My other work requires travel to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and for my latest trip, I chose to book the two nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Pittsburgh: American Airlines and Breeze Airways.
Breeze Airways + American Airlines Offer Nonstop Flights Between Los Angeles And Pittsburgh
Recently, American Airlines launched new nonstop service between Pittsburgh (PIT) and Los Angeles (LAX), which, more accurately, marks the resumption of an old US Airways route (that I flew many years back). I view the “new” route as a response to Breeze Airways, the upstart carrier led by JetBlue founder David Neeleman, launching a similar route last year.
This year, I’m embracing my free agency when it comes to flying since I saw no realistic path to spending the $22,000 required to maintain my Premier 1K status with United Airlines.
So far this year I’ve flown more American Airlines than United, though that has been a mix of revenue tickets and award redemptions, such that elite status with AA is also not in the cards.
It’s fun to fly different carriers and status really doesn’t matter when you are buying premium cabin tickets. I hope to fly Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines domestically this year as well, as schedule and pricing permit.
For this trip, I booked American Airlines First Class from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh, a morning service operated by a 737-800. The return on Breeze Airways is on an Airbus A220-300 and was cheap…only about $340 for Ascent (formerly “Nicest” class), which is a hybrid service with a first class seat and free snacks and Wi-Fi, but no meals.
Since I travel between LAX and PIT often, this will be an important test for whether it makes sense to take the nonstop flights or whether I should go back to connecting on United Airlines as I’ve done for years.
I’ll offer my first impressions on these flights in the days ahead.
Who will win the head-to-head battle, Breeze A220-300 Ascent or American Airlines 737-800 First Class?
image: Breeze Airways
I’ve enjoyed my past few flights with Breeze as it offered non-stop flights for a couple of flights between CIN and SFO for work. Don’t mind spending money on them as it’s comfortable and offers a lot of great routes between mid-sized to smaller markets. Almost feels like the US version of Porter and I’m all for it.
I worry about the Breeze’s and Avelo’s of the world during IRROPs. Everything is good when its good, but when things turn bad….