After many years of flying in F or C cabins I recently had my first expereice in Y on a 2 cabin aircraft.

To begin:
For Easter I had booked an organised tour in southern Spain and needed to be in Malaga on a particular day. Being based in Spain, my preferred option to get there was to use the *A carrier Spanair. When I booked on their website there was only a full Y class ticket left on the outboud and only a super special deal (19 Euros) on the return. When I phoned Spanair to ask about reserving seats I was told that full Y class ticket holders get seated in the C cabin ^ so I asked, and got 1C. For the return (in cheap S class) no seats can be pre-booked. This trip would thus give me the opportunity to compare C and Y class on a domestic flight and it would be my very first flight in Y

Part 1
Madrid-Malaga
Spanair Business Class
A320
I got at the airport on Easter Sunday about 3 hours before my flight departure because I had overestimated the time it would take me to get there! Also, I had no idea how busy (or not) Easter Sunday would be.
JK is located in Terminal 2 and the chein-area was easy to find. It was not crowded at all and I was the only person to check-in at the JK Business Class checkin. My bag was tagged with a proirity tag and I got my boarding pass with my pre-booked seat. Going through security was easy and quickly too. After wondering arround the terminal a bit I finally found the Spainair Sala Madrid Lounge. There too it was very quiet; only 3 other people were sitting in the leather sofas waiting for their flights. Throughout the longe there are bar areas with drinks (including beer, wine, spanish champagne and spirits) as well as nibbles (potato chips, olives, crackers,danish pastries and fruit). In the far corner there was a cumputer with free intenet access, a copier, printer and fax. A variety of Spanish, English and German newspapers/magazines were available. After more than 2 hours in the lounge my flight was called to board. Judging by the short line up of people waiting to board the flight was not going to be full. Odd that when I booked only full Y was left?
Spanair used an A320 aircraft for this short flight. The seats in C are grey/blue fabric and, as I later found out, identical to those in Y. In C the middle seats are left empty though. Today there were only 2 rows of C class and each person had a row for themselves. After the saftety video we took off on time for the 55 min flight south. After take-off the cabin crew distributed disposable towls to C class pax. A light snack, consisting of a colourfull cardboard box containing 2 minature sandwiches and a small piece of chocolate was handed out. Drinks (all complimentary) were then offered. Just before descending a FA offered candy to all pax.
The Malaga airport was much busier than Madrid, Flights with tourists from all over Europe were arriving at the same time and so it took quite a while for my bag to arrive. When it did it was one of the first to arrive...the orange proprity tags sometimes do work....or was I just lucky?

Part 2
Malaga-Madrid
Spanair Economy Class
A320
After a wonderful week in southern Spain it was time to head back home. The tour company had arranged airport transfer for me to be at the airport about 2 hours before the flight. Of course at 6am on Sunday morning there was very little traffic and so I got there almost 3 hours before departure! I was dreading my first flight in Y....
The airport was a zoo, with busloads of tourists arriving for their flights back home. It took me a while to find the Spanair check-in area because hordes of people were standing arround the display monitors. There were 3 Spanair counters open this morning, one for Businiess Class ans *G and 2 for Y pax.
Thanks to my *G card I could avoid waiting in line for what looked like a considerable anmount of time. I was told that the flight was going to be 100% full this morning so I asked for an aisle seat as far to the front as possible. I was given 8C, the first row of Y. The agent appologized because it was not possible for her to block the seat next to me, something that Spanair does for *G pax in Y (subject to space). My bag was again tagged with a priority tag and I was given an inivitation to the lounge. The Malaga lounge is run by the airport and is a shared facility and not a designated *G lounge. Security took about 1 hour! by which time I really need some breakfast in the lounge. I was the only person in the lounge and they were still setting up breakfast. Fresh pastries, fruit and joghurt was available as well as cofe, tea hot chocolate and fresh orange juice. The daily paper (Spanish only) was also just arriving in the lounge. After haveing some nice breakfast the flight was called adn I walked the 10 min walk to the gate. By the time I got there I was one of the last to beard. The A320 really was packed this morning! 7 Rows of C class (with some middle seats even occupied) then Y from row 9 onwards. No overhead locker space was left for my bag so it had to go under my seat. My first impression of Y: the seats are the same as in J both in width and pitch! The flight today was goin to be 45 min. so no drink/snack service was possible in both classes! The FA did distribute the towls in C again. Normally, in Y there would have been no snack and drinks have to be purchased. Just before descending the FA offered candy to all pax. In Madrid my bag was the first to arrive...lucky again??

Overall there was little difference between C and Y on this short domestic flight! I think, it would not be wothwhile to pay for C just to get the extra miles given that service etc. is almost identical.
On lonhgaul flights I will happily keep turning left or going up the stairs

Thanks for reading my first trip report here!