Trip Report: Breeze Airways, Raleigh/Durham (RDU) to New Orleans (February 2024)

 Trip Report: Breeze Airways 

Raleigh (RDU) to New Orleans (MSY)

comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

I needed to fly to Raleigh/Durham to New Orleans and previously there were no non-stop flights as you had to connect somewhere; however, recently a new airline started a direct flight between RDU and MSY so decided to try them out.  Breeze Airways is a relatively new airline primarily operating Embraer 190's and Airbus A220s.  They fly to relatively smaller and/or secondary airports and generally have less frequency than the mainline carriers.  One of their founders in the same person who started jetBlue so they seem to be a mix between that airline and low-cost carriers.  They have a base fare which includes a personal item only and then charge for everything else, but they have termed themselves the 'nice airline'.

Between Raleigh and New Orleans, Breeze is the only carrier that operates a direct flight between the two cities and currently operates this with an Embraer 195 (the airline is currently awaiting the A220 and will fly all routes with that aircraft once delivered).  The flight was originally scheduled to depart at 4:08p and arrive into New Orleans at 5:27p for a scheduled flight time of 2hr and 19min.  As stated earlier, the base fare only includes a personal item and the base fare is relatively inexpensive.  You can add seat selection, personal carry-on, and checked baggage separately or you can bundle them together.  I was going to add seat selection and personal carry-on and when I looked at the individual fare vs the bundle, the bundle was less expensive and offered better seat selection.  Therefore, I went with the 'Nicer bundle" which included extra legroom seat, personal carryon as well as a checked bag.  Even with the bundle, the total costs for my ticket was $120.  I booked my flight through the app and when you book online you automatically get enrolled with Breeze points, the Breeze frequent flyer program.  I had previously booked a flight but then cancelled and was able to get a full refund, but still collected Breeze points for signing up; I was able to use those points for this flight and make my overall costs less!

About 2 weeks prior to departure, I received an email stating that there was going be changes to the flight time - my flight was now going to depart and arrive one hour earlier than scheduled; the new departure time would be 3:08p with a boarding time of 2:30pm.  Breeze offered to either accept the change, or cancel the itinerary for a full-refund; I accepted the change and modified my schedule accordingly.  Check-in was easy through the app and I obtained my boarding pass 24-hours prior to check-in.  As Breeze is a new airline, and they have less frequency on this route, so their planes tend to be late or cancelled more often; and this can cause issues sometimes they are the only ones providing this flight service.  I checked the Breeze app and the previous day the flight was delayed by over 5hrs - also alarming was that Google Flights and FlightRadar showed my flight as being cancelled.  I immediately contacted customer service - Breeze does not have a phone number but rather provides support through chat, SMS, as well as Facebook Messanger.  I contacted them through FB Messanger and they responded within 30mins stating that my flight was scheduled ontime.

Flight MX331 operates New York/Islip to Raleigh and then Raleigh to New Orleans with only enoughtime to turn the plane around in Raleigh between flights.  The inbound flight arrive on-time but there was only one Breeze attendant at the gate; they had to handle the incoming flight as well as the outgoing flight and they were not the most efficient; this meant that boarding which was supposed to commence at 2:30pm did not and there was no announcement and no one to answer questions.  Once they finished deplaning and assisting the inbound aircraft, they came back basically to start boarding the outbound flight; communication and details could definitely be better as there was at least a 20-30min delay with no notice.                                                                                                            After preboarders, boarding was done by zone and with the 'Nicer' bundle you get Zone 1 boarding; also with this bundle I was able to select the extra legroom seat and was able to select 1C which is the first seat and a bulkhead seat.  The flight was operated by an Embraer 195 which is a smaller plane in a 2-2 section; you could feel the smallness of the plane as you entered since the height is smaller and the overhead bins are larger.  The overhead bins could fit a personal carryon as well as a roll carryon, but the flight was extremely full so it took some maneuvering to get everyone's bag onboarded.  Once boarding was complete, the doors were closed, manual safety demonstrations were done, we pushed back and departed Raleigh 20 mins behind schedule.                                                                                                                                                 

The plane is configured in a 2-2 layout.  I was in the bulkhead seat which meant that there was lots of legroom but the seat was narrower than I had expected.  From what I could tell, the seat width and comfort on the bulkhead seat was the same as the other seats but the seat pitch and legroom were different.  As I said, the seat was somewhat narrow and I am not sure if that is the seat or the Embraer aircraft; also, the seat comfort was decent for the short flight but not sure if it would comfortable for a longer flight.  Flight time ended being 1hr 45 mins and after levelling off, the inflight service started.  As with all low-cost carriers, most items are available for purchase including drink and food boxes.  Those were first offered and then complimentary water and hot tea were offered for no charge; that is something different and many passengers were not expecting that.  Breeze did offer wifi on the plane in which you could access the complimentary entertainment - the entertainment options were extremely limited as they offered 4 movies and 4 tv shows and both were extremely old or odd selections; however, they were available and they were complimentary.  I did not see wifi packages for offer nor was texing or messaging options offered.  Once the service completed, passengers found various time to occupy their time until we landed in New Orleans.

