Flying Porter Airlines from San Diego to Toronto recently (in a PorterReserve seat on the E195-E2) was as satisfying as it was fun.
Satisfying because it was 1/4 the cost of what Air Canada typically charges for business class from SAN to YYZ.
Fun because, well, screw AC and their “ambitiously” priced premium seats. I ain’t never not gonna enjoy saving a bunch of money whenever a perfectly good alternative presents itself.
PD682 San Diego, CA (SAN) – Toronto, ON (YYZ) Monday, February 3, 2025 Aircraft: E195-E2 Registration: C-GZQV Duration: 3 hours 59 minutes Seat: 3A (PorterReserve)
Porter Airlines E195-E2 side view illustration by NorebboStock.comOur route from San Diego to Toronto this afternoon as PD682.
My full review of the Porter Airlines PorterReserve experience from San Diego to Toronto
I know. The problem with charging 1/4 the price of your competition is that it’s usually not sustainable. At least for the little guy (which, in this case is Porter).
I’m gonna be ticked if Porter gets run out of San Diego by their Canadian compadres (just as Swoop and Air Transat did – the latter of which never even initiated service). PorterReserve is just too dang good to be swished away like a pesky bug.
Arrival at the airport
The scheduled departure time to Toronto was 2:05 PM, but I already knew that the chances of this flight going out when they said it would were slim to none. Their on time performance out of SAN had been abysmal recently, but that didn’t stop me from showing up at 11:30 AM (and hoping for the best).
How long do you think it’ll be until they add Porter Airlines to the list of airlines here at the entrance of Terminal 2 West? Considering how long Swoop lasted, I guess I don’t blame them for taking the “wait and see” approach.
Porter operates out of Terminal 2 West at SAN. Their ticket counter is located adjacent to United, which, as you might expect, is better than being located next to Air Canada. I can’t imagine they appreciate each other’s presence all that much.
There’s not all that much happening here at the Porter Airlines check in counter yet (other than what looks to be like a handful of employees trying to figure out how the computers work). How convenient is this? Not only am I a PorterReserve passenger, I also consider myself to be one hell of an Avid Traveler and a Grand Voyager. I’ve never felt more welcome in all my life.The very wiggly walk to gate 48.“On Time” lol. The Avid Traveler (and Grand Voyager) in me wasn’t that optimistic considering that this airplane wasn’t even scheduled to arrive until 1:23 PM.
A slightly delayed a departure worked out to my advantage actually. I used the extra time to check out the Chase Sapphire Lounge here in T2. It was a pretty nice place to hang out while they got things sorted out.
Whoo-whee! This was the first time that I had ever seen an Embraer 195-E2 in person, and…let’s just say that I liked what I saw. It’s a mean looking little airplane.
The boarding process
It was kind of hard to gauge how full (or how empty) this flight was going to be while standing in the gate area just prior to the initiation of the boarding process. There didn’t seem to be that many people. But at the same time, It was difficult to visualize the seating capacity of an E195-E2. I was clueless.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to begin the boarding process for Porter Airlines flight number 682 to Toronto. And f**k Air Canada.”
Nobody rushed the gate when they called for PorterReserve passengers to board, so that was my first clue that this was going to be a very light load to Toronto today.
The livery may not be all that exciting, but the huge engines give me tingling sensations in places you probably don’t want to hear me talk about.
Seat overview
The best way to describe the PorterReserve seats on the E195 E2 is to think of it as business class “lite”. Another way is to compare them to the seat you saw in my Breeze Airways A220-300 Ascent review. It’s a very similar premium(ish) seating product, with equal amounts of leg room, but the Porter seat isn’t as wide.
Actually, I think I’m more impressed with the overhead bins than I am with the seats so far.Actually…are you seeing that legroom?Actually, F the overhead bins. I can confirm that the leg room in these seats feels pretty much the opposite of what I disccussed in my Swoop Airlines review. That’s a massive compliment BTW.Akshully, F the narrow seat width. Just because.
