And Pinnacle will fly for Delta...
 

It's been all over the press lately.

I think you mean INTRACONTINENTAL. The only intercontinental [commercial] flight around 3 hours was on the Concorde. ;)

IAD-MSP in an RJ is ridiculous!:td: I flew CVG-IAH on a CO ERJ and it did kind of suck but the service was good. It made up for part of the fact that it was an ERJ. Cramming people into RJs for longer flights has to be made up somehow, like offering a better service.

I know that I for one will continue avoid RJ flights. The more routes they fly using RJ's, the more I'll go for other airlines. If these flights were considerably cheaper then I could understand, but making the fligths more uncomfortable for the same price is a no-go for me.

Good luck.

Northwest is not alone in its endeavor. Look at their own alliance partners CO and DL and note how much their flying has shifted to RJs. At least the new jets Northwest has purchased are arguably more comfortable than the ERJ-135/145 and the CRJ-200/700s that dominate the other carriers. The CRJ-900 and EMB-175 will be an improvement over those if you've never flown in one before.

I know what you're saying, and I agree with the sentiment, but I'm afraid you'll not have much luck doing so, unless you fly something like Southwest or Airtran. Many airports where NWA is using RJ's currently, are also primarily RJ only for other carriers. I can think of several airports where NWA is one of the only airlines to not fly only RJs...GRB, SDF, ROC are some examples.

(I'm trying to get to DAY/CVG for a wedding this summer, and am not having any luck avoiding RJs.) Ugh.

A CRJ-900 is absolutely no better than a -700 in terms of cabin height and shoulder room. Directly from Bombardier's spec pages:

CRJ-700 CRJ-900
Cabin maximum width (centreline) 8 ft 5 in 2.57 m 8 ft 5 in 2.57 m
Cabin width (floor level) 7 ft 0 in 2.13 m 7 ft 0 in 2.13 m
Maximum height 6 ft 2.25 in 1.89 m 6 ft 2.25 in 1.89 m

Further, given that these dimensions represent changes from the -200 series by +1.0 inch, -2.0 inches and +1.25 inches, respectively, to suggest that these meaningfully are better than the CRJs (-100, -200 and -700) flown by other airlines is stretching logic.

As for the EMB-175 experience, that is, indeed, much better.

Ok, then ignore the "/700s" from my post.

I've flown all three models and, to me, the -900 feels more comfortable than the -200. Perhaps those small increases are enough to create that feeling. I guess YMMV.