Copa’s short-haul business class offering isn’t competitive but the service is good and the seat has excellent padding for the short flight.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Thankful in The Bahamas
• WOW: Delta One Lounge LAX is Incredible
• Review: Delta One 767-300ER LAX-JFK
• Review: Delta One Lounge JFK
• Fun in the Sun: A Review of Grand Hyatt Baha Mar
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Breakfast Restaurants
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Dinner Restaurants
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Activities
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Pools and Beach
• Wet and Wild Excitement: Baha Bay Water Park
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar Thanksgiving Activities
• Review: Copa Airlines 737-800 Business Class NAS-PTY (this post)
• Review: Copa Club PTY Terminal 2
• Review: Copa Airlines 737-MAX 9 Business Class PTY-LAX

Booking

I needed to find a way to get back to Los Angeles from The Bahamas and stumbled across this particular routing of NAS-PTY-LAX on Copa using Air Canada miles. I booked this flight in January 2024, close to 11 months in advance because I needed four seats and it can be hard to find enough space for the whole family. The cost per ticket for business class was 35,000 Air Canada miles + about $150US in taxes and fees.

Compared to other options I found routing through the US in economy, it was only a small upcharge to have the experience be in business class. Plus it gives the interesting story of routing through Panama from a country that is just off the shore of Florida.

Earning Air Canada Miles

Air Canada runs a pretty useful program for North American residents. All the major transferrable credit card programs transfer their points over to Aeroplan, making it fairly easy to accrue their points. On top of that, Aeroplan also runs fairly frequent sales to purchase Air Canada miles at a reasonable cost. This all adds up to a program that makes it easy to do business, especially if you need to amass a large number of miles quickly. The following links include a referral that I may earn a commission from.

Some of the better current offers include:

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers 60,000 points plus a $300 travel credit for spending $4,000 in the first three months. Points transfer 1:1 to Aeroplan.

The Capital One Venture card offers a pretty decent sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles for spending $4,000 in the first three months, plus 2 miles per dollar spent. Points transfer 1:1 to Aeroplan.

Arrival and First Impressions

We arrived at Nassau Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS) to find a relatively busy economy line. The business class line was empty and though we stood in line, it seemed like no one was caring we were there for a few minutes as the staff kept requesting economy passengers to approach the counter. After close to 10 minutes of waiting, we were finally asked if we were traveling in business class and then immediately assisted. The impression I got was that they were used to people hanging out in the wrong line and just assumed that’s what we were doing.

Though we were flying on one ticket departing The Bahamas, transiting Panama on route to Los Angeles, we were only able to check in to the first segment and not the second. It took airport staff a bit to figure out the root cause, but they were able to check us in for the entire journey (as you would normally expect).

At NAS airport, the flights to the United States are in a separate terminal from all other flights (domestic Bahamas flights as well as international destinations) are in one terminal. All these flights meant a bit of a wait to clear security. There was no departure immigration or customs to clear in this terminal.

Note that there is a Priority Pass lounge available in this terminal (The Lignum Club at LPIA), but it doesn’t open until 10AM. With our flight departing in the morning, we weren’t able to check it out. Honestly, opening at 10AM seems a bit strange with all the morning flights that depart here.

The Seat

Copa Airlines boards flights an hour in advance of departing, even if the plane is on the smaller side. If you board with your group, expect to be sitting on the ground for quite a while before pulling back.

The business class seats on this flight were just recliner seats, but they were comfortable and had a lot of cushion, making it quite enjoyable for the roughly 2.5 hour journey (not including the time we were sitting around after boarding but before departing). Still, there was some wear and tear on the seats, most notably from the footrests that seemed to be stuck in different positions for each seat.

One unfortunate thing about sitting in this section is the complete lack of storage under the seat in front of you. You’re probably best off just taking the bulkhead seat on this plane.

In between the seats are the video monitors, which took a little bit of maneuvering and some elbow grease to get them placed in the fully upright position. Having the monitors placed in the back of the seat in front of you is the preferred location especially if you also have your tray table out to eat or work on a laptop.