If it isn’t obvious from the pictures, the benefit of the PorterReserve seat is the generous legroom. The seats themselves aren’t all that great, but having what feels like an unlimited amount of room to spread out makes all the difference.
I’ve already used too many references to the F bomb in this review, which is unfortunate considering the misaligned window situation here in row 3. Gee whiz, man!Ain’t no need to say negative things about the in seat power situation though. I’ve heard that Canadian electricity is really good.They handed out menus during the boarding process (I’ll show you the contents of it later). Should we be worried that there’s no mention of San Diego – or Los Angeles – here on the cover? It’s almost as if they already know that SoCal is a long shot.
The departure
Our departure from the gate was 22 minutes behind schedule (at 2:27 PM). It probably would’ve been even later had this been a full flight, but things moved pretty quickly once we got rolling.
If you squint your eyes, it kind of looks like an A350 from this angle (especially considering that the vertical stabilizer of that Delta A321 parked over there looks like a winglet). And if you squint really hard, the woman holding up the baton looks like Julia Louise Dreyfus. Lots going on in this pic.Everyone here up in PorterReserve has an empty seat next to them by the way. 20 bucks says that there isn’t a single ex-executive of Swoop Airlines that wouldn’t be shocked by this. SAN just hasn’t been kind to new Canadian airlines lately.
Having an open seat next to me made all the difference. Especially considering how narrow these seats are. It would’ve been really cramped if someone had been sitting next to me.
* sighing in extremely satisfying (and probably disturbingly perverted) ways * We haven’t even taken off yet and I’m already declaring this to be the best San Diego to Toronto flight of my life.
Thankfully we were able to get in the air before the menacing looking fog bank approaching from the west consumed the airport. It was close!
And we’re off! Considering that there are 15 other places in the world named Toronto, let’s just hope they typed the Canadian one into the flight computer. #fingerscrossedThen again, ending up in Toronto Zimbabwe might be kinda neat. I’m willing to accept whatever happens.
Food and drinks
They surprised me with some pretty good food and drink options. All PorterReserve passengers get a complementary meal – which just so happens to be the same meals that regular economy class passengers can purchase. And they’re actually pretty good. It’s not hot food, but it is fresh (and tasty) in ways which made me wish I hadn’t eaten so much in the lounge before the flight.
The breakfast menu, which believe it or not, is not completely irrelevant to this review. One of the passengers sitting in row 2 asked for (and successively obtained) the croissant breakfast sandwich duo. Well played, my good man. Well played indeed. The lunch and dinner options for today’s flight. Lord give me the strength to one day being able to choose something other than the chicken whenever it presents itself on an in-flight menu.Basically the way it works is that everyone gets the same Plane Brown Box (the best name for a snack box, like, ever). What you choose for the entrée and the drink is totally up to you. This is a lot more substantial than what I was expecting!The contents of the Plane Brown Box: jalapeño cornbread, crackers, salad, and a mini slab of Ghirardelli dark chocolate. Neatly wrapped utensils too? I swear to God I’m gonna be so miffed if they can’t make San Diego work.The Piri Piri Chicken Salad. Honestly? It was at this moment that I started to understand the reasoning for row 2 guy pleading for a leftover breakfast item instead. That dude knows what’s up.Thankfully it tasted a lot better than it looked (in the same kind away that I’m actually more intelligent than I look). It took some courage to dig in, but I’m glad I did. It was delicious.The hummus dip – which was awfully salad-like. Kind of unfortunate considering that I chose a salad for my main meal, right? If only I had the courage to ask for the croissant breakfast sandwich duo instead!
In-flight entertainment
There are no video screens in the Porter reserve seats (or any other seat for that matter). In flight entertainment does exist though, and you can access it via the complementary Wi-Fi on your personal device.
