5 reviews
Report No: 2022-603
Dear folks,
Welcome to this short brand new series which would cover my cheapest US domestic ticket ever which I bought for $33 including taxes & fees for a round-trip ticket from Baltimore, MD to New Haven, CT onboard newly born Avelo Airlines. Since this deal fit my schedule and I wanted to explore New Haven, CT it was a perfect opportunity to fly this airline once again after being on the airline's inaugural flight from Burbank to Santa Rosa a year ago.
The routing for this trip would look like this;
Loads for this flight
95-100%
A day before the flight, I checked-in online for this flight on my computer.
It was interesting that, the system still asked me to acknowledge that I needed to wear a mask onboard the flight despite the US Federal Mask mandate being removed and Avelo not having their own mask policy.
Since paying for a decent seat in advance was more than the airfare itself, I didn't choose and pay for a seat in advance but eventually got randomly assigned an extra legroom seat while checking-in which was great since the flight was nearly full.
On the day of travel, I had an Amtrak ticket from Washington Union Station to Baltimore Airport and due to some timing issues in the morning, I almost made that train, otherwise, I needed to pay for a walk-in ticket for the next Amtrak train or the slower commuter rail and risk missing the flight. ( Eventually I could have paid for an Uber but it defeats the purpose of flying a $16.50 fare )
At least, I didn't have a neighbor on my 30 minute train ride to BWI.
While on the train, I have checked in for my return flight the following day on the Avelo app and did some work on the computer. Time was passing so fast and I realized that we were arriving at the BWI Rail Station.
Luckily, I did only wait 5 minutes for the shuttle from the rail station to the terminal since shuttle hours could be unpredictable ( the next episode of this series would have something regarding this )
At the shuttle, I was tracking the incoming aircraft and realized that something was going wrong with the routing that it took which I predicted that it could cause a delay on our flight.
However, still, I was present at the terminal about an hour before scheduled departure time of our flight.
The terminal was empty that day and since there are very few airlines which use the common check-in desks located at the end of the concourse, the terminal reminded me those COVID days where airports were deserted.
Security was also empty with no wait at all that morning.
After clearing security, I decided to head to the Club at BWI which I could access with my PriorityPass to have some breakfast.
It's a minimum 5 minute walk from security to middle of Concourse D.
And once I arrived, there were signs that the lounge was closed due to repairs thus that day I had no lounge access.
At that time the Chesapeake Lounge was not part of the Priority Pass program but at if I was traveling at the time of this report was published, that lounge would have been an alternative.
FIDS for the day
Since the lounge was closed, I decided to go at the gate and wait there, however, as expected, 50 minutes till departure and no aircraft.
Because of this strange routing, which I have no clue why it was taken, the incoming aircraft was supposed to arrive late which only left 25 minutes for the turnaround an on-time departure out of BWI.
At that time, I was watching the runway queue, which mostly had Southwest aircraft and a PrimeAir freighter jet.
A few minutes later, our gate agent arrived and made an announcement apologizing the incoming aircraft was delayed thus the boarding wouldn't start on time but that they would do whatever they could to minimize the delay.
At that time, I walked back to the entrance of the concourse to Starbucks to have a coffee and a sandwich for breakfast. Apparently since this Starbucks store allowed mobile ordering and since my order was ready once I went there it was a good call to order in advance since the in-store order line had at least 10 people when I was there.
It was then time to go back to the gate and at that time, our bird, N703VL had just arrived from its previous flight.
While we were waiting passengers to deplane, this Delta Connection CRJ had pushed back.
Once passengers from the previous flight disembarked, it was time for us to board. Boarding started with Groups 1 & 2 and followed by Groups 3 & 4. Since I only had a backpack and didn't pay for a carry-on, I boarded with Groups 3 & 4 as I had Group 4 on my boarding pass.
Despite boarding has started, we waited a couple of minutes at the jet bridge as passengers requiring additional assistance were still not seated yet.
Fuselage shot
Stickers next to the boarding door.
After being welcomed by the cabin crew, I have headed to my seat at row 2. Avelo Airlines has decided to keep the old Southwest seats on this aircraft which came from the previous operator of this aircraft.
The legroom was excellent to be honest and even better than legacy airlines' extra legroom seats.
Overhead panel
Despite having a close to full flight, the boarding process was pretty smooth.
Thus, the delay on pushing back was only 5 minutes, despite the aircraft arriving 20-25 minutes late from its incoming flight.
While pushing back the lead flight attendant introduced himself and also shared the exciting moment that it was the first day of work of one of the cabin crew members ( presumably the 2nd flight of his career ) and there was a round of mini-applause in the cabin. Later on, the safety demonstration was performed.
