Breeze Airways from Tampa (Review)

When Breeze Airways launched their new flights last May 2021, the company had introductory fares for $39 one way, $78 round trip. New ultra-low-cost airline? New non-stop destinations to one of our favorite airports in Florida? Sign us up! Here’s our review of Breeze Airways from Tampa, FL to Huntsville, AL.

Contents

Breeze Airways Destinations from Tampa
How to Book flights on Breeze Airways
Breeze Airways schedules change so always check your itinerary
How is the Breeze Airways flight experience
Would we fly Breeze Airways again?
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Breeze Airways Destinations from Tampa

The first thing we wanted to see was which destinations Breeze was going to from Tampa. There were a few choices, including:

Huntsville, Alabama
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Bentonville/Fayetteville, Arkansas
Charleston, South Carolina
Norfolk, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Columbus, Ohio
Akron/Canton, Ohio
Louisville, Kentucky

One of the destinations that immediately caught our eye was Huntsville, AL. There were no other ultra-low-cost airlines that fly direct to Huntsville at one of the airports we usually fly from (SRQ, PGD, RSW, TPA, PIE & JAX), and it is a destination we have not been to.

For more Huntsville posts, please check out the below:

How to Book flights on Breeze Airways

The Breeze website is fairly straightforward to use, even if it is a brand new, just-launched airline. We played around with the calendar to check which dates are available for the $39 fare and got lucky since we can fly out on a Friday and come back on a Monday. The perfect long weekend getaway.

One way from Tampa to Huntsville was $39, and from Huntsville to Tampa was another $39, so $78 round-trip for the basic fare. Additional costs apply for bags and seats, which we opted not to pay for.

A personal item is included in the base fare, which means one backpack each. Since we were used to flying ultra-low-cost carriers and usually pack light, it was not hard to stuff our clothing, cameras, and laptop into 2 backpacks.

We got the confirmation number fairly quickly after we paid, and we are off for a trip to Huntsville in July!

Breeze Airways schedules change so always check your itinerary

A few days before flying off, we saw that Breeze had changed their flight schedules from Tampa to Huntsville and cut a few dates out. We were lucky that our original itinerary was not affected by this change. However, we got a bit confused on when our boarding time on our flight to Huntsville was. Was it at 9am? 8am?

We decided to play it safe and head to the airport a little earlier than usual and true enough, the plane started boarding around 8:15am and we were one of the last people to board. The doors were closed 5 minutes after we boarded, so we got lucky. It was a bit fishy that there were no people waiting by the gate, so we asked the agent if they already boarded and sure enough they did!

How is the Breeze Airways flight experience

Our flight was more than half empty when we got to the plane. It was an Embraer airplane with a 2-2 configuration and the seats were very spacious, so we were pleasantly surprised.

Our captain welcomed us to the flight when the doors were closed and said that they are a new airline and thanked us for trying them out. He mentioned that while the airline is new, the captain and the first officer were very experienced (based on their flight hours), and that our flight crew will be more than happy to take care of us.

I personally liked this very personal touch done by the captain by welcoming the guests in. The fact that we could see him at the front of the plane as he was delivering that message was great. This really is an airline founded by the same dude as JetBlue!

Since it was supposed to be a basic fare, we were not expecting to be served inflight food and drinks but we got a few snacks and a few drinks on our quick two hour flight! Apparently they were providing it since we were one of the inaugural passengers, and they might change it later on.

Readers, let us know if they still serve snacks and drinks on Breeze Airways now, as it has been a few months since we flew the airline!

Would we fly Breeze Airways again?

Yes, in a heartbeat. The flight from Tampa to Huntsville and back left on time (even earlier than expected). The seats were comfortable and provided ample space for us. Even the overhead bins were more than enough – since there were not many passengers when we flew, we managed to put our backpacks on the bins.

For those on a budget and looking for new destinations, then Breeze is great value. You can even save a little bit extra by buying your tickets at the airport instead of paying for the convenience fees that’s levied by booking online or through phone.

Our only downside with Breeze is there’s not many routes yet, and they only fly from Tampa. While we can’t go to Tampa as often as we want to catch cheap flights, we can get cheaper alternatives to some routes by flying Allegiant from an airport or two closer to where we live/own houses in.

Are you going to try flying on Breeze Airways?