Background:

I needed a flight home from my Spring Break trip to Oregon and Washington and American had the best timed flight to get me back home for dinner. And it was actually the cheapest as well ($54!).

In addition, with my Alaska MVP status which I got because I had Silver on Virgin America’s Elevate, I get a free bag and free preferred seating. If there are still Main Cabin Extra seats at check in 24 hrs before departure, you can get those seats free of charge as well.

So, on the day of check in I went to see how many Main Cabin Extra seats were left. There was a good amount so I set an alarm to check in exactly 24 hours before departure and snagged the seats! Worked out great!

At the Airport:

Portland Airport is actually pretty nice! I tried Henry’s Tavern for lunch and it was a pretty good airport restaurant. In addition, they also have other cool dining options, more than just your typical chains. There’s even a Blue Star Donuts before security (hip donut place). Plus, my Uber driver told me that there’s a rule where Portland Airport can’t charge more than the typical prices for the same place in the city! I checked to see how Starbucks was, and she was right! The prices at Starbucks in the airport were the same as the price in the city!

No wonder it constantly ranks high in surveys!

Flight Details:

American Eagle Flight 6025 Operated by Compass Airlines
Portland (PDX) to Los Angeles (LAX)
Seat: 11A- Window- Main Cabin Extra
Aircraft: Embraer 175
Scheduled Departure: 2:52 PM
Actual Departure: On Time
Scheduled Arrival: 5:29 PM
Arrival to Gate: 5:15 PM (EARLY!)

The Flight:

Boarding, First Impressions and the Seat

American has 8 boarding zones now, and Priority Boarding is Group 4 (Which I got). Interesting. Seems like too many groups to me…

The plane felt pretty newly refreshed with nice leather seats, which is really nice! The legroom in Main Cabin Extra was awesome, great for a nice 2 hour hop. What i love about this plane is that it is really comfortable in the air for a small jet!

In- Flight Entertainment

You could stream to your device free movies through the American Airlines app which was nice (or you could use the Gogo app as well). What wasn’t nice were the expensive wifi prices 🙁

I guess I was spoiled on my first flight with jetBlue providing free wifi. I even remember on my last flight United let me use the wifi to text for free (or was it a glitch oops). So, without the wifi i streamed a movie. I watched Keeping Up With the Joneses. I give it a 5/10, so if you’re bored, go for it.

In- Flight Service

They had one beverage service which was adequate and they gave pretzels. Sadly, the pretzels were very salty (yuck!). As always, I Got my favorite drink (Ginger Ale + Cranberry Juice).

Sidenote: It was funny though, they used Canada Dry Ginger Ale but have Coca Cola Products? I thought they would use Seagrams (which I prefer). They did have my favorite cranberry juice though, the Minute Maid Apple Cranberry!

Landing at the “Eagle’s Nest”

At LAX, for American Eagle flights, they use a remote terminal which is a bit inconvenient. After landing, you need to take a shuttle bus to the “main”terminals. If you have a connecting flight in terminal 4 there’s a specific line + shuttle, and if you have a connecting flight in terminal 5 and/or want to go to baggage claim there’s also another specific line + shuttle.

As I didn’t have any bags to claim, this “extra process” costed me about 25 minutes. I was not super annoyed because we landed early, but I would totally be a bit pissed if the flight was delayed and I needed to take this whole “shuttle” to get out of the airport.

The Verdict:

I love the E175 as it is a very comfortable commuter plane! And, if you have extra legroom, it’s even better (but not needed in most cases in my opinion, unless you are very tall). The plane is very stable in the air and provides a comfortable ride.

Cheers,

theresorttraveler