Breeze Airways’ Inaugural LAX Trip Report 2022: “Enhanced” Ultra Low-Cost Carrier
Jan 10, 2023, 7:21 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: New York
Posts: 7,352
Breeze Airways’ Inaugural LAX Trip Report 2022: “Enhanced” Ultra Low-Cost Carrier
Breeze Airways’ Inaugural LAX Trip Report 2022:
“Enhanced” Ultra Low-Cost Carrier with Reliability Problems
Full photo album:
https://app.photobucket.com/u/Carfie...0-a92b5a11687b
Breeze Airways is another project by the famous David Neelman, and while it also has a blue color scheme, Breeze Airways is really no JetBlue. The new A220 as well as its fleet of refurbished E190 are all great planes (well if they clean them properly), and I like the “Nicest” cabin, which equals to most domestic first-class seats commonly seen in narrow aisle planes in the United States. The seat is really comfortable for a five hours transcontinental flights, but the cabin product is lacking. I don’t mind paying but give me something that I am willing to pay. Most importantly, its operational reliability is really weak, and forty minutes turnaround time for a transcontinental flight is not going to work because you can barely refuel the plane during that short amount of time. I flew three flights on Breeze – LAX-HPN, SFO-SBD-SFO, and none of them were on time. While most of the staffs were enthusiastic, they also lacked the experiences in running an airline. Everything is just amateurish. While the cabin product is nice given then Breeze is an ultra-low-cost airline, the operational mess really dissuades me from booking future flights. Also Breeze please don’t announce a flight unless you can actually fly it. It is fun to see you flying to all these new cities, but if you can’t run those flights, you not only kill the excitement but also anger plenty of passengers before they even stepped foot on your planes. No matter how beautiful the interior is or even comfortable to sit on those seats, you can’t get people to step onboard if you cancel on them last minute with no alternative. Breeze flies mainly between secondary cities, so if it cancels those flights in short notice, many passengers will be forced to cancel the trip all together especially during the holiday season.
November 2, 2022; Wednesday
MX 299 LAX-HPN Lv1205 Arr2025 Airbus A220-300 N206BZ
Planning
Well my original flight was to fly San Francisco to White Plains/Westchester, but things of course did not work out. While Breeze was able to start San Francisco flights, this transcontinental to White Plains did not happen due to late deliveries of A220s, or at least that was the excuse given. The route will be in the backburner for a while. I then switched to LAX, as that was my only alternative. Thankfully (well not so for some people), Breeze Airways has to postpone opening up LAX because of labor issues & A220 delivery problems. I still ended up on Breeze Airways’ first departure from LAX. At least it is something special.
Check-in
Another example of the amateurish operation of Breeze Airways was my attempt in finding out which terminal will Breeze Airways operate from LAX. I tried LAX website, as well as posting inquiries on twitter. No one seems to have the answer and I get no responses from both LAX Airport and Breeze’s twitter teams. Breeze really does not post this important information on its website too. Based on some old press releases in April, Breeze will use the new satellite of Tom Bradly international terminal, so I just went with my guts. I ended up being only half right. My uncle drove me to LAX on this uneventful morning and I saw the flashing sign on the departure level telling Breeze’s passengers to go to Terminal B (Tom Bradley). However when we passed Terminal One, I noticed the Breeze Airways’ sign flashing at Terminal One.
