Panama is one of the easiest countries in Central America to spend a long weekend birding. The best area for birding, Soberania National Park is an easy early morning drive from anywhere in the city and there are plenty of hotels to use points for bookings like the Radisson Summit. If you can get away next month, try these Copa sale fares.
It always pays to keep an eye on sales, I get them emailed to me but you can always check the websites as well. Copa is running a nice sale to various places in Central & South America.
Here’s a sample quote from Orlando to Guayaquil (since we are going there soon). Ecuador has great birding and I will be blogging the whole trip after we get home!
I really envy those who are able to take advantage of these sales, especially since it costs me a fortune in either miles or cash to get to these bird-rich countries in South America! Click on the image for details and don’t forget to read the T&Cs!
Sometimes you don’t need miles to get an incredible deal to your favourite birding hotspot!
How about Costa Rica? Peru? Brazil?
Blue and Gold Macaw (Ara ararauna)
Blue-headed Parrot (Pionus menstruus)
Enjoy our promotion and buy your tickets on 4th of July and travel from United States and Puerto Rico** to incredible destinations through the Hub of the Americas in Panama.
Buy your ticket from July 3 through July 7, 2015 an travel between August 1 and October 25, 2015.
Copa is based in Panama and serves most airports in the Americas so it is well positioned for people wanting to get from the USA to the birding hotspots of Central & South America. As an incentive to get new members, they are offering up to 4000 free miles (which is almost a one way ticket within Panama or Colombia) to join ConnectMiles and fill out your profile up to 30 June.
Use this link to join. You will get 1000 miles straight away and 1000 miles in about 4-6 weeks.
Then go to this profile page and click on the blue link that says “Complete and win 3000 miles”. It’s not a contest, everyone wins! You will finish this exercise with 3000 total miles and 1000 more to come in 4-6 weeks. The program is in its infancy so no one knows yet what credit card partners they will have but hopefully they will partner with Citi Thank You, SPG and/or Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Complete the steps in order. You will need your passport for step 2.
The award chart for Copa flights is pretty good for both business and economy. They don’t have online redemptions yet but they expect to soon. It’s not likely anyone will have enough miles for a redemption at this early stage anyway. The Star Alliance chart is similar to United Airline’s chart and is too big to copy here so please view it on their website.
The fees aren’t too bad.
If you have been reading my posts about Central America from last year or wanting to go to Peru for Tambopata, you are in luck!
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Discover all the advantages of flying through the Hub of the Americas in Panama with Copa Airlines. There’s great birding in Panama if you take a stopover there! Or connect to Costa Rica which has lots of birding options whether you are a beginner or advanced birder! Don’t forget my insider’s tip on using Vegas as your gateway airport to avoid the more congested international gateway airports. Take advantage of these cheap fares to save some miles and make your eco-tourism adventure come true!
Copa Airlines is a member of Star Alliance and a very good member to know if you are headed to Central or South America for your eco-tourism adventure. Copa is a member of United’s Mileage Plus program and can be easily booked online using United miles and Avianca-Tava Lifemiles.
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Some gateway cities I’d like you to take note of are Las Vegas (LAS), Toronto (YYZ), Mexico City (MEX) and Bogota (BOG). If you are either originating or transiting the USA to/from Central/South America, Las Vegas’ airport is a much less painful place to go through the formalities. We were on a full 737 in economy so no special privileges but we were through Customs and out to the car rental shuttles in less than 10 minutes (we didn’t check bags). People who are originating in Europe and don’t want to bother with a ESTA for the USA might want to fly to Toronto, Mexico City or Bogota to hook up with other Copa flights to their final destination.
This is a list of all their destinations.
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Seats in economy are in a 3 x 3 configuration, not my favourite. When I made the booking, I reserved an A & C seat for us and luckily no one took the middle seat. Entertainment is the old-fashioned over-head viewers, no AVOD at individual seats so you may want to bring your own entertainment. Business class seats are like US domestic first class seats.
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The service was very good, I found the flight attendants friendly and competent. The flight was right on time. Although we were in economy, we had access to the Copa Club in Panama City (PTY) airport via a United Club pass from the Chase credit card; so got a free continental breakfast (cereal, toast, fruit, yogurt, coffee, juice, tea). They wouldn’t let me take photos inside.
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The airport has a nice variety of gift shops if you have time to spend in transit here. The lines at immigration are extremely long, it took us almost an hour to clear as we were staying a few days. Think twice if you are in transit as the time to get out of the airport, then braving the traffic to get downtown to sightsee might take longer than you expect causing you to miss your flight. I wouldn’t try it unless I had at least 6 hours between flights.
Use United Airlines’ tool for best display options.
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Getting award space is pretty easy, especially if you book in advance. United charges 17,500 miles in economy, Avianca Lifemiles charges 15,000 miles for the same.
Lima to Las Vegas is a very reasonable 20,000 miles in economy. A round trip at 40,000 miles would be an excellent use of either Ultimate Rewards points or United miles if you have gotten in on any of the credit card deals. Not quite a free trip, taxes add $50 each way but quite a bargain! You could also take a stop-over in Panama to extend your trip for the same price, well worth it for the superb birding!
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