The thing that sucks about purchasing a basic economy ticket is the feeling of wishing there was an option to get something nicer without having to shell out big bucks for the fancy seats.
Thankfully, Breeze Airways has a solution to this problem (at least on their A220-300s). They call it the “Nicer” seat. Clever, eh?
I recently had a chance to try the Nicer seat on a 3 1/2 hour flight from Los Angeles to New Orleans. As you’re about to see, it is indeed nicer. It’s also a little worse if I’m being honest…
MX543
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – New Orleans, LA (MSY)
Monday, June 5, 2023
Aircraft: A220-300
Registration: N215BZ
Duration: 3 hours 40 minutes
Seat: 6F (“Nicer” Seat)
Breeze Airways A220-300 side view illustration by NorebboStock.com.Our convoluted route from Los Angeles to New Orleans today as MX543.
My full review of the Breeze Airways A220-300 Nicer seat from Los Angeles to New Orleans
As a reminder, there are three types of seats in the Breeze Airways A220-300. The basic economy seats are called “Nice.” The fancy seats are called “Nicest.” Their middle tier seat (the one you will see you in this review) is called “Nicer.”
The Nicer seats are essentially basic economy (Nice) seats with a little extra legroom. The best part? It doesn’t cost very much to sit in one of them.
Arrival at LAX
Flying up from San Diego in Delta Connection E175 first class was probably not the best way to set myself up for this review. I hate to say it, but that was a more comfortable experience.
Breeze Airways operates out of Terminal 1 at LAX. Kind of. That’s where ticketing and baggage claim is. Their planes, however, operate in and out of the West gates at the Tom Bradley International Terminal (Terminal B). The hell?
I’m happy to report that there is an airside shuttle bus that makes the transfer convenient and easy.
Welcome to Terminal 1! This is the current home for Breeze Airways at LAX – but as you’re about to see, it’s more like “squatting” than “living”…Yup – Breeze Airways uses shared check in counters (I told you they’re squatters). My arrival was too early for my short attention span to allow standing around a waiting for the changeover.Plot twist! Once you battle your way through the baggage drop and security process here in T1, you’ll need to get on a bus to reach the gate (in a completely separate terminal on the other side of the airport). Squuaaatters!I’ll spare you the details of the bus ride (since it’s not the point of this review), but let’s just say the airside transfer bus hit this nerdy AvGeek right in the feels. It’s also worth mentioning that this was where I found an all new appreciation for squatting. Sometimes maybe it is necessary. I can certainly think of worse terminals to transfer to here at LAX. Terminal B is beautiful!And then, it hit me. “B” obviously stands for “bitchin’.”Gate 210 is where my flight to New Orleans is departing from today. And it looks like there’s an option to switch to Norfolk if I’m feeling so inclined.Nah, I’m stickin’ with New Orleans. Eventually. The plane hasn’t even arrived yet for chrissakes.I’d like to tell you that I was carefully weighing the pros and cons of both New Orleans and Norfolk, but let’s just call this what this is: squatting.
The boarding process for flight number 543 to New Orleans
For being such a relatively new airline, I’m still amazed at how quickly Breeze Airways got their **** together. This was my third ever flight with them, and once again, they got the boarding process started nearly right on time.
Finally seeing some action here at gate 210!By the way, Nicer seat passengers are part of the Zone 1 boarding group. But isn’t that technically the “nicest” boarding group? I’m getting confused…Going down the jet bridge was a breeze with a Zone 1 boarding pass. #rimshotI wasn’t completely alone though. There seems to be some traffic here at the boarding door.Nice looking seats, eh? You can read more about them in my Breeze Airways Nicest seat review.Here’s a preview of what you’ll see as you hang your head in shame on the way past the fancy seats.
Nicer seat overview
Remember what I was saying earlier about these seats being “worse” than “nicer”? They aren’t anywhere near as nice as the Nicest seats, so technically, I’m not lying. They are pretty decent though, with gobs of extra leg room and useful amenities (such as power outlets and device holders).
