After flying American Airlines out to Pittsburgh, I flew Breeze Airways back to Los Angeles in “Ascent” Class, its premium cabin, on an Airbus A220-300. While the experience was mostly positive with a comfortable seat, fast Wi-Fi, and friendly service, the aircraft was filthy. I’ve never been on a dirtier plane.
Breeze Airways A220-300 Ascent Class Review (PIT-LAX)
Both Breeze Airways and American Airlines fly nonstop between Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. Breeze schedule and pricing worked much better for my return to Los Angeles.
Booking
Breeze sells everyone a base fare. In my case, it was $119 for a “no flex” fare. From that base fare, you can upgrade to Nice (flexible ticket), Nicer (flexible ticket with checked bag and free Wi-Fi), or Nicest (first class Breeze Ascent seat with flexibility and two checked bags), charged as an ancillary cost.
It’s somewhat of a strange way to do it, but I suppose it saves Breeze taxes since the federal excise tax is only levied on the base fare?
Thus, in my case it was $119 for the ticket and $192 for the upgrade, for a total of $311.
Breeze was running a 45% off promotion the day I booked my ticket and I thought I would come out ahead or at least even by adding a return…but even though it was just a round-trip from Pittsburgh within the date parameters of the promotion, the system rejected the code and Breeze’s Twitter/X team was no help.
So ultimately, I dropped the return and just booked the one-way from PIT-LAX. Even if had worked, the discount would have been only off the base fare (pre-tax), not the upgrade to “Nicest” class.
Breeze does not charge for an Ascent seat assignment when you book into “Nicest” Class:
I could have made the trip fully refundable for $211 more.
Check-In
When I arrived at Pittsburgh (on AA) I took a picture of the Breeze check-in facility, figuring it might be crowded when i flew out. Sure enough, there were long check-in lines when I departed. Because I was not checking any bags, I just used the app to check in and bypassed the line altogether.
Early Boarding
My boarding pass said that boarding would begin at 8:53 am for my 9:23 am departure. I showed up at the gate at 8:40 am, hoping to be among the first onboard so I could get some pictures, but found the gate area deserted…boarding had begun more than an hour prior to takeoff and was almost complete.
I asked the agents why my boarding indicated an 8:53 am boarding time, but was told, “Oh, they want us to board early. We always start much earlier than that.”
Good to know…maybe, Breeze, you just reflect the actual boarding time on your boarding pass?
Breeze (MX) 544
Pittsburgh (PIT) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Wednesday, April 16
Depart: 9:23 AM
Arrive: 11:54 AM
Duration: 5hr, 31min
Distance: 2,136 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A220-300
Seat: 2F (Ascent Class)
I already shared my initial impressions of this flight, but want to share more details in this full review.
> Read More: My First Time Flying Breeze Airways: Friendly, Fashionable, But Filthy…
Breeze Ascent “First Class” Seat
The front cabin on Breeze is called Ascent. Although Breeze markets it as a “first class” seat, it is not a first class product and there is no curtain dividing this section in the first three rows of the aircraft. Breeze uses Airbus A220-300 aircraft with 2-2 seating in business class (same seat as my Bulgaria Airlines A220 flight last year).
These are Safran Z600 seats and have an adjustable headrest, a tablet holder, a water bottle holder, and a “sleeperette style” leg rest (which is a step above most domestic first class products). Seat pitch is a generous 39 inches and the seats are 20.5 inches wide. Recline is also generous.
I found the cabin very attractive: soft mood lighting and light colors work very well. The seat itself was also comfortable: I only got up once during the 5.5-hour flight (which took the full 5.5 hours).
Breeze does not appear to do a great job of monetizing the cabin, because it was only booked 7/12 (an eighth passenger, an off-duty FedEx employee, was upgraded just before we took off). It was certainly nice to have the seat next to me open, but I’d think that Breeze could probably sell these seats for some revenue on the day of departure if it tried a little harder.
Filthy Cabin
But there was a problem on the flight…a needless problem, as far as I am concerned. The cabin was filthy. There was dust, dander, and trash all around the seat: on the tray table, between cushions, in storage areas, and on the floor. Does anyone ever do a deep clean of these aircraft? Ever? Apparently not…
While I would not call it a dealbreaker, the cabin cleanliness was deplorable…such a stupid, penny-wise, pound-foolish mistake. I realize the low-cost model must optimize an aircraft’s time in the air, but looking at the particular aircraft that operated my flight, I saw that it had sat the night before in Providence, RI (PVD). That would have been the time to vacuum it…
Food + Drink
There are no meals in Ascent Class: just a snack basket and complimentary beverages (including alcoholic beverages). Beverages are served in plastic.
Snacks and drinks were offered shortly after takeoff.
