After arriving at Tocumén airport from Puerto Vallarta, I have to wait 20 hours for my connecting flight to my hometown Rosario.
So I reserved a hotel near the airport. There are 3 hotels and one B&B nearby. I chose the intermediate option: the Riande Aeropuerto Hotel & Casino: excellent choice.
My room on the uppper level with pool view
Pool area with beatiful landscape
After enjoying the pool, it´s time to take the free shuttle to the airport. In a few minutes I arrive at PTY.
I ordered a local beer to enjoy the view.
Welcome to Copa land!
New terminal in construction at sight.
It´s boarding time but no calling at all; after a few minutes they make the announcement: there is a change of aircraft. The new gate is on the other side of airport, the delay is of approximately 25 minutes.
After arriving at home I received an e-mail from Copa appologizing for the inconvenience, and wanting to know how the situation was handled by the airline.
Finally on board! Again emergency exit row for me, at no extra charge.
Special livery for our neighbor: Panama´s soccer association 737-800.
Waiting for our turn
High above the clouds
No personal tv in this flight, movies, games, music and the map are available via portable devices: Copa uses just one app for ticketing and entertainment purposes.
At tea time a hot lunch is served; pasta and chicken for me, I believe the other option was meat and rice.
Before landing another hot meal was available: chicken sandwich and something with meat; I think it was a burrito, no pics of that.
Disembarking at ROS
Our bird from the platform
Thanks for this FR.
Wow 6 hour on a 737 doesn't sound like the best flight but Copa still brings a lot of connectivty and competition to secondary markets in South America.
The meals look pretty good too.
Copa is a nice company with great puntuality
Can you tell me a bit about the entertainment offered? Did the streaming video work on the 737 without seatback screens? Thanks!
Hi AirlineFlyer, the entertainment works fine, with a good selection of movies plus another things; and of course the moving map.
Auch! Un 737 para un viaje tan largo! Lo bueno es que ibas sobre el ala, donde se mueve menos! Encuentro genial que Copa conecte ciudades más pequeñas o que no son capitales de países. Creo que tienen más visión que latam en ese aspecto. De hecho, apenas hace unos meses latam empezó a volar entre Santiago y San José de Costa Rica, por ejemplo. Two thumbs up para Copa. Ahora sólo falta que arreglen un poco el menú. Jajjja
Gracias por compartir!
Hola Nelson, años atrás volé la ruta EZE_PTY así que no me sorprende hacerlo en un 737. También volé la ruta EZE_PUJ via CCS en 737-800 de AR. Respecto al servicio es bastante decente, a juzgar por el catering que dan la mayoriá de las líneas aéreas al día de hoy.
Saludos
Hola Fernando, gracias por compartir este reporte interesante.
Antes de nada, felicidades por sobrevivir este vuelo tan largo en 737! Jajajaja.
Granted, it's the same fuselage cross-section as a 757 and those do 7h+ runs regularly, so I guess it's not so bad. I'm not a huge fan of the pre-merger Continental blue-checkered seat covers...they feel very 90's, and look out of place with the modern look of the Boeing Sky Interior and mood lighting.
As we're now seeing this trend in the industry of not installing PTVs, or ripping them out (grrr), in favor of streaming IFE on PEDs, it would be nice to see more carriers installing seats with tablet/smartphone holders on seatbacks. Streaming IFE is definitely better than no IFE, but I still much prefer PTVs...I guess I'm old school.
It's nice that COPA serves Rosario nonstop from PTY...certainly convenient for you to be able to avoid going through EZE or another larger airport.
Saludos
Hi Kevin, thanks again for your comments!
Hola! Gracias por este reporte, me encanta que cada vez haya mas reportes desde/hacia ROS!
Que tal estaba la app de entretenimiento? Siempre pense que los 737 que mandaban a ROS venian con pantallas...
Saludos!
Hola Viajero, in the page they warned that the flight ROS-PTY doesn`t offer PTV. The app is quite good, but no a lot of music as LATAM offeris. They offered a special section with movies of Panama City cinema Festival and it was very good.
Saludos!
Hi again, please don`t forget to read my other fr: the PVR-PTY leg.
Bye