E190 Space Questions
 

Hello KLM folks!

I'm flying ATL-AMS-FLR.

My flight to Florence is on the E190 in business class. CityHopper operated, I believe.

I've never been on this particular plane - is there space in the overhead for a regular 20 - 22" carry-on bag?

If not, will there be a gate check?

As a side note, can I expect a warm or cold meal on the flight?

Thanks,

VB

The bins on the E190 are oversized for a regional jet. All sensibly sized cabin bags will fit in the lockers with no problem. I believe the food will be a sandwich.

AMS-FLR is 2hr 5 min block time, that means about 1h 30 min actual flight time. No warm meal on this flight, unfortunately, afaik.

Your rollaboard should fit sideways, but you shouldn't over-stuff it. On a busy flight, expect gate attendants to police the bags and gate-check mercilessly, regardless of class of travel and FF status (gate-check = pick up at baggage carrousel).

On my last E190 KLC flight, they were taking most, if not all, rollaboards to be gatechecked.

This did not go down very well with an American passenger that boarded after me; once he stepped aboard his fury boiled over, and he announced to the entire cabin that the bins were big enough for his case, and kept the commentary up for the duration of his walk to his seat with some choice words for the staff members he passed.

Well, gate staff are often overambitious when it comes to preserving bin space, especially at outstations (NUE and LHR come to mind). Often they just apply blanket policies (anything with rails is a no-go), which is puzzling because it makes you wonder what those bins are for when the type of luggage that probably 80% of passengers use these days isn't suppose to go in there.

Most of the time DAA means your bag will be returned at the stairs, though on the E190 and some F70 destinations that doesn't always work and so you may end up waiting at the baggage carousel after all which defeats the purpose of travelling with hand baggage only in the first place.

My stance is: If the bag is legal size and weight the bag should be allowed in the cabin. It's not the passenger's problem that the airline chose an aeroplane that cannot accept all hand baggage in the cabin.

Not the only purpose, since it now costs to check a bag in (at least in Y).

Oh. I thought the OP was asking about flying an E190 into space. :D

I haven't flown on KLM's E190s much, but I have spent a lot of time onboard KQ's E190s - and I assume the overhead bins are pretty much the same. (Indeed, I think KQ have slightly bigger overhead bins in J, as they have 1+2 seating and can extend the bins on the right-hand side of the plane, while KLM has 2+2 seating throughout, so I assume the bins in KL business are the same size as in economy). Anyhow, the overhead bins on KQ's E190s are somewhat small (indeed, probably the only negative point about what is otherwise a very nice plane) - my carry-on (a well-laden laptop backpack) often will not quite fit, and has to go under the seat in front of me (where it normally fits OK) or be re-packed slightly. A thinnish roller case would probably fit overhead alright - but I wouldn't be surprised if a larger one (which would fit fine on a 737, A320, etc) did not.