I immediately notified my uncle and thankfully he was able to pull over to the curbside for me to get out. I was really not impressed. When I walked into the terminal, I saw the Breeze Airways check-in counters but the flight display did not show the gate for the flight. I asked a LAX staff but he did not know. So I stood in queue and then I found out that LAX has been running this “check-in at Terminal One security check here at this checkpoint between terminal one and two took a bus to West Gates of Tom Bradley, which is how LAX addresses the new satellite terminal” for these second-tier low cost airlines/international leisure airlines. I overheard passengers complaining that they had to walk all the way back from Tom Bradley to Terminal One for check-in. The staffs were apologetic and reprinted all our boarding passes, as the electronic one did not have any gate information. [Just a word of caution, boarding pass printing at airport costs $3 but given the confusing situation, Breeze waived it for our flight this morning.] Breeze finally sent out an email at 10:30am advising the unique operations at LAX but that was less than two hours prior to our scheduled departure time. Most of us are already at the airport. Shouldn’t Breeze Airways email us the day before? LAX airport subsequently updates its website too, as I heard staffs discussing the less-than-stellar start of the day.
However I still wonder if Breeze Airways passengers can enter the checkpoint at Tom Bradley, if they don’t have check-in baggage? TBIT has some AA flights running and has TSA Pre too. I will like to use the Centurion lounge too because I found out that you cannot return from the West Gate to the main TBIT, or at least it is not easy thing to do.
New Check-in counter:
Gate:
I am definitely not a fan of this “West Gate”/Bus operations at this strange checkpoint at the crossroad between terminal one and two. First there was a what I called fake TSA Pre checkpoint – you have to take out your electronic devices, and the only thing is that you don’t need to take off are your shoes. Given the lack of options, it is still better than nothing. However I prefer the full TSA Pre checkpoint experience.
Then there are really no eating and shopping opportunities at this checkpoint area. You can walk to terminal one though, so for future Breeze Airways passengers, you want to buy food and drinks at terminal one before taking the bus over. But watch your time, because the bus does not run overly frequently. I don’t even know if there is a schedule for the bus. I notice folks seemingly waiting for a long time when I walked into it.
While the new West Gates is lovely and there are some great plane spotting opportunities at the end of the terminal in both ends, many of the restaurants and shops are still not opened. There is no lounge of any sort, and I am not sure if I am allowed to walk over to the main terminal of Tom Bradley, and there is no sign. I was happy to see a “Santouka Ramen” outlet opened, but the staffs informed me that their kitchens are not opened yet due to lack of water, so only cold food – Onigiri, sushi, bottled beverages and snacks are sold now. There is one other café opened with coffee & tea and limited bakery items. Sadly that’s it. There are a few outlets selling packaged sandwiches and salads, but for now, it is just sad. I had to buy food because I know Breeze does not sell fresh food and not sure if I can find food on my arrival into White Plains. My options are really not that great.
Plane-spotting:
Arrival and “festivities”
Well the inbound flight actually arrived on time and there is a little speech time by LAX’s staff, some figure head representing Westchester County, and David Neelman. Cupcakes and some Breeze Airways’ branded souvenirs are available. For a ULCC, it is pretty good.
N206BZ arrived from Westchester/White Plains
Airbus A220 is just a beautiful airplane and fits the objective of Breeze Airways’ of flying thin long-haul routes.
Boarding:
The flight’s load was fairly good and not many passengers were aware of today’s inaugural flight. I am surprised on the number of passengers continuing to Charleston, given the strange routing.
Being the first flight, the gate agents were understandably struggling a bit, and many of them did not realize that forty minutes were all what they got for turnaround time. Of course Breeze Airways really dropped its ball here. If Southwest can’t do a forty minutes turn for a transcontinental flight, why do you think you can do it with less resources?
Boarding began at 11:48am and there were plenty of pre-board, so I did not get a good cabin shot. But I managed a few when I deplaned. Unlike some of the reports I read previously, the cabin was in decent shape and someone cleaned the plane before it left Charleston in the morning. The plane ran this routing CHS-HPN-LAX-HPN-CHS.
The F/As were young but fairly friendly. They welcomed everyone onboard but did not help much with arranging bags and the boarding itself. That would speed up the boarding process if they helped rearranging bags. That resulted in a longer than necessary boarding time, but in the end, it did not matter because the fuel truck still had not made it to the plane yet. Our departure time was first pushed back to 12:50pm.
