just for posterity:
there is also the handy dired-ranger
package, which allows you to copy multiple sets of files to a clipboard, navigate to a target destination and copy or move them there. it also cooperates with the dired-dwim-target
mentioned in the other answer.
it doesn't provide keybindings out of the box, you have to set them up yourself. you can do this with some thing like:
(eval-after-load "dired" '(progn
(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-x w") 'dired-ranger-copy)
(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-x x") 'dired-ranger-move)
(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-x y") 'dired-ranger-paste)
))
(use C-h c
from dired to see what keybindings are undefined.)
it is available from melpa.
a brief description:
http://pragmaticemacs.com/emacs/copy-and-paste-files-with-dired-ranger/.