Dave Noble

Yup - an aeroplane from De Havilland that AA still has a few of

e.g. CLT-SBY AA 4945 and AA 4909

Looking at the seatmaps on seatguru , neither the 100 nor the 300 model seems to have the rear facing seats

I do not know about AA, but other airlines have had rear facing seats at the front of a Dash 8 ( eg. Qantas has row 1 seats AB CD EF , where EF were the rear facing seats )

T/BE20/G

The company removed the seats in row 1 a little while ago so that they could add more RJs. The scope clause of the mainline pilot contract limits the amount of flying that the company can contract out to non-mainline pilots. One of the limits defines how many aircraft can be outsourced, with the relevant count including all jets with 30 seats or more and all turboprops with 50 seats or more. As the company approached this limit, they chose to solve the problem by removing two seats, 1DF, from the DH3, thus removing the DH3 fleet from the count of aircraft applicable to that limitation.

BWISkyGuy

Were row 1 rear facing though? I've flown on Dash 8's since the Henson days and I'm pretty sure they were all forward facing on my flights, or I would have picked the rear facing seats in a heartbeat. It's possible that was after that modification was made, but that's still looking back almost 30 years.

I DID fly a couple of flights on the Dash 7's back in the day though, and a vaguely remember row 1 was rear facing because of the exit doors right there... Is it possible the OP is thinking of a Dash 7?

aztimm

I've been on the Dash-8 many times, mostly between PHL-ABE/PHL-AVP, and I don't recall there ever being a row with backwards seats. Maybe I just wasn't on the right variant.

Dave Noble

Perhaps the OP is remembering the layout of a different carrier which does have the rear facing seats. Did US perhaps have such aeroplane configurations?

aztimm

Most of my flying in the Dash 8 was from PHL on US.

If I stretch my mind back quite a bit, I think I was on Dash 8's on UA, NW, and TW. But I can't really say for certain. I really don't recall seeing any rear facing seats on any of them. I'm 95% certain that I flew on TW's Dash 8 AVP-DCA, and then again TBN-STL. The airport at TBN was so small when I was there, the, "terminal," was a trailer.

GoPhils

I was definitely in a rear-facing seat from or to CLT maybe 3 years ago or so, so probably was US. Don't remember the type of plane though.

ACA321

US did have rear-facing seats in row 1 on Dash-8-300s, at least the ones operating out of CLT under the Piedmont regional banner. I remember selecting those seats on flights between CLT-GSO as recently as three years ago. Haven't flown on a Dash 8 since then, so can't vouch for anything more recent. What T/BE20/G stated above makes sense though in light of the current seat maps- seems AA must've removed them due to scope clause.

MrWilliamston

Yeah, that's what I remember as well. The Dash 8 flights with rear facing seats in row 1(starboard side) were all on US. Did the new AA get rid of those former US Dash 8 planes?

dgparent

Ahh the Dash 8 only plane that flies from my home airport HTS

MrWilliamston

You make it sound like it's a bad thing?

I love planes with propellers. I just bring earplugs and pretend that I'm getting a full body massage for an hour or two.

Plus it helps me overcome my unfounded fear of the propeller breaking off and making a hole in the cabin.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ces-cabin.html
"Air Canada flight from hell as wheel explodes on take off, plane crash lands and propeller slices through fuselage and into female passenger's HEAD"

Aristophanes80

These Dash-8s with the rear-facing seats were common between ROA and CLT too. A while back (maybe a year ago) 1D and 1F were removed from planes on that route, and it's pretty obvious that these are the same planes but with the seats ripped out because you can still see the imprint and wear on the plane floor where they used to be. I asked a flight attendant about it once and she said they were removed for the exact reason that T/BE20/G cited.

For those that didn't get to experience their joys, you weren't missing anything. They were very close to 2D and 2F, making for an awkward ride of intermingling legs and face-to-face staring between rows 1 and 2. Now that the row 1 seats are no longer there though, 2D and 2F have about three feet of legroom :-)

Fraser

Indeed, Piedmont operated DH8s from CLT. I flew them quite a few times between CLT and CAE. When I told the other half what I'd done she was baffled why I'd choose that but after the first try she rather liked it, particularly since it was only a short flight. Was always a bit of a giggle, particularly on steep ascents.

MrWilliamston

I haven't flown AA out of CLT in a while. However, I just noticed that a lot of flights that were formerly operated by RJ200 regional jets are now replaced with Dash 8. (which is how I ended up booking this flight)

T/BE20/G

To ease the confusion for those who don't remember seeing the rear-facing seats... Piedmont operates 2 different Dash 8 variants. The 37 seat DHC-8-100 never had rear facing seats; row 1 was/is a normal 2x2 forward facing row; the larger DHC-8-300 used to be configured with 50, now 48 seats. The -300 is the only variant that had the rear facing seats at 1DF; the AC side of the cabin started at forward-facing seats 2AC.