The Captain came out to the cabin and made a P/A informing passengers about flying time and kept us posted on delays. Just a note, on my other two Breeze flights, the captain did not come out to the cabin in making any announcements. It apparently was an “inaugural flight” special only.
Fuel truck eventually showed up, but no one realized that it would take a while for the plane to be fully refueled for a transcontinental flight to East Coast. The departure time pushed back to 1pm and then 1:15pm.
Finally at 1:14pm, door was closed and we pushed back six minutes later.
Thankfully LAX was not too busy and we managed to take off from R/W24L at 1:40pm.
In-Flight:
It was just a beautiful day to fly.
Flying time was four hours and forty-two minutes and we cruised at 35,000ft for a while, before reaching 37,000ft.
Breezes Airways uses cart for all service and the F/As used iPads to process the payment.
For “Nicer” and “Nicest” passengers, you get one complimentary free beverage – alcoholic or non-alcoholic and one complimentary snack items – Chex Mix, M&M peanuts, or Sour Cream & Onion-flavored Pringle Potato Chips, and the Breeze’s snack box was excluded from the list. I later purchased one because I am curious about it. It is also more substantial too.
Menu:
Since I did not drink much now, I got a bottled water (full-sized) and a bag of Chex Mix.
The snack box was your typical junk food selection with a slightly healthier branding.
The F/As appeared fairly frequent in the aisle collecting trash and were more than happy to sell you more food and beverages.
They did a water service (complimentary) for the whole cabin 90 minutes prior to arrival.
Some inflight views along our relatively short flight to the other Coast this afternoon.
The gate agents and even David Neelman have already warned passengers that no WIFI is available yet, and the installation date is January 2023, which I will take it with a grain of salt.
Electrical outlets are available through the Nicest cabin. For the whole flight, I listened to podcasts, read my kindle, and looked out the window. I only missed having a flight map so I know which cities our plane was flying over.
Thankfully the flight time was short due to favorable wind, as I did not buy enough food for the flight.
We began our descent at 8:50pmEST, and with no traffic, we landed on R/W16 at 9:22pm and parked at gate 3 quickly five minutes later.
There was no celebration for our arrival, for those who cares. Given how small White Plains Airport is, I literally walked out of the airport within five minutes. There was only one baggage claim and baggage delivery time was not long given how small the airport is, and the plane wants to fly to CHS ASAP. If you are continuing to Charleston, you are not allowed to leave the plane, so if you are flying CHS-HPN-LAX or LAX-HPN-CHS, you need to prepare accordingly. Honestly even if you are allowed to deplane at HPN, there is really nothing much available too. I recalled that there is just a small café inside the secured area. It might be closed too for the return flight too.
“Enhanced” Ultra Low-Cost Carrier with Reliability Problems
Full photo album:
https://app.photobucket.com/u/Carfie...0-a92b5a11687b
Breeze Airways is another project by the famous David Neelman, and while it also has a blue color scheme, Breeze Airways is really no JetBlue. The new A220 as well as its fleet of refurbished E190 are all great planes (well if they clean them properly), and I like the “Nicest” cabin, which equals to most domestic first-class seats commonly seen in narrow aisle planes in the United States. The seat is really comfortable for a five hours transcontinental flights, but the cabin product is lacking. I don’t mind paying but give me something that I am willing to pay. Most importantly, its operational reliability is really weak, and forty minutes turnaround time for a transcontinental flight is not going to work because you can barely refuel the plane during that short amount of time. I flew three flights on Breeze – LAX-HPN, SFO-SBD-SFO, and none of them were on time. While most of the staffs were enthusiastic, they also lacked the experiences in running an airline. Everything is just amateurish. While the cabin product is nice given then Breeze is an ultra-low-cost airline, the operational mess really dissuades me from booking future flights. Also Breeze please don’t announce a flight unless you can actually fly it. It is fun to see you flying to all these new cities, but if you can’t run those flights, you not only kill the excitement but also anger plenty of passengers before they even stepped foot on your planes. No matter how beautiful the interior is or even comfortable to sit on those seats, you can’t get people to step onboard if you cancel on them last minute with no alternative. Breeze flies mainly between secondary cities, so if it cancels those flights in short notice, many passengers will be forced to cancel the trip all together especially during the holiday season.