The Wi-Fi is free BTW. ViPorter members get complementary access, but everyone else has to sit through an advertisement every 30 minutes. $20 says it’s a 5 minute hemorrhoid cream ad – one so disgusting that it’ll make you sign up for ViPorter soon as you land in Toronto.
The catalog of content was decent. But if I’m being honest, you’ll probably want to fly Air Canada if high-quality video entertainment (featuring all the latest and greatest stuff) is a top priority for you.
I’m not gonna let the fact that I am haven’t heard of any of these movies make me say something negative about the quality of the in-flight entertainment. A lot of people worked very hard on these, and I’m sure they’re all very good.That’s the exact same expression I had upon opening the lid to the Piri Piri Chicken Salad!
The lavatory
Embraer E-Jet lavatories are small and fairly basic – but functional in all the ways you need them to be. The E195-E2 is still a regional jet after all, so it’ll be necessary to lower your expectations (and suck in that gut) before going in.
Yeah, the lavatory is nice and all, but I’m slightly concerned about how narrow this is. Those of you requiring leverage when wiping are going to find the lack of space challenging.
Seat comfort
What is there really to say about a standard economy class seat featuring gobs and gobs of legroom? The PorterReserve seat isn’t all that comfortable actually (and it offers no additional reclined over a standard economy seat), but that legroom tho. They certainly didn’t skimp on it.
The fact that one of the flight attendants chose to sit and chat with her friend for the majority of the flight (instead of walking through the cabin picking up trash every now and then) confirms that these seats are far more comfortable than the jumpseats that they have up front.Can’t say that I blame her. With leg room like this, I’d totally “forget” about trash collection as well. Seat recline is decent BTW. No better or no worse than what you would get in Air Canada A220-300 business class.
The descent and arrival into YYZ
Having an open seat next to me made this one of the most comfortable regional jet flights that I’ve ever had. Of course my buttocks were a little numb, but I was having a pretty good time being completely antisocial thank you very much.
They came by with another round of drinks about an hour and 10 minutes prior to landing. Snacks too – but I was still feeling plenty satisfied from the multiple salads earlier. A statement I’m pretty much willing to bet you’ve never heard anyone say in your entire life.“Sh*tter was full!” (a reference to the scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where the storm sewer starts glowing green after Cousin Eddie empties his toilet into it).
As you might expect for February in Toronto, it was a very cold and snowy approach all the way into YYZ. It had been along time since I’ve seen snow like this. Beautiful!
Now that’s what I am talkin’ about. Hate on winter all you want, but I still think it’s the hap hap happiest season of all.Welcome to Toronto! It may not look like much, but trust me. This place is pretty dope, yo.
We touched down on runway 05 at exactly 9:49 PM local time. We were scheduled to do it at 9:32 PM but, well, stuff happens sometimes.
Total taxi time to the gate was 8 minutes (it was scheduled to be 18), and they turned off the seatbelt sign at 9:57 PM. This resulted in being only 7 minutes late. They came so close to nailing an on-time arrival.
Aannd that’s a wrap on my first ever Porter Airlines E195-E2 PorterReserve experience. It could very well be my last as well, due to how kryptonite-like SAN has been to new Canadian airlines lately. I wish them luck.
Pros and cons
As long as it’s cheaper than what Air Canada is charging, it’s really hard to beat Porter Airlines (and a PorterReserve seat). It’s 90% as comfortable, and 95% as delicious.
Pros
The legroom is darn near otherworldly. Maybe not quite as good as what Virgin America A319 first class was, but much better than the current competition.
The food they serve is substantial. It won’t be hot, but it will be tasty (and enough to keep you satisfied for the entire flight).
The relative small size of the Embraer 195-E2 makes it feel kind of (sort of) like a business jet experience.
Cons
Maybe it was just my particular flight, but the flight attendants didn’t seem to be all that interested in doing any work. They sat most of the way to Toronto.
In-flight entertainment is just OK. I’d recommend loading up your devices with movies and TV shows beforehand.
