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As I wrote about here, Breeze Airways is one of the airlines that I wanted to try this year. We flew from Tampa International Airport (TPA) to Huntsville International Airport (HSV) and then to Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport (LAS). This is what Breeze calls a BreezeThru (meaning that you do not need to deplane and catch a connection). The same plane heads onward to Las Vegas. I’m not sure of how many ended their trip in Huntsville (quite a few got off) and 102 boarded there according to what I overheard the gate agent tell the flight attendant.
Anthony’s Take: Breeze Airways is an acceptable option if the flights and destinations work for your schedule. They don’t fly to Chicago where I live most of the year, but it worked well for us to get to Las Vegas from our winter home in Tampa. This is a no-frills, low-cost carrier. Go in with those expectations and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The flight was delayed several hours with no explanation as to why. While this wasn’t good, I’ve experienced plenty of delays on the legacy carriers. We found the plane to be quite dirty with smudges on the windows, crumbs on the seats, and stains on the bulkhead wall, floor, and tray table. I always have antiseptic wipes with me, and we did the cleaning for them. The flight attendants were pleasant and efficient. The Wi-Fi was inoperable for both flights. Breeze offers a decent selection of movies and TV shows and that was available on both legs on your laptop or phone.
Breeze launched its operation in May 2021 and has 27 aircraft serving 34 US destinations. We flew on an Airbus A220-300 for this trip.
Breeze offers three classes of service. These are: Economy (Nice), Economy with extra legroom (Nicer), and First Class (Nicest).
Booking
I booked directly with Breeze Airways and selected Nicest class seats in the bulkhead (seats 1D and 1F). These seats are in a 2-2 configuration. I caught a sale that made each ticket cost around $300. This was less than half the cost of what Delta and United wanted for a one-way ticket in First Class. The other classes are laid out in a 3-3 setup. This is a new aircraft and the seats looked fairly comfortable.
I started receiving messages the night before that our flight was delayed. It started with a 30-minute delay and extended to over two hours. No explanation was ever given. We live close enough to the airport that we arrived a bit early for the new departure time and had lunch before boarding.
Boarding
Boarding was a chaotic process where everyone rushed the podium. The gate agent made an announcement welcoming those with disabilities, active military, and families with children to board. No one listened and everyone ran up. She said nothing and let everyone board as they wanted. She also did not check any bags to ensure that people paid for them (remember, this is a low-cost carrier and bags cost extra to bring on in Nice (they’re included in Nicer and Nicest).
Seats
Legroom in the bulkhead was spacious. I’m six-foot-five inches tall and found the space plenty open.
The seats recline and also include a legrest in Nicest class. The legrest was too short for me, but some passengers might like the inclusion.
Breeze gets bonus points for including USB, USB-C, and standard outlets.
Seats have individual lights and air vents.
The tray tables were dirty with coffee stains and crumbs. I cleaned this before using.
Food
The pockets in front of our seats and on the seatbacks for the others included the safety card and a menu for drinks and snacks that could be purchased in flight. Nicer and Nicest class get a complimentary snack and drink. Flight attendants announced that there was no alcohol on board (only beer and wine).
The menu includes candy, chips, and a snack box (this is not included as a complimentary choice) as well as several soft drinks, beer, hard liquor, and wine.
I had a ginger ale and a snack box on the first flight.
I also had a ginger ale and M&Ms on the second flight.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi was inoperable on both legs of our trip. Breeze only recently started rolling out Wi-Fi on its A220’s. The Embraer jets that it flies do not offer connectivity.
In addition to Wi-Fi, Breeze offers on-demand entertainment. This consists of about two dozen movies, a bunch of various episodes of TV shows, and some shorts from YouTube. This worked well and made the time in flight go quickly. It also made up for the lack of Internet access.
Service
Everyone we encountered was friendly and efficient. They were a bit unpolished and stumbled a bit with announcements and procedures. The flight attendant working up front made herself available throughout the flights and checked in on snacks and beverages.
As mentioned above, we were delayed over two hours. Breeze proactively sent me an email offering 2,000 points in its loyalty program (which it says are worth $20). This was a nice gesture, but these will likely go unused as I will be sticking with Delta and United for most of my future travel.
Overall Impression: Breeze Airways provided decent service, good entertainment, and a comfortable ride in Nicest class. The planes need to be cleaned more thoroughly and Wi-Fi needs to be fixed. If I had the need, I would fly Breeze Airways again, but I’m not ditching my elite status with Delta or United.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
2 comments
The cleanliness, or lack thereof, seems to be a recurring theme with them. I flew on their inaugural flight out of Vero Beach, in the Nicest seats, and the cabin was filthy. The storage area in the center armrest was filled with crumbs and wrappers.. definitely not putting anything in there. After arriving to Hartford, I was on the same shuttle bus as the pilots to my hotel and they said the gate agent was complaining she was the only one there to clean the plane overnight.
They don’t schedule enough time between flights and it makes no sense. They schedule 40-45 minute turnaround on transcon flights. You cannot actually fuel an A220 with enough gas to make it back across the country in under 40 minutes (laws of physics and fuel system limitations).
It was a nice seat, but unless they’re flying nonstop where I need to go and I’m not worried about being ontime, I’ll stick with others.
“there was no alcohol on board (only beer and wine)”
Ummm….