November 2, 2022; Wednesday
MX 299 LAX-HPN Lv1205 Arr2025 Airbus A220-300 N206BZ
Planning
Well my original flight was to fly San Francisco to White Plains/Westchester, but things of course did not work out. While Breeze was able to start San Francisco flights, this transcontinental to White Plains did not happen due to late deliveries of A220s, or at least that was the excuse given. The route will be in the backburner for a while. I then switched to LAX, as that was my only alternative. Thankfully (well not so for some people), Breeze Airways has to postpone opening up LAX because of labor issues & A220 delivery problems. I still ended up on Breeze Airways’ first departure from LAX. At least it is something special.
Check-in
Another example of the amateurish operation of Breeze Airways was my attempt in finding out which terminal will Breeze Airways operate from LAX. I tried LAX website, as well as posting inquiries on twitter. No one seems to have the answer and I get no responses from both LAX Airport and Breeze’s twitter teams. Breeze really does not post this important information on its website too. Based on some old press releases in April, Breeze will use the new satellite of Tom Bradly international terminal, so I just went with my guts. I ended up being only half right. My uncle drove me to LAX on this uneventful morning and I saw the flashing sign on the departure level telling Breeze’s passengers to go to Terminal B (Tom Bradley). However when we passed Terminal One, I noticed the Breeze Airways’ sign flashing at Terminal One.
I immediately notified my uncle and thankfully he was able to pull over to the curbside for me to get out. I was really not impressed. When I walked into the terminal, I saw the Breeze Airways check-in counters but the flight display did not show the gate for the flight. I asked a LAX staff but he did not know. So I stood in queue and then I found out that LAX has been running this “check-in at Terminal One security check here at this checkpoint between terminal one and two took a bus to West Gates of Tom Bradley, which is how LAX addresses the new satellite terminal” for these second-tier low cost airlines/international leisure airlines. I overheard passengers complaining that they had to walk all the way back from Tom Bradley to Terminal One for check-in. The staffs were apologetic and reprinted all our boarding passes, as the electronic one did not have any gate information. [Just a word of caution, boarding pass printing at airport costs $3 but given the confusing situation, Breeze waived it for our flight this morning.] Breeze finally sent out an email at 10:30am advising the unique operations at LAX but that was less than two hours prior to our scheduled departure time. Most of us are already at the airport. Shouldn’t Breeze Airways email us the day before? LAX airport subsequently updates its website too, as I heard staffs discussing the less-than-stellar start of the day.
However I still wonder if Breeze Airways passengers can enter the checkpoint at Tom Bradley, if they don’t have check-in baggage? TBIT has some AA flights running and has TSA Pre too. I will like to use the Centurion lounge too because I found out that you cannot return from the West Gate to the main TBIT, or at least it is not easy thing to do.
New Check-in counter:
Gate:
I am definitely not a fan of this “West Gate”/Bus operations at this strange checkpoint at the crossroad between terminal one and two. First there was a what I called fake TSA Pre checkpoint – you have to take out your electronic devices, and the only thing is that you don’t need to take off are your shoes. Given the lack of options, it is still better than nothing. However I prefer the full TSA Pre checkpoint experience.
Then there are really no eating and shopping opportunities at this checkpoint area. You can walk to terminal one though, so for future Breeze Airways passengers, you want to buy food and drinks at terminal one before taking the bus over. But watch your time, because the bus does not run overly frequently. I don’t even know if there is a schedule for the bus. I notice folks seemingly waiting for a long time when I walked into it.
