What’s the definition of “luxurious” if you’ve been touring for 8, 12, 16 hours already and also you’re going through an extended layover at an airport? Your hierarchy of wants most likely has an entire completely different record of things than it would if you’ve lastly gotten to the place you’re going. The Copa Membership Lounge on the Panama Metropolis airport goes to look like heaven.
The primary time I went to a Copa Membership Lounge within the Panama Metropolis Airport, I had been on the transfer because the afternoon earlier than and had arrived on an in a single day flight. So there was one amenity right here that actually received me excited: a scorching bathe. You inform the entrance desk you need to use the lads’s or girls’s bathe they usually open it up for you.
As soon as inside, you’ve received an area to your self that’s like a resort room lavatory, with a bathroom, sink, and bathe stuffed with toiletries. I went in feeling like a sweaty unshaven bum. I got here out feeling like a person able to tackle the world. Then I received an excellent breakfast and a few espresso and sat in a cushty house with charging retailers.
How a lot would that be value to you?
Copa Airways is our best choice for many flights within the Americas, partly due to the airline itself, partly due to the Star Alliance affiliation, and in addition the handy hub location in Panama Metropolis. When you’re flying to South America, a cease in Panama breaks the journey up properly they usually have a stopover program if you wish to add on one other vacation spot.
When you’re flying enterprise class on Copa Airways, have Gold standing with them or through a Star Alliance associate, or have already got entry to United Membership lounges via a premium bank card, it received’t value you something. I used to be lucky sufficient to be touring with a visitor who had excessive Star Alliance standing on my most up-to-date go to, so I used to be capable of enter with him as a companion. See the total record of who’s certified to enter right here.
In the event that they’re not full, that is now a part of the Precedence Go program, together with the opposite Copa lounge in a unique terminal. The Copa Lounge in Terminal 2 holds 420 individuals, so that you normally received’t get turned away. If all else fails although, there are two extra choices within the two terminals via Precedence Go: The Lounge Panama and Tocumen Royal Saloon.
The Newer Copa Lounge in Terminal 2
Earlier this decade, a brand new terminal opened in Panama Metropolis and it’s a giant enchancment. The terminal doesn’t really feel like two parallel hallways of duty-free outlets and nothing else. It has much more pure gentle and excessive ceilings, with higher locations to eat. Maybe the most important enchancment although is a Copa Membership Lounge that’s virtually twice as massive because the previous one.
When you’re in, you get a spot to chill out, quick Wi-Fi, and snacks. There’s an precise bar to sit down at and lounge chairs the place you’ll be able to look out on the runways. There are magazines to learn, computer systems to make use of, and a somewhat sparse household room that appears primarily designed to maintain the smallest ones out of the hair of enterprise vacationers. There are bathe services right here if it’s good to refresh and lockable storage lockers should you don’t need to carry your suitcase round, together with open cabinets.
As you’ll be able to see from the photograph on the high, it’s fairly spacious and none of it feels cramped. It has actually taken the expertise of ready in your outbound flight up a number of notches.
That is now Copa’s largest lounge, with greater than 20,000 sq. toes and a capability of round 420 individuals. Whether or not that looks like sufficient or not depends upon if you arrive. Once I was there within the morning the place was half full. However different worldwide guests have reported that the lounge was packed to capability after they visited, with problem discovering an empty chair anyplace.
The foods and drinks are simply so-so. I used to be anticipating extra from a brand new lounge like this that’s catering to enterprise class vacationers, however like Panamanian delicacies itself, it was uninspiring total. Typical native beer, typical native meals, and never a lot of a variety.
It felt just like the previous United lounges in Houston earlier than they began getting extra beneficiant. However possibly there’s some good rum on the bar should you’re into that; it was too early and I didn’t examine. All I noticed had been espresso machines, soda machines, low cost tea, and water.
They spent most of their cash on the decor and furnishings it appears, with the attractive house stuffed with good leather-based furnishings and actual vegetation. Some areas are meant for enjoyable and socializing, whereas others have retailers at each seat for plugging in a laptop computer or recharging the cellphone/pill. There’s a “Quiet Room” with prolonged lounge chairs if it’s good to nap and 4 non-public workplace areas if it’s good to do video calls.
General this can be a nice retreat to chill out in, supplied you’re not a foodie anticipating “flagship lounge” delicacies such as you would get within the Center East, Asia, or Europe. Since even Terminal 2 in Tocumen Airport is healthier for buying than anything, this can be a good retreat from the unrelenting consumerism.
The Authentic Terminal 1 Copa Lounge in Panama
Once I first visited the Copa Lounge at Panama Metropolis’s airport, it was the one one. Just a few years in the past they opened up the brighter and newer second terminal profiled above and many of the worldwide flights at the moment are going out and in of there. In case you have a flight from Terminal 1 although, home or close by, you’ll be checking into the T1 Copa lounge as a substitute.
Terminal 1 of this airport is extra like an outlet mall than a global vacationers’ hub. When you’ve explored the restricted choices within the quick meals courtroom and seemed on the identical 5 responsibility free outlets that maintain showing in numerous components of the terminal, there’s not a lot that’s going to carry your curiosity. You would possibly as effectively hit the lounge and get some work executed or learn a e-book in consolation.
This older one will really feel acquainted should you’ve frolicked within the lounges of United, their sister airline. Wen I used to be there this Copa Membership lounge even had the identical wasteful piles of plastic from shrink-wrapped processed cheese and little particular person cracker packets. I’m hoping they’ve at the very least gotten extra environmentally acutely aware since then, although the meals within the newer lounge doesn’t make me assume the eating choices are going to be any higher right here.
See extra on all of the Copa Membership airline lounges right here, together with ones in Colombia, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. Enterprise class flights are sometimes out there with no huge premium, so examine charges earlier than touring on the Copa web site. Or on Skyscanner. With a enterprise class ticket you’re all set for the lounge. If none of these are an choice, purchase your method in with a Precedence Go membership.
This publish in regards to the Copa Membership lounges in Panama Metropolis, in terminals 1 and a couple of, was up to date in 2025.
