E190 Business Seating
 

I have booked seats 1A/C for upcoming trip on the E190 - there is not a lot of information out there at the moment? Would this be the best seat in regards to legroom and overall comfort?
Thanks

All the seats are the same, no matter if it's designated as J or Y. Bulkhead (row1) is fine if you need the legroom but then it's no floor storage. E190 has the front lavatory as well so you do not need to go back for that.

Paid J on the Embraers is a complete waste of money apart from the flexible ticket. No closet for jackets & garment bags, no AB319 style wider seats, lavatory in the back as mentioned and minimum staff levels.

I agree, the so called J on Embraer is in many aspects a joke. It's not unusual for FA to smash the trays infront of J pax and then dissapear to the back for 20-30mins to carry out the Y "service".

Is it similar to KLM's "Euro Select," then? Same seat as coach, marginally "better" service? :confused:

Oddly, I think some American carriers are putting better seats at the front of their E-Jets, e.g.:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/NWA-A...5LR/1318248/M/

Well, not quite. The service is still OK on paper with lounges, meals, newspapers, free wine&booze etc...it's just the Embraer plane which is not up to par here. Narrow seating, no closet space, few toilets etc...minimum FAs so no dedicated J FA on most flights..

This is of course the way it should be.

US carriers don't normally sell business class tickets (or "first class" as some US carriers call their premium domestic cabin) without having a real premium cabin. If the seats in the aircraft are all the same, US carriers would typically only sell Economy class tickets on the flight. I think it's only in Europe where airlines actually would sell business class tickets but use the same seats as they do for economy class and just have a moveable curtain to make a so called business cabin.

Yes and combine that with European business class meals and there would be some better justification for a price that is up to eight times higher than in the Economy cabin.

Most US carriers don't even provide free food in economy any more. In "first" you're likely to get a decent meal. So that's infinitely more (and better) food for free. ;)

Actually, in the US you'd be lucky to get any food in first for a 2 hour flight, let alone a decent meal. While in Europe you always get a meal in C no matter the duration of the flight.

Add to that that in the US you don't get lounge access for domestic F (even though distances are often longer than most intra-Europe flights).

domestic F seat in the US >>> intra-Europe C seat
intra-Europe C service >>> domestic F service in the US

Perhaps I should add you do get a warm meal on longer E190/170 flights in J, while in Y there is no oven left in the galley :td:

I really appreciate the warm meals especially flying out of HEL, as the usually keep you waiting for about half an hour in the unheated bus at -18°C before they allow you to board the a/c:mad:. Thus a warm meal is well deserved!:)

And even if you had lounge access, the AY lounges suddenly look very luxurious compared to the average lounge in the US. Not having to pay for your alcoholic drinks is just one thing.

It is an amusing business model - giving away F almost for free e.g. through upgrade vouchers, but then selling lounge access as a separate membership. Just about the opposite of what non-US airlines do for elite members.

I'll have to confess to not having flown in C on AY. I've been in KLM's "Europe Select" seating, and found the "meal" there to be a tiny little assortment of highly artistic and unpalatable "gourmet" bite-sized whatever-they-were. I haven't been on any foodless domestic F flights in the US; usually under 2 hours there'll at least be a snack (much like KLM hands out in coach) and on something as long as, say, AMS-IST, there'd be a full proper meal for whatever time of day it is.

I guess the Northwest WorldClubs (KL's partner) are non-average, then, since there's free, self-serve alcohol. (Which I don't drink anyway, but I know it's there.)

Indeed. But the SkyTeam model, for example (because it's the one I'm most familiar with) is that top-tier elites get lounge access when they fly internationally. In Europe, you fly a few hundred miles and wham, you're in a new country. In the US, there are non-stop domestic flights of 8000km. And of course you're dealing with a country with literally hundreds of airports domestically. I wish I could have lounge access domestically, but I can understand that the sheer numbers involved probably make that an unreasonable wish. :D

This makes it hard to estimate the need for lounge places and other amenities like business class checkin and security lines.

If the lounge access comes with business class ticket irrespective of status, the airline can simply look up their seatmap, make the schedule for the airport and they know the exact maximum number of people who are entitled to be in the lounge, and refurbish/rebuild the lounge accordingly.

If the airline goes around selling lounge memberships for cash or handing them out to frequent flyer elites, they never know how many paid lounge members or elite level members may want to fly in coach of the same flight or on the same day.