In the moments leading up to writing this Delta 737-800 first class review, I realized that it may be one…
5 Comments
Nice to see that you landed right side up at YYZ!
Ok, jokes aside, this looks like a pretty decent experience. Porter seems like a nice little airline with plenty of character (at least, more character than Air Canada), and that legroom looks really impressive!
Also, just wondering, this was your first time on an E2, right? How would you compare it to, say, the first-gen E-Jets or the A220?
lol there’s no point in complaining about being a few minutes late when you arrive right side up, right?
This was a surprisingly nice flight. It wasn’t as good as the Breeze Airways premium experience IMHO (the closest thing I can think of to compare this to), but it was decent enough. The food was really good, but the seat was meh.
And yup, my first time on an E2! It didn’t feel (or sound) like a regional jet at all. I assume it’s added weight and size is what made it smoother than a typical E-Jet. It felt about the same as an A220.
What happened to that Delta Flight is crazy! https://x.com/Mr_JCE/status/1891832593579954489
(sorry for the link)
This Porter flight looks to be similar to the Dash-8 with similar seats and food. Porter airlines is a incredibly underrated airline. I’d even dare to say that it’s almost the Canada regional version of Etihad or Emirates(very flipping nice).
Also can you make a blog post like this for a airline reviewer? https://www.driveandreview.com/how-to-become-a-car-reviewer-on-youtube/
Thanks! The fact that the Delta incident happened so closely to the time that I was there makes it hit a little more closer to home for me. The videos are spooky – and it’s a miracle that everyone walked away from it mostly unscathed.
But yeah, this Porter E2 experience makes me really want to give the Dash-8 a try. It’s a neat little airline.
And thanks for reminding me that I need to update that “how to be a car reviewer” post lol. I wrote that along time ago, and things have definitely changed since then. I agree that it would be fun to do similar version for aspiring airline reviewers…
Hi SANspotter! I was just reading the blog, and yes I am an aspiring airline reviewer! It would be huge help if you posted something like that! TYSM and great post!
Nice to see that you landed right side up at YYZ!
Ok, jokes aside, this looks like a pretty decent experience. Porter seems like a nice little airline with plenty of character (at least, more character than Air Canada), and that legroom looks really impressive!
Also, just wondering, this was your first time on an E2, right? How would you compare it to, say, the first-gen E-Jets or the A220?
lol there’s no point in complaining about being a few minutes late when you arrive right side up, right?
This was a surprisingly nice flight. It wasn’t as good as the Breeze Airways premium experience IMHO (the closest thing I can think of to compare this to), but it was decent enough. The food was really good, but the seat was meh.
And yup, my first time on an E2! It didn’t feel (or sound) like a regional jet at all. I assume it’s added weight and size is what made it smoother than a typical E-Jet. It felt about the same as an A220.
What happened to that Delta Flight is crazy! https://x.com/Mr_JCE/status/1891832593579954489
(sorry for the link)
This Porter flight looks to be similar to the Dash-8 with similar seats and food. Porter airlines is a incredibly underrated airline. I’d even dare to say that it’s almost the Canada regional version of Etihad or Emirates(very flipping nice).
Also can you make a blog post like this for a airline reviewer? https://www.driveandreview.com/how-to-become-a-car-reviewer-on-youtube/
Great review as always!
Thanks! The fact that the Delta incident happened so closely to the time that I was there makes it hit a little more closer to home for me. The videos are spooky – and it’s a miracle that everyone walked away from it mostly unscathed.
But yeah, this Porter E2 experience makes me really want to give the Dash-8 a try. It’s a neat little airline.
And thanks for reminding me that I need to update that “how to be a car reviewer” post lol. I wrote that along time ago, and things have definitely changed since then. I agree that it would be fun to do similar version for aspiring airline reviewers…
Hi SANspotter! I was just reading the blog, and yes I am an aspiring airline reviewer! It would be huge help if you posted something like that! TYSM and great post!