How To Redeem Miles For Copa Business Class

Copa is a useful airline for travel to and from Latin America. I’ve taken a couple of trips with the airline in the past couple of years, and wanted to share the best options for redeeming miles & points for Copa business class (I recently wrote a similar post about LATAM business class).

Now, admittedly this might sound straightforward, as Copa is in the Star Alliance, meaning you can redeem rewards from any Star Alliance program. However, there are a couple of tricks that I wanted to address.

Why you should care about Copa business class

Copa is basically the Icelandair of the Americas. The airline has a huge hub in Panama City (PTY), and the airline efficiently connects all kinds of points across the Americas, for easy, one-stop travel. While flying with Copa isn’t terribly exciting, the airline does have a great on-time record, so at least you can trust that you have good odds of getting to your destination.

You don’t fly Copa because you want to have the most amazing inflight experience, but rather you fly with the airline because of its network.

When it comes to the inflight business class experience, Copa has two kinds of products. The carrier’s Boeing 737 MAX 9s feature flat beds in business class, and are generally used for the longest routes, whether it’s Santiago, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, or New York.

Meanwhile the rest of the carriers’ Boeing 737 fleet consists of business class seats that are more in line with what you’d find on domestic flights within the United States, though there are a couple of variations of these seats.

Best ways to redeem points for Copa business class

Copa belongs to the Star Alliance, and as a result, it’s possible to redeem miles & points from all Star Alliance programs for travel on Copa. However, redemptions on Copa are a bit more nuanced than that, both due to one airline having access to a lot more Copa award space, plus Copa also having a valuable non-Star Alliance partner.

In this post, I wanted to take a big picture look at the best programs for booking Copa business class. This is intended to be simple and practical, rather than a deep dive. That’s simply because nowadays we constantly see airlines change their redemption rates, so my goal is to focus on general strategies rather than specific.

I’m also going to be emphasizing programs that have points that are easy to accrue through transferable points currencies, since that’s how most people earn points. That’s also why I won’t even be including Copa ConnectMiles, which is Copa’s own frequent flyer program, but not useful for anyone collecting other rewards currencies.

Before we talk about pricing, I should mention that Copa can be inconsistent with releasing award space. Sometimes the airline has a decent bit of award availability, while other times there’s no space on a route for weeks.

With that in mind, let me share some thoughts about programs that are particularly useful for booking Copa awards.

United MileagePlus awards on Copa

United and Copa have a close relationship, which was even much closer than in the past (there’s a reason Copa planes look similar to former Continental planes!).

There’s a huge advantage to redeeming United MileagePlus miles for travel on Copa, which is that United gets access to way more Copa business class award space than other programs. United has incredible award availability for Copa business class, and a one-way business class award between anywhere in North America and anywhere in South America will cost you 88,000 MileagePlus miles.

No, that’s not the lowest redemption rate on planet earth, but it’s pretty awesome when you consider the amount of availability you get access to. Interestingly this attractive pricing only applies when traveling to or from North America. For example, if you want to fly just between Panama City and Sao Paulo, you’d pay way more.

But honestly, if you’re in a bind and need to get to Latin America but can’t find any reasonably priced awards or cash tickets, United MileagePlus awards on Copa are the way to go.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue awards on Copa

Air France-KLM Flying Blue is one of the all-around most useful frequent flyer programs, if you ask me. Despite Air France and KLM both belonging to SkyTeam, Flying Blue has partnerships with other airlines, including Copa.

Flying Blue not only has attractive award pricing on Copa, but Flying Blue miles are also so easy to come by, thanks to the program partnering with all major transferable points currencies, plus there often being transfer bonuses. Another cool thing about Flying Blue is that you’re allowed a free stopover (though that requires booking by phone), which could be a fun way to stop in Panama enroute to your final destination.

You’ll find that one-way business class awards between the United States and Southern South America generally cost 56,500 Flying Blue miles, which is a solid value.

Air Canada Aeroplan awards on Copa

I consider Air Canada Aeroplan to be one of the most useful Star Alliance frequent flyer programs, and that also applies to travel on Copa. Assuming you’re traveling between North America and South America, then below is the Aeroplan award chart that would apply.

As you can see, a journey of 2,501-4,500 miles would cost you 50,000 Aeroplan points in business class, while a journey of at least 4,501 miles would cost you 60,000 Aeroplan points in business class. So you could fly one-way business class from Santiago to Tampa for 50,000 Aeroplan points.

Meanwhile from Montevideo to New York, you’d pay 60,000 Aeroplan points.

With Air Canada Aeroplan, you can also redeem an extra 5,000 points for a stopover, should you want to stay in Panama for some time.

avianca lifemiles awards on Copa

The avianca lifemiles program is another useful way to book Star Alliance awards. With this, you can generally expect that a one-way business class award between the United States and deep in South America will cost you 60,000 lifemiles. That’s a bit more than through Aeroplan, but some people may find that the acquisition cost of lifemiles is lower than with Aeroplan.

Bottom line

Copa is Central America’s largest airline, and provides great one-stop options between North America and South America. While the carrier’s product isn’t much to get excited about, the airline is punctual, and is often affordable (whether paying cash or points) when other airlines aren’t.

While Copa belongs to the Star Alliance, there are some opportunities to be aware of. In particular, United MileagePlus has access to way more award space than other programs, and on top of that, SkyTeam’s Air France-KLM Flying Blue program also provides access to Copa awards.

If you’ve redeemed miles on Copa, what was your experience like?