Andrew Turley flies from San Francisco to Phoenix on United Airlines.
The plane: Embraer 175 — stock-standard regional flyer in the US, and proudly made in Brazil. Inside it feels like an over-inflated version of our own ATR regional planes, with a 2-2 configuration in Economy and an odd 1-2 split in First Class.
The seat: Well I guess it's nice that they took the time to stretch some vinyl over the flat wooden surfaces of the seat. Calling it padding would be generous. The alignment of seats to windows seemed to be out of whack for most of the plane too, but it's not far to fly, and it'll all be over soon…
Class: Apart from a touch of leg room, there's very little in it. So whatever they call it, economy or first class, it's much of a muchness. One thing the plane definitely has is a disproportionate number of seats to the amount of overhead storage. But then, the staff constantly had to remind people not to take all their luggage into the cabin, so it's hardly the airline's fault.
Flight time: Two hours in the air, another one mucking about on the ground.
Food and drink: Money talks, but water and miniscule pretzels are free.
