Time for my yearly Breeze flight! (SFO-RIC)

Apparently, this post somehow didn’t save even though it came through as published, so let’s try again.

Like last year, my final transcontinental flight of the year was to Richmond, VA. Also like last year, I flew the low-cost carrier, Breeze. Breeze was only founded in 2021 and only took delivery of its first A220s in 2022, so I was excited to see how the airline had matured. The first way that it had matured is that its first-class (“Nicest”) product had been rebranded as Breeze Ascent.

The second way that it had matured, which is in my opinion a downgrade, is that they reduced the amount of Breeze Ascent seating from 9 rows to just 3. Luckily the seat had not changed. Last time, I had selected a seat in row 8 just to check out the vibe. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t particularly like being so far back in the plane, right in the middle of everything. This time around, I instead selected seat 1D, which is my favorite seat on mainline narrow-body aircraft. It was undoubtedly an improvement from my perspective.

When I was looking up my flight the day before, I was excited to learn that this was the first day of commercial service for this aircraft, and SFO-RIC would be its third commercial flight ever. Aircraft on this route fly CHS-RIC-SFO-RIC-CHS.

I took BART to SFO airport as I usually do, and since it was Christmas time, the airport was busy, so I skipped the Centurion Lounge (which is in Terminal 3) and headed straight for my gate, which was in Terminal 2.

After a short delay to boarding, it was finally time to get onboard, and this time, it was easy to find my seat.

One of the fun things I noticed immediately is that I had the same flight attendant as my last flight a year prior!

I was also pleased to see how good the legroom at the bulkhead was.

Shortly after takeoff, service began, with a snack and a drink provided for free to those in Breeze Ascent. Something that I learned since the previous article is that you can buy an upgrade from a regular seat to a Breeze Ascent seat at any time just by selecting that seat. And the upgrade price is generally pretty reasonable ($100-200 for a transcon flight). My understanding is that you don’t get the extra luggage associated with the “Nicest” bundle, but I am unsure.

The most exciting thing to happen on this flight was that about halfway through the flight, while we were overflying Texas/Oklahoma area, is that an alert showed up on the flight attendents’ monitor. I tried to get a picture of it subtle, but I was unsuccessful:

What the alert says is, “Smoke detected in Lav E3”, which is the lavatory in the back of the plane. The forward flight attendant (the one from last year) swiftly and purposefully moved to the back of the plane. Presumably the flight attendants at the back also got the alert. I leaned back in my seat and waited for the possible announcement that we would have to divert.

In the meantime, let’s check out the seat. This aircraft was so new that the WiFi hadn’t been installed yet, but there was in-seat power available. There were three choices: USB-A, USB-C, and a universal AC power plug.

My favorite thing about these seats compared to the standard domestic first class seats is that these actually have a footrest. Normally, you only get those in premium economy on widebodies and is even how AA differentiates its international premium economy hard product from its narrow-body premium product.

You can even see the remnants of the snack I was given (Gardetto’s) in the storage pocket.

Maybe 10 minutes after the smoke alert, the pilot came on to remind everyone that smoking and vaping is not allowed on the plane but that we would not be needing to divert this time. Sigh.

I ordered a margarita later in the flight, which came in one of the smallest cans I’ve ever seen, along with some lime flavoring, which was hilarious. The flight attendant even commented on how small the cans are, haha.

When we arrived in Richmond, two police officers came onboard the plane. I’m pretty sure it was to give the guy who was smoking/vaping in the lavatory a fine. And those fines are pretty hefty.

In summary, Breeze’s Ascent product is arguably the best low-cost carrier first class in the US (and pretty much only). However, at its core, the airline is still a low-cost carrier, and it shows. No lounge access is provided with this ticket, but none would’ve been expected (no score). This bulkhead seat is one of best standard domestic first class seats in the US (5/5), and the service was solid given what they were working with (4/5). The food offering was a bit weak given the duration of the flight (2/5), and the WiFi was missing (1/5). Overall, Breeze gets a 12/20, which is an improvement over last time!