Review of Avelo Airlines flight from Baltimore to New Haven in Economy

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% 

ONLINE CHECK-IN

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.

BALTIMORE THURGOOD MARSHALL AIRPORT - BWI

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.

XP 410 BALTIMORE THURGOOD MARSHALL AIRPORT TO NEW HAVEN TWEED AIRPORT

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.

NEW HAVEN TWEED AIRPORT - HVN

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.