Last night I flew my first Chautauqua Continental Express CRJ-200 flight and thought I'd post a recap of the experience. Overall it wasn't too bad, but not up to the usual standards I've seen on ExpressJet operated COEX flights. Here are my thoughts on the experience.

• Flying out of B84: Chautauqua appears to be flying exclusively out of B84, so if you're on a Chautauqua-operated flight, be prepared. Yes, B84 has been recently expanded with more seating and new restrooms, and air conditioning that actually works. And there's a new contractor operating the buses, using a brand new fleet of buses instead of the previous contractor's ratty old former Metro buses. This has made the B84 experience marginally better. However, the additional seating is really only useful when CO is evenly distributing the flights among all the B84 departure doors. Last night about 75% of the B84 departures were leaving out of B84-A and B84-B, with a few leaving out of B84-C and almost nothing out of B84-D. B84-E appeared to be totally unused. So, despite all the new seating areas, and plenty of empty seats down by B84-D, the area around B84-A and B84-B was still just as crowded as usual. And while there were plenty of open seats on the other end of the B84 departure area, because the agents working B84 still refuse to use the PA system for most of their announcements, it's not possible to wait for your flight anywhere other than right by your flight's departure door, or you risk not hearing the boarding announcements. Two things CO could do to improve this situation — distribute the flights more evenly among the B84 doors, and get the agents to use the PA system instead of yelling announcements. If they use the PA, you could sit anywhere in the area where there is open seating, even if it's not right by your departure door, and still hear your boarding call.
• The CRJ: Chautauqua's ex-Independence Air CRJs are the nicest I've ever flown. I was pleasantly surprised by the overall condition of the aircraft interior. I had heard that the seats Independence Air put in these planes were a big improvement over the standard CRJ seats, and this is true. These seats have higher backs, thicker headrests, and good padding throughout the seat cushion and back. The seats are covered in a dark violet-blue leather. I'm not sure if the seat covers are new or are the covers Independence Air had, but they are nice. One complaint I do have is that the seats can't be the 18.5" wide that CO claims they are on their website. These seats are no wider than the ones on other RJs, and did not feel as wide as those in economy on CO's 767s and 777s, even though according to CO.com the CRJ seats are the widest economy seats in CO's fleet. Either someone measured wrong or the website has a typo. However, I didn't find the seats to be uncomfortably narrow, and were certainly no worse in width than those on the ERJs.
  
  I had an exit row (row 8) aisle seat. There is an extra 1.5"-2" pitch in row 8 on these planes. While the legroom is nothing compared to than on the ERJ exit rows, it wasn't bad, and I was able to stretch my legs under the seat in front of me. I also looked at the bulkhead seats. 1C/D has more leg and knee room than 1A/B, due to the bulkhead on the right side being closer to the front of the aircraft than the bulkhead on the left side.
  
  I would still avoid the window seats in every row on this plane unless you're fairly short or don't have broad shoulders, due to the horrible curvature of the fuselage. And of course there are still the tiny windows that are too low for anyone over the age of nine to see out of comfortably. While these CRJs are noticeably nicer than those I've flown on ASA, Comair, and SkyWest, they are still CRJs. There's a lot of lipstick on these pigs, but they are still pigs, but certainly more comfortably than the ones I've flown on DL Connection.
  
• The Flight: Overall service was fine. The flight attendant was very green and not very polished with her announcements and safety demo; later she mentioned to some of us that this was her first day flying with passengers on her own. I'm sure with a little more experience she'll be a pro. I did notice that Chautauqua seemed to rely on pre-recorded announcements a lot more than ExpressJet; on ExpressJet I've never heard a recorded announcement other than the safety demo. On Chautauqua all of the pre-departure announcements were recorded, along with a few in-flight and pre-arrival announcements. I wasn't really bothered by this other than the fact that the announcements sounded like they were recorded on a portable cassette player and were being played back over a scratchy telephone connection. At times they were a little hard to hear due to the sound quality. I don't know if this is an issue with the recording, the playback equipment, or the speakers on the CRJ, but it was a little annoying.
  
• Chautauqua's Operations: I consider myself very lucky here. Chautauqua was having major delays last night due to crew and aircraft scheduling issues. Some flights, like those to SDF and STL, were running approximately six hours behind. There was a lot of discontent among the passengers in the B84 waiting area due to the lengthy delays that were not due to weather. Hopefully Chautauqua will soon improve this situation, but from stories I've heard from other passengers at IAH and some outstations, this is almost a daily problem on Chautauqua operated COEX flights right now. For this very reason, I would try to avoid Chautauqua operated flights if possible.

Overall, my experience wasn't totally horrible, but it wasn't up to the standards I've come to expect from mainline CO and ExpressJet operated COEX flights. The CRJ was the most comfortable I've ever flown, and while it still has the same issues that make CRJs on any airline uncomfortable, the seats on these planes are a big improvement. While I'd still prefer to fly ExpressJet operated COEX flights, I'm not quite ready to jump ship on my LBB flights to WN because of the CRJs. However, if Chautauqua can't get the issues with reliability corrected quickly, I will consider my options on other airlines for these flights, since LBB is quickly transitioning to being almost exclusively served by Chautauqua.