Overall, it was an interesting flight with Breeze.  The airline concept of a combination between low-
cost carrier with charging for everything but with a better, 'nicer' attitude seems to be an interesting concept.  The fare I paid, which included everything, was very inexpensive and made the flight more attractive.  The service on board was also great as some the FA's looked like they were really enjoying their job (unlike FA's on some of the mainline carriers).  The downside is the lack of frequency, the lack of consistency of on-time departures, and the lack of communication of delays.  Would I go out of my way to take Breeze, no; would I fly Breeze again if they offered the flight route that I wanted to take, absolutely! 

Stay Report: Meliá Milano (Milan, Italy - December 2023)

    Stay Report: Melia Milano
comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

When traveling through Italy, we were stopping in Milan and there are many hotels to choose from but our criteria was the following: easy access to shops and restaurants, easy access to public transportation, and big rooms.  In looking for these criteria, we found the Melia Milano which is on the outskirts of the city near the football stadium and near the Lotto metro stop.  From this stop, it would take about 15 mins to get to the city center and about 20mins to get to the main train station.  I also had points with Melia so utilized this during my stay.                                                                                                                                                                                                              From the outside the hotel looks big, and I found out later that the hotel is in a converted bakery factory hence the large size.  The hotel is oddly situated in that it is in the middle of the neighborhood and so you have to walk 2-3 blocks to the main road to access the metro stop and the shops and restaurants.  As you enter the hotel, you enter into this massive lobby with high ceilings and a grand staircase in the middle.  To the left is the check-in desk and a waiting area and to the right is the bar and restaurant.  Up the stairs is the first floor which contains the meeting rooms, the Melia lounge, as well as guest rooms.  Our train was late so we arrived almost at midnight at the hotel and check-in was curt, not very friendly, and barely provided any information on the hotel (more about this later on).  I received my key and went to the room on the first floor.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the room is that despite the large size of the hotel and the massive lobby, the hotel rooms were somewhat smaller and more compact than I expected; the size would be fine if I was closer to the city but away from the city one expects a larger room size.  As you entered the room, on the left was the entrance to the bathroom while on the right was a little wall that ended as you entered into the main part of the room.  The bathroom was decent but also compact and contained a toilet, bidet, sink with minimal counter space, and a walk-in shower.  The toiletries were refillable and had handwash and lotion next to the sink with body wash, shampoo and conditioner in the shower; the basic amenities were there but the space was more compact and restricted.  

As you entered into the room, on the right was a stand with shelves for storage and then continuing on the right was a nook with an open closet and open luggage rack.  The luggage rack and open closet was a nice touch but there was minimal storage space as the open rack and the shelves were the only storage.  In the main part of the room, the king-size bed was along with right side of the wall and on each side of the bed was a table with a lamp on it and plugs behind it along with USB ports.  The bed was decent enough for the first night but was a bit uncomfortable towards the third night but overall provided a decent sleep.  The tables next to the bed were somewhat small so again it did the job but space was limited.  Across from the bed, along the left side of the wall, was the TV mounted on the wall and in the corner a table with chairs.  The table and chairs was a nice touch to have but again it was a small table so could barely have two people eating or drinking at the same time.  Overall it was a decent room with the necessary amenities but the space was more compact than I expected for a suburb hotel.

The hotel is a full-service hotel so has lots of amenities including a hotel bar, restaurant, meeting rooms, hotel lounge, a gym, and wifi.  The wifi was decent and you could connect as many devices as you want but it did slow down sometimes and was not always the most reliable.  I did not try the bar nor restaurant but did see lots of people going there so it seemed popular.  I have tried the Melia lounge during my first experience with Melia in Punta Cana (check out the review here) and I was not overly impressed with the quality so we did not opt that here.                                                                                                                                                                                  Overall, it was not an impressive stay at Melia Milano.  I have stayed at other Melia properties before and INNSIDE Melia New York NOMAD (review here) is one of my favorite places to stay in NYC because its convenient and the room sizes are decent for the central location; but this hotel was outside the city and is in a former factory so one would expect bigger rooms but the size of this room is what you would expect at a hotel closer to the city.  The customer service was also lacking as we connected with the frontdesk staff many times and throughout my interactions only staff person was actually nice and helpful while the others barely did their job and barely provided any support.  An example of that is we woke up one morning and the lobby entrance and access was restricted; apparently the football/soccer team was staying at the hotel before the gameday.  While I understand they could not say why there would be distributions but altering the guests as to potential distributions to access would have been helpful and communicative.