Even though CRJ-200 and donkeys are small, stinky, and uncomfortable beasts, almost all donkeys have a friendly personality I can relate to.
The CRJ doesn’t care that its windows are too low or that there’s no space for carry on bags – as a matter fact, it doesn’t care about me at all. The donkey on the other hand, is likely to be nice to me for leading it to food and water.
Basically, all you need to know is that it was a pretty miserable flight up to Los Angeles from San Diego.
Flight Number:
UA5443
Route:
San Diego, CA (SAN) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
Aircraft:
CRJ-200 (ugh)
Registration:
N917SW
Flight Duration
27 minutes
Seat:
4A (economy class)
The route from SAN to LAX. One that I’m quite familiar with thank you very much.
Arrival at the airport
United Express operates out of Terminal 2 West the San Diego International Airport. Check-in and baggage drop is with United Airlines (there’s no separate check-in area for United Express flights).
With a 10:35 AM departure time, I casually strolled into the airport about 9 AM. Going through security took less then 10 minutes.
Good ‘ol Terminal 2 West. It kicks the snot out of Terminal 1, that’s for sure.Speaking of things that have had the snot kicked out them, my ride up to LAX this morning looks like she just got out of an abusive relationship.
The boarding process
The boarding process started approximately 9:50 AM, and I was on my way down the jet bridge within minutes thanks to my zone 2 boarding pass.
Fancy pants people on the left, and the peons (which includes me) on the right.It’s really hard to see in this picture, but jet bridges are very steep when angled down to connect to a little CRJ at the end of it!OK, get ready to tuck in those extremities, because things are about to get tight. The only consolation is that I’ll be stretching out in Emirates A380 business class within a few hours.Do I really have to? One last pic before going in.Wait! One more! And just let me count the rivets… (I hope it wasn’t too obvious that I was trying to stall).
United Express / SkyWest CRJ-200 cabin and seats
Ducking my head as I stepped through the boarding door, staying crouched as I walked down the aisle to find my seat, feeling frustrated that there was no room for my carry-on bag either beneath the seat in front of me or in the overhead bin, and then still having to hang my head low as I tried to get a look out the window wasn’t fun. But it’s all part of the CRJ-200 experience.
United express CRJ-200 main cabin. By the way, I totally envy her for being short enough that she didn’t have to hunch over while walking down the aisle.United express CRJ-200 seats. Closing my eyes and imagining myself sitting down in Emirates A380 business class instead helped to dull the pain as I shoehorned my way into the window seat.The view across the aisle is a good one to show you exactly how low the windows are in the CRJ-200. If you have a window seat and you enjoy looking out, you will have a sore neck by the end of the flight.
The seats here on the CRJ-200 are narrow. Legroom is decent (they claim it to be 31″), but my God – are they ever shiny. Glistening even!
Good luck stuffing anything under the seat in front of you. This is as far as my backpack would go, which was impressive considering that there was hardly anything in it (due to the fact that I was heading to the desert for a few days).The door is still open…I can still make a run for it…Nah, I’m staying put. There’s no way in hell that I’m going to miss my connecting flight at LAX, so I better brush up on the safety features of this little CRJ.Diagram number 4 in section C is pretty much how I’m feeling at the moment.
The departure from San Diego
The flight looked to be completely full as the boarding door was closed. Just as that was happening, the captain made an announcement that the weight and balance was all wrong and that he needed someone from the front to move to the back.
I felt as if I had won the lottery when the guy sitting next to me raised his hand and said that he would move.
The excitement of having an empty seat next to me was short-lived however. Somehow a guitar (which wasn’t mine) ended up ithere. No biggie – it was one of the best seatmates I’ve ever had actually!
The most astonishing thing about this entire experience is the fact that we actually pushed off the gate (and took off) 11 minutes early. Life isn’t supposed to be so good on a CRJ-200!