While the new West Gates is lovely and there are some great plane spotting opportunities at the end of the terminal in both ends, many of the restaurants and shops are still not opened. There is no lounge of any sort, and I am not sure if I am allowed to walk over to the main terminal of Tom Bradley, and there is no sign. I was happy to see a “Santouka Ramen” outlet opened, but the staffs informed me that their kitchens are not opened yet due to lack of water, so only cold food – Onigiri, sushi, bottled beverages and snacks are sold now. There is one other café opened with coffee & tea and limited bakery items. Sadly that’s it. There are a few outlets selling packaged sandwiches and salads, but for now, it is just sad. I had to buy food because I know Breeze does not sell fresh food and not sure if I can find food on my arrival into White Plains. My options are really not that great.
Plane-spotting:
Arrival and “festivities”
Well the inbound flight actually arrived on time and there is a little speech time by LAX’s staff, some figure head representing Westchester County, and David Neelman. Cupcakes and some Breeze Airways’ branded souvenirs are available. For a ULCC, it is pretty good.
N206BZ arrived from Westchester/White Plains
Airbus A220 is just a beautiful airplane and fits the objective of Breeze Airways’ of flying thin long-haul routes.
Boarding:
The flight’s load was fairly good and not many passengers were aware of today’s inaugural flight. I am surprised on the number of passengers continuing to Charleston, given the strange routing.
Being the first flight, the gate agents were understandably struggling a bit, and many of them did not realize that forty minutes were all what they got for turnaround time. Of course Breeze Airways really dropped its ball here. If Southwest can’t do a forty minutes turn for a transcontinental flight, why do you think you can do it with less resources?
Boarding began at 11:48am and there were plenty of pre-board, so I did not get a good cabin shot. But I managed a few when I deplaned. Unlike some of the reports I read previously, the cabin was in decent shape and someone cleaned the plane before it left Charleston in the morning. The plane ran this routing CHS-HPN-LAX-HPN-CHS.
The F/As were young but fairly friendly. They welcomed everyone onboard but did not help much with arranging bags and the boarding itself. That would speed up the boarding process if they helped rearranging bags. That resulted in a longer than necessary boarding time, but in the end, it did not matter because the fuel truck still had not made it to the plane yet. Our departure time was first pushed back to 12:50pm.
The Captain came out to the cabin and made a P/A informing passengers about flying time and kept us posted on delays. Just a note, on my other two Breeze flights, the captain did not come out to the cabin in making any announcements. It apparently was an “inaugural flight” special only.
Fuel truck eventually showed up, but no one realized that it would take a while for the plane to be fully refueled for a transcontinental flight to East Coast. The departure time pushed back to 1pm and then 1:15pm.
Finally at 1:14pm, door was closed and we pushed back six minutes later.
Thankfully LAX was not too busy and we managed to take off from R/W24L at 1:40pm.
In-Flight:
It was just a beautiful day to fly.
Flying time was four hours and forty-two minutes and we cruised at 35,000ft for a while, before reaching 37,000ft.
Breezes Airways uses cart for all service and the F/As used iPads to process the payment.
For “Nicer” and “Nicest” passengers, you get one complimentary free beverage – alcoholic or non-alcoholic and one complimentary snack items – Chex Mix, M&M peanuts, or Sour Cream & Onion-flavored Pringle Potato Chips, and the Breeze’s snack box was excluded from the list. I later purchased one because I am curious about it. It is also more substantial too.
Menu:
Since I did not drink much now, I got a bottled water (full-sized) and a bag of Chex Mix.
The snack box was your typical junk food selection with a slightly healthier branding.
The F/As appeared fairly frequent in the aisle collecting trash and were more than happy to sell you more food and beverages.
They did a water service (complimentary) for the whole cabin 90 minutes prior to arrival.
Some inflight views along our relatively short flight to the other Coast this afternoon.
