canadiancow

Honestly, IMO your best option, given your concerns, is to buy an LMU.

Board first, sit in J, don't worry about it.

RangerNS

It won't be a question of how forgiving the GA is on checking the bag, but how forgiving physics is. Even a small bag might not fit if you're the last to board on a full flight.

atxflyergal

LMU is last minute upgrade? Trying to figure out how that will work since the booking and itinerary originates with United, so I think we will be checking in with United rather than AC. Is it something we need to ask about at the gate once we get there and can we upgrade only for that particular leg? Any idea what the cost may be? Thank you!

I did pull up the reservation on AC website and there is a button about bidding for upgrading but it says the flight is not eligible.

Maybe another strategy would be to pick seats in the back of the plane once we check in since someone mentioned above they are boarding back to front?

Sounds like they aren't that picky then which is good! Very worst case we could also use our tactic of smaller size rollaboard combined with a huge backpack, this has worked even on picky Lufthansa agents

Symmetre

My B&R Baseline (21" high, 15" wide, 9" deep) fits the E175 bin easily wheels-in, laying on its back. It's tight but not unreasonable, so you might be able to squeeze a 22" bag in the same way. If not then it will have to go sideways, which the FAs won't like one bit if it's a full flight. Again, anything you can do to board earlier (including checking in right at 24 hours and buying a last-minute upgrade to J if you're offered during the check-in process) would be beneficial.

yyznomad

Yes.

atxflyergal

Thanks everyone I will let you know how it goes!

atxflyergal

Well I'm not off to a good start so far. I have to check in with United because the first flight is a United only flight (the AC ones are codeshared). United won't let me finish checking in online because they apparently want to verify documents at the airport even though I've scanned and uploaded every single thing they requested. Prior to check in, when I looked at the Newark to Toronto AC flight, there were tons of open seats available for purchase for $11. Now that I'm within 24 hours of check in, every single seat is blocked off and I can't pick any seat. I also don't have any option for upgrades since everything has to originate through the United check in. On the AC page it says not eligible. On the United page it only lets me do things for the first United flight. Sigh.

Edit: we ended up getting completely rerouted with a different airline, but we did get through with the larger bags just fine.

bostontraveler

Flying YUL-BOS next month and strange thing... row 12 is marked as preferred seating.

My current seat, 12C, cost €8.70 but in the same row, 12F costs €15...

Is the reason just the no inflight entertainment?

I just care about legroom.

Thanks!

Changeup2000

You will be bumped by every Y cabin pax not seating on Row 12 (almost everyone).

vancouver25k

This helps to see what's going on: https://www.aerolopa.com/ac-embraer-175

TheCanuckian

C isn’t a terrible seat, but it’s annoying as people board and bump you.

I would grab any other seat in that row ahead of it. But I’d grab that one ahead of most other seats in economy class.

bostontraveler

12F is available... is there more legroom in that row?

vancouver25k

For Y, row 12 has the most legroom because there are J seats in front that need to recline. I think you get even more legroom in 12C, but it's annoying to be in the seat while Y is boarding.

airalmond

Row 12 has a lot of legroom, I was unable to reach the seat in front with my feet. I don't think being bumped by passengers would be a problem during the 80 minute long flight in seat C, but yeah, you don't have the screen and no seat pocket either.

Changeup2000

Seated in 12C once. It was horrible. Got hit by several baggage and wheels during boarding. And you cannot really blame other pax because there was not a lot of aisle room to begin with.

I would recommend boarding the last if seated in 12C, which of course comes with the issue of no head cabin for your carryons. Especially you cannot put anything in front of you seated 12C (in front of you is the J cabin aisle).