Philadelphia International

Security took a while as the lines were long and there was no dedicated line for passengers traveling in first class or holding elite status in a frequent flier program.
I walked over to the US Airways Club between the B / C concourse. I decided to move back to the one in the A concourse later – I wanted to do some lounge hopping.

The lounge was full but it was not difficult to find a seat with a free seat next to me. I got a few mugs of coffee and read a bit in the papers and magazines I picked up in the lounge in Munich. The wireless internet in the lounge was terrible slow and I lost the connection many times and finally gave up. I also put a bit of work into this trip report and finished the transatlantic flight and the report about the Sheraton in Munich and corrected a few earlier reports I had written but was not able to correct yet.

Nowadays I have only the time to write reports while I am on the road, I rarely have the time to do this at home. If you have a full time job, a small travel agency as self employed part and also update your homepage, time becomes an issue.

But let’s go back to this report.

My layover in Philadelphia was long, from 15:25 to 20:15 so I had decided to do some lounge hopping and after two hours in the US Airways club at the B/C concourse I walked over to the one in the A concourse, which was the former Envoy lounge. I skipped the Red Carpet Club as this lounge was crowded.
The lounge is bigger and was not very full as I arrived there. The bar is on the right side and this part was busier than the left side. Both sides have buffet and if you do not mind to walk over for getting something from the bar, the left side might be the better place.

I got a glass of house wine from the bar and a bowl of soup. In the time as this was an Enovy Lounge, there were several salads available and the offers were quite good during this time. Sadly, this is now history …

Ten minutes prior to boarding time I left the lounge and walked slowly down to the gate A 18. As expected, boarding had not started yet. I was traveling with hand luggage and this Embraer Jet had only limited space to store hand luggage, so I wanted to board early. And I also wanted to try to take a few pictures of the cabin …

But I was able to get a glance of our Jet, it was N133HQ, an Embraer ERJ-175LR. The E-170/E-175 models of Embraer are the smaller jets in the E-Jet family. They are powered with General Electric CF34-8E engines of 14,200 pounds (62.28 kN) thrust each. Both Embraer versions directly compete with the Bombardier CRJ-700 and Bombardier CRJ-900. Many airlines buy this planes to substitute its less fuel efficient BAe 146 and Fokker 70 planes with the more fuel efficient Embraer Jets.
The Embraer 170 was the first version produced but later launched a stretched version, the Embraer 175. The first E-175 was delivered to Air Canada in July 2005. Major operators of z E175 (or EMB170-200 as it also known of) are Air Canada and Republic Airways. Indianapolis based Republic Embraer currently operates 38 Embraer 175 jets and performs its flight for US Airways Express among others.
Our plane for today’s flight to Montreal was delivered on April 11, 2008 as new plane with 86 seats in an all Economy seating. In 2011 the plane was retrofitted with first class and it is now 8 seats in First Class and 72 seats in Economy Class. First Class offered a 1 - 2 configuration with a seat pitch of 37 inch and a seat width of 19 inch compared to a seat pitch of 31 or 32 inch and a seat width of 18.25 inch in Economy Class.

16 February 2012
PHL - YUL
[Philadelphia International – Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau / Dorval]
US 3176 (US Airways); Embraer 175 (N133HQ) (operated by Republic Airways)
Gate A 18
20:55 – 22:36 [effective 20:48– 22:19]
First Class
Seat 03 A

Boarding started in time and I was the first passenger to board the plane. I was able to store my trolley but could only take a few shoots of the cabin. Sometimes I ask myself what fellow passengers think about this.

One of the flight attendants asked about our choice of pre departure drinks and there were no limits in choices. Not only it was orange juice or water, but wine was available as well. I asked for an orange juice and it was delivered soon later.

The cabin filled with passengers and soon boarding was completed. The safety demonstration was done while we were still at the gate. Push back was at 20:48 slightly ahead of schedule and we taxied to the runway. There were three or four planes ahead of us, but the wait did not take that long and soon the captain asked the flight attendants to take their seats as we were ready to depart.
At 21:07 the captain powered the engines and we climbed into the sky above Philadelphia. I dozed a bit for the first minutes of flight time. Approximately after seven minutes the lights were turned on again and the crew began the service. It was free non-alcoholic beverage and food for purchase in Economy while First Class would also get alcoholic beverage and was offered some chips or cookies from the snack basket. I had asked for a coffee and took only a cookie with the coffee.

The flight was uneventful and flight time passed quickly. We had already begun our descend into Montreal and had less than 50 miles to fly as the pilot gave an updated weather information for Montreal. He also mentioned that the flight could become a bit bumpy in the last couple of minutes. He made the announcement not only in English bud also in French, which was a nice gesture and certainly not expected.

We touched down on the runway at 22:16 and taxied to the concourse for the US flight at Montreal airport where we arrived three minutes later.

I was able to deboard quite quickly, but unfortunately no escalator was working at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport and it is not really fun to carry the trolley over stairs up and down.

Immigration was empty, but I choose again the wrong line as this moved more slowly than the other lines. Finally it was my turn and after the usual question was allowed to enter Canada.

But timing was despite the wait at immigration just perfect. The bus 747 left the airport after I stepped into it and soon later I was on my way to the Sheraton hotel, where I arrived twenty minutes later.

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