The gate agents and even David Neelman have already warned passengers that no WIFI is available yet, and the installation date is January 2023, which I will take it with a grain of salt.
Electrical outlets are available through the Nicest cabin. For the whole flight, I listened to podcasts, read my kindle, and looked out the window. I only missed having a flight map so I know which cities our plane was flying over.
Thankfully the flight time was short due to favorable wind, as I did not buy enough food for the flight.
We began our descent at 8:50pmEST, and with no traffic, we landed on R/W16 at 9:22pm and parked at gate 3 quickly five minutes later.
There was no celebration for our arrival, for those who cares. Given how small White Plains Airport is, I literally walked out of the airport within five minutes. There was only one baggage claim and baggage delivery time was not long given how small the airport is, and the plane wants to fly to CHS ASAP. If you are continuing to Charleston, you are not allowed to leave the plane, so if you are flying CHS-HPN-LAX or LAX-HPN-CHS, you need to prepare accordingly. Honestly even if you are allowed to deplane at HPN, there is really nothing much available too. I recalled that there is just a small café inside the secured area. It might be closed too for the return flight too.
Jan 10, 2023, 7:23 am
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: New York
Posts: 7,352
Full Photo Album of flights between SFO and San Bernadino Airport:
https://app.photobucket.com/u/Carfie...0-fe6f6b54fc1d
I will attach photos of a roundtrip from SFO to San Bernadino flight that I took a few days later.
The flight was delayed because the aircraft was late from Provo for some reasons that no one cared to explain. The F/As were nice and the cabin service was modified for these short flights. For Nicer passengers, you get a mini bottled water and a KIND bar for free, and the rest of the items are available for sell. As expected I don’t see too many passengers buying stuffs especially given the delays and the short flights. I am sure more people will buy stuff on the slightly longer segment from SFO to Provo. The “Nicer” cabin is just economy seats with more legroom, but for Embraer 190/195s, the coach seats are nice and the additional legroom makes it just a better experience. Given these planes mostly only run four segments daily – PVO-SFO-SBD-SFO-PVO, they did a bad job in cleaning the planes. The tray tables were icky and I am pretty sure that no one cleaned the planes daily even though the plane sat at Provo for half a day, except a few days when they flew to Vegas in the evening.
Cabin service for Nicer Cabin:
San Bernardino Airport is cute and it is interesting to see those retired planes. The terminal is fairly small but they have three gates with jetways. It is clear that the airport has some ambitions, but for a new airport, I am shocked how they have not installed power outlets throughout the terminal. There is one single café selling limited food and beverage. Given there is only one daily flight, it is more than I have expected. Breeze Airways reports that they are doing well on this SFO-SBD flight, and while the flight was not 100% full, they were fairly busy. Hopefully their Las Vegas flights will work too. I can see the potential of Breeze running a small regional network through SBD – LAS, SEA, SFO, PDX, and Provo nonstop eventually,
In-flight shots:
However I am still a bit hesitant to book a Breeze Airways flight especially inaugural flights because it is clear that there is a 50% chance that the flight will be cancelled less than a month before flight. I did not want to believe that Breeze cancelled the launch of these flights because the load is not what they have expected but sometimes the reasons for the cancellations is just so suspicious. For now, I just hope Breeze Airways can focus on first running on-time and fixing these turnaround times especially longer flights, and second, hiring more staffs or stepping up training. I understand new airlines go through teething problems but the operation feels so chaotic that it is not instilling any confidence. Finally the onboard product needs help and once again I am more than happy to pay for fresh food (I don’t even mind pre-ordering) and at least have a more diverse array of snacks to sell. I hope the WiFi will be installed in a faster pace too. Most importantly, please be more conservative with starting new flights. Don’t announce any launch until you are 100% sure that you can run these flights or have staffs to run these operations in and out of these new cities.
