First Class on Continental Express
 

Was up late tonight and drifted over to SeatGuru to check out United’s EMB-170 and was pleasantly surprised to see 1st class on it. It got me thinking that Continental Express might not be so bad if they could offer a similar product on their longer flights such as the IAD to IAH run. (I would be ecstatic if it was on their shorter flights, but...) I know that CO has an armada of ERJs on order, but if they could integrate some of the newer EMB models with mainline comparable (read First Class) service? If they did, I’d be happy and willing to give it a try. Anyone know if this is feasible - or just a distant delusional late night dream of a cramming student…

J.Edward

United's EMB170 (SeatGuru)
Interior Photo

As much as we'd all love some extra comfort on those RJ's, I highly doubt you'll ever see any kind of premimum seating on 50 seat aircraft. The United Express aircraft you reference is quite a bit larger than any regional jet flown by COEX.

The pic that you show I believe is of a US EMB 170 which is all coach class.

Dan

According to Gordo, all ERJ seats are first class.

While this would be great for those RJ long hauls, I don't know if currently contracts allow COEX to fly equipment with that many seats.

If I can get 1A on an ERJ I am comfortable on flights under 2 hours. Over that time, my butt starts to go numb because IMO the seats are harder than mainline seats and other RJ seats on other airlines.

I really like Independance Air's RJ seats as they are comfortable and have enough padding to keep my butt comfortable.
Dan

It doesn't. I believe that anything with 70 or more seats goes mainline.

According to Embraer's Site the 170 seats 70 in 6F (36" pitch) and 64Y (31" pitch). If COX can't fly 70 or more seats on a jet why not zap a row in coach, redistribute the pitch? This would bring the capacity down to 66 as well as put a little more room in coach.

J.Edward

PS. Despite poking around airliners.net I could not find a pic of the 170 with FC, ergo the picture of the all coach EMB.

It would also increase the cost per seat-mile of flying the plane and decrease the potential revenue per seat-mile for this plane. If CO decided to do something like this, they would likely remove 1 seat (say in the first row of Y) to bring it down to 69.

[QUOTE=- or just a distant delusional late night dream of a cramming student…

J.Edward

QUOTE]
Yup, that about sums it up...

the emb 170 can be ordered with FC seats (1-2) and UA's will be. US's were ordered with all coach.

the CRJ 170 (i think that's the number) can also be config'd with FC seats (1-2). HP's had them. they were sent to UA, so now they operate two RJ types with FC seats.

CO emb's cannot be reconfig'd easily for FC b/c of the location of the galley. unless they replaced the last four rows with three rows of 1-1, then it would be impossilbe without redoing the entire AC.

Thanks for all the feedback :) However, let me calrify a few things that I was trying to get across in my OP. I was not suggesting that COX add FC to the ERJs, but possible consider changing some of their on-order ERJ-145s to EMB-170. The logic being that a FC product could be placed in the EMBs and that would make long COX flights more bearable. The question I wanted to put twoards the group was their reaction to flying in FC on a hypothetical COX EMB-170 and what are the odds that COX will go for the EMB with or without a FC cabin.

Have a happy Thursday :)
J.Edward

Given that CO has Y fares on some RJ routes that are equivalent to F fares on other airlines, they really ought to look into making their high level of service more consistent across aircraft type. Currently, if I need to fly to a destination that has rip off fares such as refundable SAT-DAY, I just fly DL and get the F seat for the same price as the RJ seat on CO (without any sacrifice in flight time or frequency). This is potential revenue that CO is losing because I (and most likely lots of other biz travellers) will always favor the plane offering better comfort and service when the fares are the same. A cramped Y-only RJ simply cannot compete for high fare travellers.

It's not going to happen any time soon...there are currently scope clauses in place that prohibit CoEx from flying anything larger than they're currently flying. How those scope clauses will be interpreted or amended in the future remains to be seen, but it's not happening for now.

If I take 1A, the table tray won't go flat. My "line-backer" legs are a little too large, I guess. It's off to Weight Watchers after the holidays! :p