Trip Report: American Airlines (E175) Main Cabin Extra IND-ORD

The Details

Flight: AA4048
Aircraft: E175
Class: Main Cabin Extra
Seat: 8A and 8C
Route: Indianapolis (IND)-Chicago O’Hare (ORD)
Distance: 229miles
Duration: 42min
Departure: 1:15PM
Arrival: 12:57PM

The Preflight

For winter vacation, my fiance and I were headed to Cyprus for the week. Originating in Indianapolis, we had a separate reservation booked with Aeroplan points from Chicago to Frankfurt to Munich to Larnaca, Cyprus. For the Indianapolis to Chicago flight, we booked with cash with American Airlines.

We arrived at the terminal an hour before boarding at 10:20AM was scheduled to begin and found a fairly busy American Airlines check-in area. Thanks to TSA Precheck we quickly passed through security about five minutes after arriving at the terminal.

There is a single Priority Pass restaurant at IND called “The Fan Zone” located at the end of the A gates pier. Each passenger with an eligible Priority Pass (through Chase) membership is given a $28 credit for a companion and themselves. There was an extensive offering of alcohol including liquor, beer, wines, and seltzers.

There was a refrigerator with a selection of cold sandwiches, wraps, and other snacks. The hot food was only available after noon.

Boarding began on time at 12:20PM. Our E175, owned by Envoy Air for American Earle, was delivered brand new in May 2016.

The Flight

American Eagle E175s feature a total of 12 First class and 64 economy seats in a two-cabin configuration. The First class seats are arranged in a 1-2 configuration while the economy cabin is in a 2-2 configuration. Of the 64 economy seats, 20 were extra legroom Main Cabin Extra seats.

We were seated in the first row of the economy cabin in row eight. Each seat was 18 inches wide with 34 inches of pitch.

The benefit of the first row of the economy cabin is that there is no bulkhead between the two cabins. The aisle seat (8C) features unlimited legroom because it juts out into the aisle.

There was a simple bi-fold tray table stored in the armrest.

Each seat pair also had a shared USB port and a 110V outlet.

Boarding was completed 25 minutes after it began and we pushed back two minutes later at 12:47PM. It was just the beginning of a winter storm in the central Indiana region so our aircraft was de-iced prior to departure.

At 1:15PM we took off from runway 5L.

On this short flight, there was a snack offering of either pretzels or Biscoffs. Flight attendants also came through the cabin with water and orange juice.