There they be. These are the Breeze Airways A220-300 Nicer seats in all their pleather-clad glory.That extra legroom!I think you’d have to be monstrously vertically-endowed to complain about seat pitch such as this.On one hand, there seems to be nothing exciting about the seat backs. On the other hand, these are darn near identical to the seats you saw in my Air France A220-300 business class review. Chew on that for a moment!USB-C ports? Aw hell yeah!As you will see in my video review of this flight, the only word I could think of to describe these headrests was “voluptuous.” You’ll understand completely the moment you cop a feel for the first time.Yes, it was probably inappropriate to post a pic of this mystery stain on the seat in front of me immediately after telling you how voluptuous the headrests are.At what age does one typically outgrow the immature jokes? Asking for a friend.The nicest thing about this experience so far is the feeling of how much nicer this this with an empty middle seat next to me. Nice!Hmm – the load factor here in the Nicer seat section looks to be about 70%. This is kind of surprising to me considering how cheap the upgrade is from the basic economy seats.
The departure out of LAX
Pushback from the gate was about 9 minutes late, but who was counting? I certainly wasn’t. Especially since I got lucky and scored an empty middle seat next to me. As a matter of fact, most every solo traveler in the Nicer seat section had an empty seat next to them. Nice!
Not to be an annoying backseat driver or anything, but we should have pushed off the gate 8 minutes ago. I have no specific comment about this – I’m just reporting things as they happened.If that wing walker is anything like me, he was probably pissing his pants in excitement for being so up close and personal with an A350 and an A220 (the two best looking aircraft in existence).I wonder if the Norfolk flight made it out of here on time?By the way, seat 6F was a fine choice. It’s situated just far enough ahead of the wing to allow for a slight peek into the engine (which always makes for more interesting pics).Being able to see inside also helps when a goose (or cinder block) is ingested during the takeoff roll. The sparks and flames from this vantage point will be spectacular!And then, there was nothing but water as we made the long and gradual 180 degree turn to the east…
The following is a full / unedited video of the entire taxi and takeoff process. I love how quiet the Airbus A220-300 is at full rip!
In-flight entertainment
There is no in-flight entertainment on any Breeze Airways flight at the time of this writing. Wi-Fi isn’t available either. Not even for an additional cost.
A quick scan of the nearby WiFi networks revealed that no – they weren’t pulling a fast one on us. At the time of this writing, flying Breeze Airways means being completely disconnected from society for a few hours. I can tell you from experience that it’s as every bit as glorious as it sounds.
Despite the lack of video screens and streaming entertainment, at least they were kind enough to provide handy personal device holders built into the seat back headrests.
Ribbed for your pleasure? These personal device holders look like they’ll hold any size device (phone or tablet) with ease.There’s a ‘small penis’ joke in here somewhere (I’m sure), but all I’m going to say is this: size doesn’t matter. This device holder works well no matter what size phone you’re rockin’.I don’t have any scientific data to back this up, but the A220 seems much quieter to me than other comparable mainline aircraft. As a matter of fact, the noise canceling system in my lowly AirPods Pro earbuds was easily strong enough to make this A220 seem as quiet as a Rolls Royce.
The food
Nicer seat passengers on Breeze Airways have the exact same food options as everyone else on the plane does. The only difference (at least compared to the Nicest seat passengers) is that nothing is free. Except water. They’re not that stingy.
Heck yeah I am. Thanks for asking.Complain all you want about the lack of choices, but this buy-on-board menu is far more substantial than the menu on my last Breeze Airways flight. Slow progress does qualify as progress!Although my natural instinct is pushing me to whine about how this little bag of popcorn cost $4.50, I refuse to do so considering that I was weak enough to agree to those terms and conditions. I think I would’ve paid more for a bigger bag if they offered it though. This was such a tease!Water is complimentary in all seats on all Breeze Airways flights. Where that water is sourced likely differs depending on the route.This stuff probably came straight out of the Los Angeles Aqueduct (and I don’t care).
The best way to sum up the food on this flight is to compare it to what you saw in my Breeze Airways Embraer 195 Extra Legroom review. Back then, all we got was a bag of potato chips and a cup of water. It seems not much has changed.