Headphones are provided though they are of cheap quality. You’re better off just using your own if you brought some onboard. There are also blankets available if you need them, but we didn’t feel the need.

On the inside of the seat are the simple controls to adjust your seat. Just press the button and then move your seat into the desired position. I found the footrest controls the most difficult to use.

Still, there is a good amount of pitch and recline for a short flight.

Above the seat are individual air nozzles and a reading light.

Food

Before takeoff, we were offered a predeparture beverage of either orange juice (not freshly squeezed) or water. Though I’m not of Hispanic descent, I often get a lot of people assuming I know perfect Spanish based on my looks. I know enough Spanish to get by but I am certainly not fluent enough to carry a rapid conversation. The interaction here was no different, with the flight attendant addressing me in Spanish to start the conversation and when I had to offer a lo siento in return, he spoke perfect English to me after that point.

On our climb, we were able to get one last look at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar sitting on the port side of the plane.

For lunch service, we were offered a choice of boneless barbeque chicken or a chicken sandwich. If you’re not a fan of chicken, you’re a bit out of luck on this flight.

The barbeque chicken is essentially chicken nuggets with some BBQ sauce spread on it. The best approximation I can give for it is to think of McDonald’s chicken nuggets, make them a little bit thicker, and then remove the crispiness from them by bringing them home, putting them into the fridge, and then reheating them in the microwave. The dish comes with some hummus, which was on the milder side, and some crispy cheese crackers. The pictured drink is POG juice (passion orange guava) as though we were on a flight in Hawaii.

The chicken sandwich is served cold and is an interesting mix of chicken salad, cheese, and strawberry jelly. If they scrapped the chicken salad portion of it and opted just for some slices of shaved chicken and heated the dish so you get some melt on the cheese and added on perhaps a bit more jelly, I think you would have something that would remind me of a nice holiday turkey sandwich. The dish came with a side salad and the same crispy cheese crackers. Naturally, I opted for the local Panamanian beer to go with it.

Given the above two options for food, it’s probably not a surprise that Copa’s catering was the least aspirational part of the flight. Then again, it’s not like the US carriers have great meals on offer for flights under three hours.

Entertainment

When turning on the monitors, you get a lovely warning that pressing the screen too much may cause it to malfunction. Yes, the system is a bit slow and it’s unclear sometimes if I actually pressed the button or not given the slowness, but I don’t recall it taking more than a second to register each press.

So what’s being offered to watch on this flight? Not much at all. I counted about three dozen movies and a small selection of TV shows available. For kids, the choices drop to just four movies and four TV shows. This is definitely a flight where you will want to bring your own entertainment, but it’s a short flight so I can somewhat forgive the lack of content.

The TV monitors do need to be stored half an hour before landing once the plane begins its initial descent.

Service

I thought the service on this flight was quite good, with the lone flight attendant serving the cabin being incredibly attentive and offered personalized service. At one point on the flight, I spilled Char’s POG juice on myself as I tried to help her with her tray. Before I said anything, the flight attendant noticed the spill while he was in the galley (perhaps he caught the noise of the glass falling into the seat) and immediately emerged with towels. He also promptly offered Char some more juice.

Every interaction with employees ended with a smile and where this flight lacked with catering, I think they more than made up for it with the friendly service.

Shortly after meals were served, we were offered chocolates to thank us for joining them on the flight. Adorably, these were chocolate dart frogs that had a bit of a hint of cinnamon to them.

Finally, again sitting on the port side is where all the action is as we got to see the Panama Canal in the distance as we landed. One day I’ll take a cruise through here…

Recommendation: Not Worth the Upcharge

The plane interior is dated and the catering leaves me wanting more, so it’s hard to call this product aspirational. I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to fly this route in business class. That said, the seat is still comfortable and I found the service to be quite enjoyable.

Booking this specific segment in business class wasn’t the intent of the journey (that would be the longer PTY-LAX flight still to come) and I wouldn’t have been upset at all if this particular segment wasn’t available in business class. It’s a short flight and while it’s certainly more comfortable being up front than in the back, it’s not worth the upcharge if you’re debating between business and economy class on this flight.

Have you flown Copa Airlines before?