How I Unlocked 50% Off Copa Fares

I was trying to book a flight from Miami to Guatemala for December. Simple enough, right?

I pulled up Copa Airlines, punched in the dates, and saw the price: $407.25.

For a one-way economy seat? That felt steep. I knew Copa has a "Panama Stopover" program that often incentivizes you to visit Panama City on your way through, so I decided to get a little creative with how I searched.

The result? I found the exact same flights for $195.25.

Here is how I found the fare and the workaround I used to book it.

The "Multi-City" Strategy

Most people search for "One Way" or "Round Trip." The algorithm sees you starting in Miami and ending in Guatemala, and it prices you for the convenience of a single ticket.

However, Copa’s system is designed to handle "Multi-City" bookings to encourage tourism in Panama. If you manually build the itinerary leg-by-leg, the pricing logic often changes—even if you aren't staying for a full 24 hours.

I broke the trip down:

1. Flight 1: Miami (MIA) -> Panama (PTY)
2. Flight 2: Panama (PTY) -> Guatemala (GUA)

The Technical Hurdle: When you try to input this on the web interface for the same day, the site tries to be helpful. It assumes you just want a standard "One Way" ticket and redirects you back to the more expensive search interface.

The Workaround

Since the UI kept redirecting me, I skipped the form fields and went straight to the URL bar.

I realized that by manually adjusting the dates in the web address (the query parameters), I could ask the system to price out the "Multi-City" option for same-day travel without the UI overriding me.

I looked at the URL and simply changed the dates to match my travel day (2025-12-18 in my case).

The URL looked something like this: .../multicity?roundtrip=false&adults=1&date1=2025-12-18&area1=MIA&area2=PTY&area3=PTY&area4=GUA...

The Result: The page loaded the multi-city pricing. Instead of $407, the total came out to $195.25. Same planes, same seat class, half the price.

How to Actually Book It

Here is the only snag: because the website isn't fully optimized for this specific search flow, the checkout page can sometimes error out.

The fix was simple and analog. I called them.

I got a Copa agent on the phone. I didn't have to explain anything complicated; I just gave them the specific flight numbers I had found on my screen:

• "I'd like to book flight CM 410 from Miami to Panama."
• "Then flight CM 182 from Panama to Guatemala."

Since their internal booking system allows them to build itineraries segment-by-segment just like the Multi-City search does, the agent built it exactly as I saw it. She quoted me the $195 price, I gave her my credit card, and it was done.

TL;DR

If you're flying Copa and the direct price looks high, try this:

1. Don't search "One Way."
2. Use "Multi-City" search for the stopover legs (e.g., MIA->PTY, PTY->GUA).
3. Adjust the URL dates manually if the site tries to redirect you to the standard search.
4. Note the flight numbers (e.g., CM 410) from the result page.
5. Call Copa and have them book those specific segments for you.

Saved me over $200 for 15 minutes of digging. Safe travels!