Seat comfort
If you’ve flown economy class on any other airline recently, the Breeze Airways Nicer seats might not be much of a surprise. Yes, the leg room is extremely generous – but the seat itself is bare-bones basic economy.
It’s a narrow (and hard) seat, and it doesn’t recline as much as the Nicest seats do. That said, it was perfectly fine for this 3 1/2 hour flight to New Orleans.
Testing out the seat recline (which was ok, btw). My apologies to the poor soul behind me who had to endure three whole attempts at this (once for this written review, once the video, and once for myself).Crossing your legs in a Nicer seat requires two things: First, you need to be under 6’ tall. Second, the person in front of you has to be sitting bolt-upright. Being bendy also helps. Here’s a better visualization of “tall guy vs reclined seat”. He seems ‘aight with it.
The descent and arrival into New Orleans
It had been over 23 years since I had last flown into New Orleans, so I was very much looking forward to seeing how things have changed. Then again, I have a really hard time remembering 23 hours ago let alone 23 years, so that probably explains why nothing looked familiar to me all the way in.
Waiting to see something that looks Louisiana(ish)…There we go! Even if I had never seen Louisiana before, this looks pretty much exactly like I would have imagined.Smugly giving a middle finger to all the hungry gators below on the approach into MSY.Welcome to New Orleans! Fun fact: that’s the old airport terminal building in the background. The new structure (which we will be parking at) was built in an entirely different location.The fact that they were able to build a huge new terminal building without having to tear down the other one first is kinda impressive. What other airports in the US have that kind of available real estate to work with?We’re a few minutes late, BTW.Better to be late than crash land into the swamp and being eaten by hungry gators I guess.Another Nicer seat perk: being one of the first off the plane (which is awesome when you need to make a beeline to the nearest restroom). The walk up the jet bridge was anything but easy breezy. I really gotta go!Thanks for the ride, N215BZ! I can’t think of any “extra legroom” economy experiences I’ve had that were much nicer than this.
Pros and cons of the Breeze Airways A220-300 Nicer seat
This experience was an eye-opener for me. As much as I enjoyed the much larger Nicest seat last year, this Nicer seat experience seemed to be a much better value. I much prefer extra legroom over extra seat width, and it’ll be really hard for me to resist on future bookings. I mean, it only costs just a teeny bit more than basic economy (the “Nice” seats) for crying out loud.
Pros
The extra legroom is very noticeable. Anyone over 6 feet tall will appreciate it.
Being able to board with Zone 1 means that you won’t have to fight for overhead bin space.
It’s a great value. Most of the time, you’ll be able to score one of these seats for not much more than what basic economy costs.
Cons
It’s the exact same seat they use for basic economy. Translation: it won’t be very comfortable on longer flights.
Other than water, snacks and drinks are not free.
The lack of in-flight entertainment means that you’re going to have to bring your own.
Great review Scott!
Just curious, what’s your favorite A220 livery? While all A220’s look great, I think it looks the best (or should I say, nicest) in Breeze’s scheme. One of the nicer-looking airplane/livery combinations out there.
I have to say that, while the soft product is very typical of a Low Cost Carrier, the seats look just like any other modern-day Economy seats. They seem to have all the usual features (USB ports, device holders, and thin padding). As for the legroom, seatmaps.com says these seats have 32″ of pitch, which isn’t quite as good as typical Economy plus legroom, but is indeed better than what it’s like in the Nice seats.
The seats look a bit off-brand though…
Also, nice to see that you landed on Runway 11! This is by far by favorite approach at MSY due to the views of the bayous.
Thanks Peter! I hate to say it, but my favorite just might be the Air France livery. I know – it’s very simple, but there’s something about it that works very well with the smaller proportions of the A220. But yeah, the Breeze Airways livery is easily my number two favorite.
It’s interesting what you say about those seats looking off-brand. I agree! Just by looking at the featured image of this review, it would be really hard to tell what airline that is based on the textures and colors alone. It makes me wonder what the reasoning was for not using any of the colors and textures from the Nicest seats.
I’ll have more pictures from MSY in my next review!
