 2022

I had some time to kill, so I walked along the landside Terminal, I went upstairs to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Café. I had some mac and cheese with chicken breast. I wasn’t as good as I expected.

Finally at 21.45 COPA´s check in counters opened. I was asked by the agent to present my USA visa, my COVID test, an Argentinean migrations form, and another USA declaration I had no idea I had to fill (I did It over the counter). The agent took my luggage and gave my two boarding passes.

Just a few flights tonight. AA to JFK and TK to GRU and IST. On terminal C there was just an AR flight to MIA

It was still very early for my flight. I went upstairs again to pass through security and migrations. Security was very fast, but migrations seemed very disorganized, and it took a while.

Once on the airside, I wandered around. There were still more than 2 hours to board the flight.
I checked the duty-free shop; it was nice as always.

The empty terminal looked a bit scary. No people, and no planes…kind of apocalyptic vibes.

Travel basics for nowadays. I forgot to mention that masks were mandatory inside the Terminal and on board the flights.

I discovered a Burger King branch I didn’t know they had at EZE. So, I bought an ice cream.

They were boarding TK Boeing 777 to GRU and IST. I took this flight 7 years ago on my trip to Israel.

I found a nice spot to sit and rest before my flight

At 00.20 boarding was started. I was sitting on the last rows of this Boeing 737MAX 9. So, I was on one of the first boarding groups. My seat was 28F.

It called my attention that in the middle rows there were the flight attendants of the PTY EZE flight, apparently, they bring onboard two crews. And the previous flight crew just goes back as passengers. The same thing I noticed on the PTY EZE flight I took a couple of days later.

The legroom seemed OK to me (I am 1,75m tall). But the space felt too cramped for a 7-hour flight. The plane was packed full.

Too sad to see this aircraft doesn’t have PTVs. Only the first 3 rows of seats I think they have. The rest of the seats have a support to put your mobile or tablet as a PTV and an USB outlet.
We took off at 01.30 and had some nice views of the lights of Buenos Aires and its surroundings.
At 01.00 the captain greeted us and we taxied out of the terminal.

We took off at 01.30 and had some nice views of the lights of Buenos Aires and its surroundings.

Before I fell asleep, I checked the inflight entertainment system on Wi-Fi. As they don’t offer anymore the paper magazine you can read it on your device. I also found a cool air show.

COPA´s flight routes. They used to have flights to four other Argentinean cities besides Buenos Aires. Now they announced they are returning to COR and MDZ (still missing ROS, my home city airport and SLA).

Somewhere over Santiago del Estero I fell asleep.

I woke up at 4 hours later when they started the meal service. I found to be a terrible timing, we still had 3 hours of flight and most people were sleeping.

The meal box included a sandwich, a cereal bar, a yogurt, and a hand sanitizing little towel. They served hot drinks, juices, water and soft drinks. I took a tea and an apple juice. A little bit cheap. I know they used to offer hot sandwiches before the pandemic.

Then I tried to sleep a little more. I woke up at 06.10 Panama time. And the captain announced we were descending. On the app I could check my connecting gate. I only had 30-ish minutes to get to the gate.

Finally at 06.50 we landed on Panama City Tocumen International Airport.

Once the crew let us turn off the airplane mode of my iPhone, I received an email from the airline telling me which gate I had to get.
I got of the aircraft and started to run the gate for my JFK flight. When I got there, it was the last call. But I could made it through security and then I boarded.