My first low-cost transcon

After my trip to LA, I had one final trip planned for 2022: another transcontinental flight from San Francisco, CA to Richmond, VA.  I’ve flown between California and Richmond at least 30 times and every time I had to connect, but not this time.  This time I flew the new airline startup, Breeze, which offers point-to-point direct services between ‘medium-sized’ city pairs that don’t currently have direct service.  The airline started flying in 2021 using E190/5 jets and then expanded in 2022 to add Airbus A220-300s. The A220s were a great addition because they have the range for transcontinental flights and offer a first class product, called ‘Nicest’.  Though notionally a first class product, Breeze is first and foremost a low cost carrier, and it shows throughout the experience.

Breeze uses terminal 2 at SFO, which is the same terminal as Alaska, and so I am intimately familiar with it at this point.  The Nicest fare does not include lounge access or any special ground services beyond 2 free checked bags; there is no priority check-in with ‘Nicest’.

Upon clearing security, I wanted to use the Amex Centurion lounge, which I have access to from my Amex Platinum card.  However, the Centurion lounge had closed in September, shortly after I moved to the Bay.  It had been opened as a ‘grab & go’ location for a while, so I hoped to just do that.  I was shocked to see that it was now completely closed just in time for one of the busiest weeks of travel of the year.

Instead, I used my Priority Pass to get a chicken burger at Mustards Bar & Grill.  This was the second time I’d ever used a PP restaurant, and it was cool that I could use it for takeout food.  However, the restaurant lost my order and so gave me someone else’s that was close enough.  The sandwich was beyond soggy, and the chicken was so fried that I struggled to eat it.  If I had actually paid over $20 for the burger, I would’ve been pissed.  At least it was free, but I don’t intend to go back there any time soon.

Given my issues just getting a burger and the long flight ahead of me, I boarded the plane at the end of boarding.  As would be expected with a low cost carrier flight to Richmond, the average person on the flight was not a seasoned traveler and so everything took a bit longer.

That being said, their first class recliner hard product is excellent.  This was only my third time on an A220 and first in the US.  I had previously flown on Swiss’ A220 from London City to Zurich in Business Class.  Having a recliner seat was definitely an improvement over just a blocked economy seat.  The recliner seat also offered a leg rest, which is common on international premium economy seats but not common on domestic first class seats.

Breeze offers very little in the way of IFE: no Wi-Fi, no seatback TVs, but in-seat power is available.  I was told at that time that Wi-Fi is supposedly coming soon, however.  At the time of taking this flight, the Nicest fare came with one free snack bar, one free snack box, and one free drink (but that is no longer the case apparently).  I got a small water bottle and a can of wine as my drinks, and with the drinks, we were offered kind bars.

After the initial drink service came the snack service.  At the time of the flight, one snack box was included with the Nicest ticket.  The snacks are the same everywhere on the plane. My snack box included cheese and crackers, almonds, gummies, and brownie brittle.  The cheese and crackers were as expected (neither good nor bad).  The almonds were pretty bad; they had less taste than just raw almonds.    The brownie brittle was extremely light and crispy as the bag says.  I was pleasantly surprised by them.  The gummies were pretty good, as far as ‘real’/ ‘healthy’ gummies go.  It was nice that everything was pre-packaged so that I could enjoy each snack individually at my own pace. 

After the snack service came an additional drink service and then another snack service.  I declined these two services, since I wanted to get a real meal upon arrival in Richmond.  Our flight ended up arriving about 80 minutes late because we departed late because of the bad weather impacting most flights in the country (although the weather on the ground in San Francisco was great).  Upon arrival in Richmond (whose weather was also fine), I had to wait nearly an hour for my bag because there were only 2 baggage handlers on shift that evening, which is insane, but not Breeze’s fault.

In summary, my first transcontinental flight from California to Richmond, VA was a success: I made it there in just one flight.  Breeze is a low-cost carrier, and so its ground experience is virtually non-existent.  I couldn’t even use the Centurion lounge, and the Priority Pass restaurant was poor-quality (0/5).  Breeze’s A220 seat is as good as any domestic recliner seat and brand new (4/5).  The snack offering was minimal, especially as only one snack was free (which isn’t even the case any more) (1/5).  The service was minimal as well (3/5).  There was no IFE, but there was charging available at least (1/5).  The scoring system is not designed for low cost carriers, so the fact that Breeze only scores a 9/20 is not surprising and should not reflect badly on the airline itself. 

Breeze has a rewards program that offers just straight cashback in the form of Breeze points (1 pt = 1¢), and for the nicest fare class, this is a 6% earn rate.  These points can only be used for future Breeze flights, so there’s not really any point in holding onto them beyond just using them for your next flight.  I paid for the card on my Amex Platinum card, and so earned 5x points/$ on top of the Breeze points.