You’re welcome! It’s interesting how Air France has your favorite A220 livery. It’s simple but elegant, and yes, it does work well with the A220’s proportions. I think Eurowhite liveries (like Air France) look better on smaller aircraft because there’s less white, giving the impression of it being more colorful.
As for the seats, yeah, it’s weird how the design isn’t anything like that of the Nicest seats. They look like they’d belong on American Airlines or Air Canada, not on Breeze Airways. I will say, though, that the darker materials make them look a lot sharper than the Nicest seats up front (IMO). But they would look a lot more on-brand (and just as sharp) if the headrests were blue.
Hi Scott, as an employee of Breeze I feel compelled to tell you that the newer A220s starting with N217BZ are WiFi equipped from delivery by Airbus with a plan to retrofit the remainder of the fleet within a year or so if I recall correctly. The ex-AC E190s have WiFi streaming for IFE, I haven’t flown a 195 yet so I can’t comment on those. The Nicest seat was rebranded to Ascent last month for some reason. LAX is a growing city for us, but in the LA area our main focus seems to be SNA.
Thanks for the info Chris! Someone had told me last year that in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi was coming, so I was a little surprised to see that it hadn’t been implemented yet. But it’s good to know that it’s coming!
I’m not sure how much pull you have with the management team, but I’d like to request service to San Diego if possible. Thank you. Haha!
Peter
Great review Scott!
Just curious, what’s your favorite A220 livery? While all A220’s look great, I think it looks the best (or should I say, nicest) in Breeze’s scheme. One of the nicer-looking airplane/livery combinations out there.
I have to say that, while the soft product is very typical of a Low Cost Carrier, the seats look just like any other modern-day Economy seats. They seem to have all the usual features (USB ports, device holders, and thin padding). As for the legroom, seatmaps.com says these seats have 32″ of pitch, which isn’t quite as good as typical Economy plus legroom, but is indeed better than what it’s like in the Nice seats.
The seats look a bit off-brand though…
Also, nice to see that you landed on Runway 11! This is by far by favorite approach at MSY due to the views of the bayous.
Scott (SANspotter)
Thanks Peter! I hate to say it, but my favorite just might be the Air France livery. I know – it’s very simple, but there’s something about it that works very well with the smaller proportions of the A220. But yeah, the Breeze Airways livery is easily my number two favorite.
It’s interesting what you say about those seats looking off-brand. I agree! Just by looking at the featured image of this review, it would be really hard to tell what airline that is based on the textures and colors alone. It makes me wonder what the reasoning was for not using any of the colors and textures from the Nicest seats.
I’ll have more pictures from MSY in my next review!
Peter
You’re welcome! It’s interesting how Air France has your favorite A220 livery. It’s simple but elegant, and yes, it does work well with the A220’s proportions. I think Eurowhite liveries (like Air France) look better on smaller aircraft because there’s less white, giving the impression of it being more colorful.
As for the seats, yeah, it’s weird how the design isn’t anything like that of the Nicest seats. They look like they’d belong on American Airlines or Air Canada, not on Breeze Airways. I will say, though, that the darker materials make them look a lot sharper than the Nicest seats up front (IMO). But they would look a lot more on-brand (and just as sharp) if the headrests were blue.
Chris
Hi Scott, as an employee of Breeze I feel compelled to tell you that the newer A220s starting with N217BZ are WiFi equipped from delivery by Airbus with a plan to retrofit the remainder of the fleet within a year or so if I recall correctly. The ex-AC E190s have WiFi streaming for IFE, I haven’t flown a 195 yet so I can’t comment on those. The Nicest seat was rebranded to Ascent last month for some reason. LAX is a growing city for us, but in the LA area our main focus seems to be SNA.
Scott (SANspotter)
Thanks for the info Chris! Someone had told me last year that in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi was coming, so I was a little surprised to see that it hadn’t been implemented yet. But it’s good to know that it’s coming!
I’m not sure how much pull you have with the management team, but I’d like to request service to San Diego if possible. Thank you. Haha!
Keith
Thanks very much for this excellent review. Really appreciate it.
Scott (SANspotter)
You’re very welcome Keith! Glad you found it useful (and hopefully entertaining).