While pushing back, this Air Canada CRJ900 came into vision, receiving some fuel before it's flight to Toronto Pearson.
I also had the chance to spot this Southwest 737-700 with the "Maryland One" special livery
As well as this private jet
An interesting aircraft at display at BWI, which I never realized before
After a short taxi, we were on our way to New Haven for a very short flight
Passing over the railway
A few minutes later we were over the clouds.
Due to the short duration of the flight, there was no service at all, and complimentary bottled water provided was upon request.
Also Avelo Airlines has no entertainment options which is OK for a flight under an hour but I would suggest to be prepared if planning to fly this airline on a flight over 2 hours.
We have started our descent a few minutes later
With some beautiful scenery over New York State.
Calverton Executive Airpark
The City of New Haven
Branford, CT
Passing over a highway and some strip malls
Some houses before landing at HVN
And we have landed at New Haven Tweed Airport, a couple of minutes later than our scheduled arrival time.
The ATC tower
The terminals at the airport, the one on the left is the arrivals building and the one on the right is the departures building. Since Avelo doesn't use jet bridges at HVN, we were going to arrive at a stand and disembark by a ramp.
We have parked and doors disarmed
And someone was going to push the stairs so that we could disembark.
Since I was in row 2, disembarking the aircraft didn't take time and after thanking the crew, I have left the aircraft and took these fuselage shots.
Walking to the arrivals building. As a side note, with the current structure of terminals, all connecting passengers must still clear security at HVN; however, Avelo is not selling connecting journeys at this point.
Last shot of N703VL.
Yes! Welcome to New Haven!
There is only one baggage belt in the terminal and nothing else than a rental car booth and restrooms at the arrivals building.
Since there was more than an hour for the public bus to arrive, I decided to use a ridesharing service to my hotel. Since the airport only had an agreement with Lyft, they were surge pricing at that time.
However, a tip is that you could walk a minute and leave airport premises and order an Uber or Lyft without the airport surcharges and surge pricing which I did on this occasion.
Since I was on my way enjoying New Haven and the area, this report has come to an end and I hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another Flight-Report.
It was a pleasant flight with Avelo Airlines, where I was lucky to get an extra-legroom seat for free of charge; the seats were comfortable and luckily I had a cheerful crew but there was zero entertainment and service onboard which isn't a problem on these short flights but on longer Avelo flights, I would suggest fellow passengers to come prepared for the flight. BWI was smoother than expected but it was a pity that the Club Lounge was closed, but was able to visit that lounge at a future trip. HVN is a small, sweet and efficient airport but the lack of public transportation could be annoying.
4 Comments
Wow! That beats even ME, always looking for the cheapest of the cheapest everything. lol But I have to recognize that I have changed a little these years, and now I am willing to pay extra for a little more comfort. I'm growing old! XD
Wow! According to Wikipedia, Avelo had different names in previous lives. But they are new indeed, having been founded as such in 2021. I hope everything goes well for them.
You lucky guy!
Strange indeed. Saturated airspace, perhaps? I hope someone can enlighten us.
Amazing!
Aww... that was cute
Hm. Well, I'd say that that livery goes out of the ordinary (and into the ridiculous) XD
Complimentary water bottle on request, great legroom... All this is more than you would expect from an ULCC. So, good for Avelo! Best wishes for them.
Thanks for sharing, ISTFlyer!
- Hahahaha! Indeed, we all do pay little extra for the comfort. I have seen a $3 domestic US ticket on a 3 hour flight ( including all taxes & fees ) with Allegiant as their promo code also covered taxes but still Avelo is much better and comfortable than those ULCC's.
- Indeed, they are not growing fast but apparently they are growing with new additions into the fleet and with new hubs.
- Hopefully they would stay alive so I could fly them in the future when I need to.
- You're most welcome ?
More power to Avelo and any other startups giving WN some competition!
Thanks for sharing!
- Indeed and I would guess that they are failing at BWI though. Since they came to BWI, They have downscaled their HVN operations from daily to 2-3 weekly, changed their ILM route to seasonal and entirely closed their BWI-MCO route.
- Southwest is very mad on pricing longer routes on coast-to-coast city pairings; however, it's strange to see their flights going up full within their network. I would admit that BWI-SAN at $1200 r/t is huge ( unless it is Business Select - fully flexible ) where as AA would offer Domestic First for the same price ?. SAN-LAS for $400 r/t is even more surprising as I saw Alaska offering dirt-cheap fares on that route.
- Indeed, competition is always nice and passengers do certainly need it.
- Thanks for reading ?
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