I had Java House Cold Brew coffee (too sweet with the vanilla flavor added) and Spindrift sparkling water with a lemon flavor, which was very satisfying. This was also my first time trying Zappo potato chips…wow, those New Orleans kettle-style chips were so delicious! It took a lot of restraint to limit myself to one bag.
You can also buy a snack box for $12, but this is not included in Ascent Class. It included:
- Partners Slow Baked Olive Oil & Sea Salt Crackers
- Madi K’s Sea Salt Almonds
- That’s it Fig+Apples Fruit Bar
- White Cheddar Cheese Spread
- Old Wisconsin Beef Snack Stick
Wi-Fi + IFE
Free high-speed Wi-Fi is available (free for Ascent Class) and it worked very well during the flight. The moving flight map, however, did not function:
There was also a generous selection of streaming movies available for free on your computer, tablet, or mobile phone.
It was quite a beautiful day to look out the window, too:
There was a heavy cloud cover over Los Angeles.
Service
While the service was not polished like you might expect in JetBlue Mint Class, the flight attendants were very nice and Tashae, who worked the Ascent cabin, was very attentive. I quite liked the more casual FA uniforms with white tennis shoes…it fits the carrier well.
Lavatories
I quite like the A220 lavatories, which I find roomier than on older Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737 planes. The forward lavatory was not reserved exclusively for Ascent class: anyone could use it, which did result in some extra foot traffic in the cabin.
CONCLUSION
We landed on time in Los Angeles, where the plane only had a 50-minute turnaround before it returned to Pittsburgh.
I was glad to try Breeze for the first time and, all things considered, was very thankful that I only paid $311 for a remarkably productive, comfortable flight between PIT and LAX…$311 is an excellent price for a nonstop transcontinental flight in a business class seat. I’d choose it any day over my AA flight in the opposite direction, which cost $540 and another $28 for Wi-Fi and had a less comfortable seat that did not have USB-C.
A flight in the Reign In Hell section of a French-Canadian turd of an airliner on an airline that’s a glorified Ponzi scheme that occasionally does flights and is the spawn of one of the most outright evil men in the business. Don’t expect La Premiere. Expect five and a half hours of misery.
But how do you feel about Breeze and David Neeleman?
It just strikes me as odd that this aircraft would be so dirty. Perhaps this is just a personal bias, but I tend to think of A220s as newer aircraft and Breeze as a newer airline. Thus, I would have expected a sparkling fresh cabin. I’m surprised that this equipment has been allowed to be in this state.
I would have expected much more from Breeze, which is an airline that I would truly like to see succeed.
Zapp’s are a nice selection but they were actually much better years ago before Utz bought them and now manufactures them and markets them nationally.
Kudos to Breeze for putting name brands in the basket unlike the no name stuff AA does. M & M for the win.
Never flew Breeze but have debated it for some short trips where they fly direct to from TPA, but their schedules aren’t the best.
As for how dirty the plane was, I agree it’s unacceptable. I’d definitely mention it if you got a survey. Or send them a link to this story. Maybe we need a regulation on cleanliness of planes, lol.
How did you manage all these pics if you were one of the last ones boarding? Did you wait for all others to deplane?
Correct, after landing.
I get that you like to take photos but I’m all for airlines starting boarding early and having the plane ready to go!
“I’d choose it any day over my AA flight in the opposite direction, which cost $540 and another $28 for Wi-Fi and had a less comfortable seat that did not have USB-C.”
Ah, but what if you had found an AA ticket for under $400?
Of all the jets I’ve been in, the A220 is, one of the most comfortable. There’s an old adage, “Cleanliness is next to godliness”. One might think that Breeze would think about that as altitude…well…if you believe in that adage, you are closer…” Clean the jet. With a 50 minute turn, the cleaning crew can be on as the last passengers deplane, the catering crew is on and off… It is a simple thing to do. Yeah, it costs money but the passengers (commonly referred to as “CUSTOMERS”, expect clean aircraft. Other airlines can do it…why can’t Breeze?
The E175 and E190 are more comfortable. You know why? No middle seats and no construction by Airbus. And they’re all regional jets no matter what Toulouse says. 2-3 should be permanently dead when the last 717 retires. The plate of camembert poutine should be thrown in the trash.
I’m with Win on this one..I love the A220…but E175 and E190 are great (seats always narrower, though, or at least it feels that way).
A 50-minute turnaround after a cross-country flight — which means the LA passengers headed to Pittsburgh found an even dirtier cabin. You say the filth isn’t a deal breaker, Matthew. I’m not so sure.
Not a dealbreaker, but pathetic nevertheless.
And a handsome pic of the author per usual.
Five and a half hours from PIT to LAX? That seems like the flight was longer than it should have been unless there were strong headwinds. In the summer of 1984 I flew US Air from PIT to LAX nonstop on a B-727. The estimated flying time was 4 hours 15 minutes and the actual flying time was 4 hours 11 minutes.