Background & Booking
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 Freddie Awards, where travelers vote for the best loyalty programs in travel. I’ve attended previous years in Washington, DC & Seattle, and always enjoy meeting industry professionals and fellow travel enthusiasts. So, I looked up both cash fares and then fares with points to get to Chicago and ended up booking American Eagle First Class from Newark (EWR) to Chicago (ORD).
Alaska Mileage Plan, at the time of this post, has an award chart for flights in the Americas under 700 miles to start from 4.5k miles in the Main Cabin or 9k miles in First Class. Interestingly enough, American Airlines flights from New York (JFK) to Chicago (ORD) or New York (LGA) to Chicago (ORD) were 7.5k miles in Main Cabin or 15k miles in First Class, which the website states are 737 miles and 731 miles, respectively. However, Newark (EWR) to Chicago (ORD) (717 miles) was priced out at just 4.5k miles in the Main Cabin or 9k miles in First Class. I guess they rounded down on the miles between Newark and Chicago, or have a different distance calculator than what it says under “Flight Details” on the Alaska website when booking.
Unfortunately, I did get caught up in the Newark (EWR) Air Traffic Control mess, and we were stuck on the ground for about 2.5 hours.
Flight Details
American Eagle Flight 4398
Operated by Republic Airways
Newark (EWR) to Chicago (ORD)
Cabin & Seat: First, 3A
Aircraft: Embraer 175
Scheduled Duration: 2 Hours 51 Minutes
Actual Duration: 4 Hours 37 Minutes
At the Airport & Boarding
The new Newark Terminal A is quite pretty, and it feels like you’re at one of the nice LaGuardia terminals.
The TSA PreCheck line was short but a bit inefficient as they kept alternating between Clear and TSA PreCheck, so while the sign said less than 5 minutes, it took about 15 minutes.
It was a bit annoying that they never “officially” delayed the flight, despite our departure time being 7:30 pm and the inbound plane having a 7:35 pm arrival. At 7:30 pm, they finally delayed the flight to 8:00 pm.
They turned around the plane quite quickly, so I think there probably wasn’t much cleaning taking place. The last passenger on the prior flight got off around 7:40 pm, and they started boarding quickly at 7:45 pm. I was one of the first passengers on, as I assume many thought it would be longer before boarding commenced.
As I got seated, the flight attendant asked if there was anything I’d like to drink as a pre-departure beverage.
The Aircraft
If you’re a frequent reader of my posts, you’ll know that I like the Embraer 175 a lot. I like the 1-2 configuration in First, as there are no middle seats in Economy. Plus, the ceilings seem to be higher than a CRJs (which I dislike a lot). It’s also a lot less bumpy than the CRJs.
The American Eagle Embraer 175 operated by Republic Airways offers 4 rows of First Class (Business if International) in a 1-2 configuration for a total of 12 seats. The seat pitch is stated to be 37 inches, while the seat width is 19.9 inches. There are then 20 Main Cabin Extra Seats and 44 Main Cabin Seats in a 2-2 configuration.
I’ve flown on E175 many times in the First Class Cabin and really like how the 1-2 configuration allows you to not have a neighbor when flying alone. Recently, on American Eagle, I flew from Montreal to New York, and Raleigh to New York on the Embraer 175 in First/Business Class.
The seat offers a tiny cup holder that pulls out from the left armrest. And, there is a full-sized tray table that comes out from the right armrest, which can be folded in half if you don’t need to utilize the entire tray.
WiFi and In-Seat Power
A flight pass was $17, the one-hour pass was $11, or Wi-Fi is free for T Mobile Customers. You could connect after we hit cruising altitude, and it disconnected upon our descent. Also, American offers free streaming of movies, TV shows, and music to your Wi-Fi-enabled device. The Wi-Fi worked decently well in the air. I was able to surf the web and use social media apps.
Below my seat, there was a USB-A port as well as a universal power adapter.
The Flight
The boarding doors closed right before 8 pm, so it only took about 15 minutes to board. The caption let us know that the flight time would be just under 2 hours. We left the gate pretty quickly, but were stalled on the runway unfortunately. The weather was perfect in New York & Chicago, but there was some bad weather over Pennsylvania. The pilots said we needed a new route from air traffic control and would keep us posted.
Due to the current ATC issues at Newark, our pilots kept updating us every 15 minutes, saying they were trying to get a new route for us from ATC, but no one was answering. Eventually, about 1.5 hours after leaving the gate, we finally got a new route and headed in line for takeoff. There were over a dozen planes in front of us, and the pilots said they were spacing out takeoffs for every 3-4 minutes. So, it was another hour until we took off, for a total of 2.5 hours after leaving the gate. We finally took off, 5 minutes after our scheduled arrival time in Chicago.
Snack Service
Just shy of an hour on the ground, the flight attendant did come by to ask if we wanted anything to drink and offered a snack (Nuts Mix). I noticed that when flying on a regional jet with American Eagle, the snack choice is very limited, but I did fly mainline American back to New York, and there were additional snacks to choose from. Good to keep that in mind.
Once we were in the air, we had a beverage service, but I was surprised to see no additional snacks.
We ended up touching down a little past 2 hours from our scheduled arrival. And, we arrived at the gate about 2 hours and 15 minutes late.
The Verdict
Overall, the American Eagle first-class experience on the Embraer 175 is quite decent. I do like the single seating option in First Class. Though I would appreciate it if they served better snacks. And, it seems like Newark (EWR) is a bit of a mess right now, so I’d probably opt for LaGuardia or Kennedy until they can alleviate the issues.
Have you flown in American Eagle First Class before? How was your experience? Comment below!
Cheers,
Ty
Have any questions? I’ve also started working with a travel agency, Fora Travel, and can assist in booking & planning trips. Comment below or email me at takeofftotravel@gmail.com. You can also view all my other posts here! Thanks for stopping by!
