For the fourth leg of my trip, I was flying from Nashville (BNA) to Washington D.C. (DCA) in American Airlines Embraer E175 First Class.
Booking
Just like the other flights from this trip report, this flight was part of my day of mileage running for British Airways Tier Points. I booked for $426 directly through AA.com after building the itinerary in Google Flights.
This was the first flight of the return portion of my roundtrip AUS-BNA single day itinerary.
Pre-Flight
After arriving in Nashville from Charlotte (CLT) I had just over an hour before my onward flight to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Instead of hanging out in the terminal, I headed over to the Nashville Admirals Club.
The club isn’t the greatest Admirals Club in the system but, it was nice to have a place to relax prior to my next flight. I accessed the lounge thanks to my British Airways Executive Club Gold status. The full review can be found here.
Boarding
My flight to Washington D.C. was departing from Gate C13, a very short walk from the Admirals Club which is across from the adjacent gate. Boarding started a few minutes behind schedule with preboard passengers being invited to board first.
Group 1 was invited to board next and I headed down the jet bridge to our waiting aircraft.
Republic Airways DBA American Eagle
AA 4374
BNA-DCA (Nashville International – Ronald Reagan Washington National)
Seat: 1A (First)
EMB-175 (N429YX)
Scheduled: 4:23p-7:10p
Actual: 4:37p-7:22p
As someone from the south, just before boarding, I got a reminder that Envoy and SkyWest aren’t the only operators of the E175 for American Eagle. Republic has their logo proudly displayed on the side of the aircraft.
American Eagle E175 First Class Seat
American Eagle’s First Class on the Embraer E175 consists of 12 seats spread across four rows in a 1-2 configuration. This is a great aircraft for upgrades as it has one of the largest First Class to Economy seat ratios in the fleet. There are 12 First Class seats vs 64 Economy seats (roughly 16% of the available seats are in First Class).
I selected Seat 1A, the single seat on the left side of the aircraft in the bulkhead row. This is one of my favorite domestic seats as you get tons of legroom and the added benefit of a window and aisle access.
Since I was in the bulkhead I had plenty of legroom though, having flown on this aircraft type multiple times, the rest of the rows aren’t bad either.
Since the E175 is a regional jet, there is no seatback IFE. To date, the only airline I’ve ever seen install seatback IFE on an Embraer is Air Canada’s regional partners. Wi-Fi was available on this flight to stream entertainment to a personal device.
The tray table is located in the right armrest, closest to the aisle. It can be removed by lifting the top of the armrest and pulling up on the latch.
The tray table itself can be folded over in half if you’re looking to maximize legroom or, it can be extended fully to accommodate a full size laptop or tablet. Both had a small indention to be used as a cupholder in flight.
In the armrest closest to the window, there is a small slide out that can be used to hold a beverage. Also featured, a very questionable stain on the wall.
Overall, the seats on the American Eagle are extremely comfortable, especially if you can snag one of the solo seats on the left side of the aircraft.
Departure
No pre-departure beverages were offered during boarding and there was some sort of delay in pushing back from the gate. The flight crew was occupied talking with the ground staff and I couldn’t have cared less about a drink as my 37 minute connection in DCA was starting to disappear rapidly. Finally, we pushed back from the gate in Nashville roughly 15 minutes behind schedule.
Fortunately, we had a quick taxi out to our departure runway and rocketed off towards Washington D.C. I didn’t take any pictures during departure since I was too busy scouring the American app for alternate routings home.
In-Flight
We took off to the south and, once airborne, looped around to the northeast to head towards Washington D.C. Once we reached our cruising altitude, the cabin crew began their inflight service. I was stuffed from visits to the Admirals Club, Centurion Lounge, and Flagship Lounge throughout the day so I passed on the snack basket and just had a glass of water.
As we headed towards Washington, we were advised that there was some severe weather that we would have to navigate around, making my already tight connection even tighter.
The captain advised us that the seatbelt sign would be coming on soon due to the weather so I made a quick visit to the lavatory which, like all E175s, was tight for my 6’2″ frame.
Back at my seat, the seatbelt sign came on as we bumped our way through the storm towards Washington D.C.
After a few bumpy minutes, we began our descent into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).
Arrival
Living in Austin, I typically fly into Dulles Airport (IAD) when traveling to D.C. since I’m outside of the DCA perimeter. While I’ve only flown into the airport a few times, I selected my seat specifically for the ‘River Visual’ approach views. If you’re flying into DCA, the left side of the plane is the place to be.
Unfortunately, instead of landing from the north using the River Visual approach, we landed from the south, overflying I-495.
I had great views of Old Town Alexandra, including the waterfront and Blackwall Hitch, where we ate on our last visit to Washington D.C.
We touched down on Runway 19 eight minutes after our scheduled arrival time at a post-storm DCA during golden hour.
Once on the ground, we had a 5 minute taxi over to Gate D39.
We pulled into our gate 12 minutes behind schedule which cut my connection time down to 25 minutes. In a stroke of luck, the A319 that was taking me down to Charlotte was parked at the gate next door.
Since I was seated in 1A, I was off the plane seconds after the door opened and made the quick walk next door to my connecting flight.
Summary
The American Eagle Embraer E175 is a wonderful ride in First Class. Upgrade odds are fantastic and the 1-2 seating layout is great for solo travelers. Aside from some stains on the wall, the hard product is exactly what you’ll find across the American Eagle E175 fleet. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good assessment of the soft product due to delays and turbulence in-flight.
I’ll definitely fly on the American Eagle E175 again and hopefully have a better opportunity to review the product in-depth.
