Well I’m heading back to Nashville for a second week. Again I’m taking Contour Airlines. However, on this trip, I woke up to a delay notification. Not great, but that’s ok. I wrote a review of Contour Airlines and their ERJ135 last week, but I figured I’d review them again, because I’m boring.
After working from home for a few hours, I left for the airport about 3 hours late. Not a big deal, it’s still just a direct flight. I was wondering how a small airline like Contour would handle a flight delay so today I’ll get to see what happens. So far Contour has handled the delay as well as possible, they gave me a notification and told me a new expected departure time. Anyway, let’s get into this Contour Airlines Review, Part Two: Electric Boogaloo.
Bottom Line: Contour Airlines is a great point to point airline. Not fancy, but not bare bones either. Their ERJ135s are comfortable enough, but it’s still a small plane. At least they configure them with very few seats so there’s a ton of leg room.
GSP Airport Contour Check-in
At the airport I checked in at the counter and got my boarding pass. Slightly different than last time where no one was at the desk.
After security I walked to the gate. Unfortunately Contour appears to share a gate with Allegiant. It was pretty crowded at the gate with two flights leaving within an hour of each other. This is probably do to the delay.
Contour Airlines Boarding Process
Our Contour Airlines ERJ135 arrived and was quickly turned around. They called the Nashville flight to board. Again, all at once, there’s not that many people on the flight. I’m just glad the flight departure time hasn’t slipped. They said we’d depart at 2:20 and it looks like that will hold. Yes it’s a delay, but at least it’s not rolling.
I boarded and it looks like this flight will be more loaded than last week. The ERJ135 has small over head bins so my bag was collected plane side like last week.
Contour Airlines ERJ135 Seating Review
I was the first to board. This isn’t a full flight, but not nearly as empty as last week. It was the same flight attendant as last week. The Contour ERJ135 has 30 seats over 10 rows. This is the entire cabin.
I stowed my computer bag in the overhead and grabbed a seat on the single seat, left side of the aircraft.
For a small aircraft, the leg room is amazing. When these planes fly for most carriers they seat 37 people, but Contour only has 30 seats. This isn’t mostly about comfort, it’s a legal requirement for Part 135 airlines.
Unfortunately there’s a gaggle of very loud women who are clearly going on a “girls weekend.” They are very loud with lots of “oh my god,” “shut up!” And “you did what!?”
Yea, let’s just say I asked to move my seat to farther away. I moved to the other side of the aisle to the two seat section, it’s a pretty empty flight so I don’t mind.
My view from the last row of the Contour ERJ135.
Contour Airlines GSP Departure
It was a pretty rainy and gross day in Greenville when we pushed back. I usually wouldn’t sit in the last row, but I’d much rather listen to roar of the Rolls Royce engines than that girls trip.
We soon took off into the rainy Greenville sky. It was a little rough for the first few minutes but once above the clouds, things were nice and smooth. The seatbelt sign was turned off.
It’s kinda fun to fly these little planes with so few people on them. On a direct flight it feels like a short hop of a commute rather than the chore of usually flying.
Contour Airlines Snack Service
The flight attendant asked me if I wanted a drink, just a water this afternoon. She then came back with a snack basket with pretzels.
Looks to be a lovely day for flying. I sat back and reclined my seat with a podcast.
Even this far back in the ERJ135 is a little louder than the middle or front due to the engines. At least it’s not full of cackling, by older than willing to admit, women. You know the type…
The flight attendant soon passed through to collect trash. The pilots then turned the seat belt sign back on and made a quick announcement that we’ll be landing in about 20-25 minutes.
Contour Airlines Nashville Approach
This flight is fun because you can time travel. Last week we depart about 15 minutes after we landed. This is of course because if the time zone difference between Greenville and Nashville.
One last safety check by the flight attendant as we continued through the upper layer of clouds. Looks like it’s going to be a slightly cloudy day down in Tennessee.
And on the ground here in Nashville.
Contour Airlines Final Thoughts
Out into the terminal. A little disappointing in that my valet checked bag wasn’t curb side. Apparently in Greenville they tagged our bags with white tags instead of blue. Blue is for plane side return, white is for baggage claim.
The good news is that our bags came out very quickly. I didn’t have to wait more than a minute. So I can easily forgive the mistake.
Anyway, I really like Contour Airlines. This is the second week in a row that I’ve ridden on and reviewed them. This week wasn’t perfect, we were delayed by nearly 3 hours, but it was communicated well and they stuck to the update timetable.
Once in the air the flight is very pleasant, lots of space, friendly service, and a nice short flight. Just like last week I’m very pleased with this flight. An unexpected surprise is that in my email, I received a $50 credit as an apology. I didn’t even ask for it, just out of the blue an email showed up.
So 10/10 I would fly Contour Airlines again.