Here are some cool looking airport markings, which seem to imply that standing between these two triangles (at the points) is the right thing to do.I’m just amazed that we are 11 minutes early at this point. Shouldn’t we be on fire (with the wings falling off) by now?Imagine the sound of a vacuum cleaner at full power (one of those handheld things you can buy for $10 at a yard sale) and you’ll get a sense of what the CRJ-200 sounds like on takeoff.The next few pics illustrate perfectly why you need to get a window seat on the left-hand side of the airplane when departing San Diego. There’s a Southwest party happening at Terminal 1……American is holding down the fort at Terminal 2 East……and nobody seems to be home at Terminal 2 West.No caption. Just scenery.That’s the Ocean Beach pier down there, and if you’ve never been to San Diego before, it needs to be on your list of things to see on your first visit. Hippies, beach bums, surfers, and palm trees – it doesn’t get any more SoCal than that!
Snack and beverage service
Whether or not you’ll get a snack on a short 25 minute flight such as this is a tossup. On flights lasting an hour or more, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a free beverage and a snack. It won’t be much though. Expect a small bag of pretzels or nuts, along with the usual assortment of soft drinks.
Pretzels! I can’t remember the last time I got a snack on a regional jet flight between San Diego and Los Angeles, so this was nice. Too bad I can’t feel my legs…Screw my lower extremities. I’m hungry!The view from 11,000 feet – the perfect complement for cheap airline pretzels (and numb legs).
Seat and cabin comfort
The CRJ-200 is an aircraft you want to avoid on flights lasting more than an hour. The cabin is very narrow. The ceiling is low. It feels cramped, and there’s no room to stretch out. Making matters worse is the fact that the interiors of most of these aircraft smell like old socks and stale coffee.
Not only are the seats uncomfortable, nothing exciting ever happens inside a CRJ-200. Donkeys are uncomfortable as well, but you have to admit they can be exciting AF sometimes.The boredom might have killed them.One of the best things about the CRJ-200 is how quiet it is inside the cabin at cruising altitude. As long as you get a seat towards the front, the only thing you’re going to hear is wind noise (and perhaps a voice in your head nagging you about your choice of aircraft).
Arrival in Los Angeles
The weather was perfect all the way up to Los Angeles. It was so clear that I could almost see LAX just as we were beginning the descent.
Long Beach. It just me or does anyone else think of the lyrics from Dr Dre’s “Nuthin’ but a G Thang” when he says “… and the city they call Long Beach” whenever somebody mentions this place? It’s been stuck in my head since I was 18 and I’ve never been able to shake it.That big airport front and center in the bottom pic is LGB. Dr Dre and Snoop Dog would approve, I’m sure of it.Ahh, memories. That there is the Proud Bird restaurant and Museum, a place that I used to spend entire days at in the early 2000‘s (when I was heavily into aviation photography). See the dark parking lot at the left center of the pic? That’s a prime spot for photographing 25L arrivals.10:35 AM. Welcome to LAX!It gives me heartburn to look at this pic and realize how tight they pack things in here at LAX. It’s a good thing that I don’t work as a tug operator here, because I’m pretty sure that I would clip a wing on my very first day and I’d never be able to work in this town again.“DING! You are now free from the confines of this crappy little CRJ-200.” I think that’s how the welcome announcement went, but I can’t quite remember.Hard to believe this was my 46th CRJ-200 flight. I do hope it was my last. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t).Maybe she had so much fun that she simply refused to get off the plane? I wasn’t about to stick around to find out. I’m outta here!The way in which this guy is stomping up the jet bridge leads me to believe that he’s had about enough of the CRJ-200. Amen brother. Amen.
The fact that I started this review with a comparison to a donkey tells you everything you need to know about the United Express CRJ-200 experience. Was it an exaggeration? Probably.
It’s actually not a bad little aircraft for short segments. And if I’m being honest, it’s a million times better than the old EMB-120’s that United Express used to fly between San Diego and Los Angeles.
That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to give the donkey a go, however. $20 says that it would be as every bit entertaining.
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