I don’t mind stepping onboard Breeze again, but will not book super early given its less than stellar records in actually running those flights. I wish Breeze all the luck, and if you are patient with delays and avoid booking flights in the latter part of the days, you should have an okay experience. While Neelman’s name is attached to it and there is a faint “JetBlue” association, Breeze is not JetBlue and IMHO, it is basically a Spirit Airline flight with better branding and a large premium economy cabin. There is no doubt that Breeze Airways is a ultra-low-cost airline, which needs more time to develop its niche and to run a more reliable operation.
Thanks for reading!
Carfield
https://app.photobucket.com/u/Carfie...0-fe6f6b54fc1d
I will attach photos of a roundtrip from SFO to San Bernadino flight that I took a few days later.
The flight was delayed because the aircraft was late from Provo for some reasons that no one cared to explain. The F/As were nice and the cabin service was modified for these short flights. For Nicer passengers, you get a mini bottled water and a KIND bar for free, and the rest of the items are available for sell. As expected I don’t see too many passengers buying stuffs especially given the delays and the short flights. I am sure more people will buy stuff on the slightly longer segment from SFO to Provo. The “Nicer” cabin is just economy seats with more legroom, but for Embraer 190/195s, the coach seats are nice and the additional legroom makes it just a better experience. Given these planes mostly only run four segments daily – PVO-SFO-SBD-SFO-PVO, they did a bad job in cleaning the planes. The tray tables were icky and I am pretty sure that no one cleaned the planes daily even though the plane sat at Provo for half a day, except a few days when they flew to Vegas in the evening.
Cabin service for Nicer Cabin:
San Bernardino Airport is cute and it is interesting to see those retired planes. The terminal is fairly small but they have three gates with jetways. It is clear that the airport has some ambitions, but for a new airport, I am shocked how they have not installed power outlets throughout the terminal. There is one single café selling limited food and beverage. Given there is only one daily flight, it is more than I have expected. Breeze Airways reports that they are doing well on this SFO-SBD flight, and while the flight was not 100% full, they were fairly busy. Hopefully their Las Vegas flights will work too. I can see the potential of Breeze running a small regional network through SBD – LAS, SEA, SFO, PDX, and Provo nonstop eventually,
In-flight shots:
However I am still a bit hesitant to book a Breeze Airways flight especially inaugural flights because it is clear that there is a 50% chance that the flight will be cancelled less than a month before flight. I did not want to believe that Breeze cancelled the launch of these flights because the load is not what they have expected but sometimes the reasons for the cancellations is just so suspicious. For now, I just hope Breeze Airways can focus on first running on-time and fixing these turnaround times especially longer flights, and second, hiring more staffs or stepping up training. I understand new airlines go through teething problems but the operation feels so chaotic that it is not instilling any confidence. Finally the onboard product needs help and once again I am more than happy to pay for fresh food (I don’t even mind pre-ordering) and at least have a more diverse array of snacks to sell. I hope the WiFi will be installed in a faster pace too. Most importantly, please be more conservative with starting new flights. Don’t announce any launch until you are 100% sure that you can run these flights or have staffs to run these operations in and out of these new cities.
I don’t mind stepping onboard Breeze again, but will not book super early given its less than stellar records in actually running those flights. I wish Breeze all the luck, and if you are patient with delays and avoid booking flights in the latter part of the days, you should have an okay experience. While Neelman’s name is attached to it and there is a faint “JetBlue” association, Breeze is not JetBlue and IMHO, it is basically a Spirit Airline flight with better branding and a large premium economy cabin. There is no doubt that Breeze Airways is a ultra-low-cost airline, which needs more time to develop its niche and to run a more reliable operation.
Thanks for reading!
Carfield
Jan 10, 2023, 3:39 pm
#3
Join Date: Oct 2022
Programs: DL Diamond, UA Gold, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Explorist, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 24
Having experienced some good and some bad on Breeze, I found your excellent trip report very much on point. I too hope Breeze can sort our their operational issues because there is a niche market for their business model.