Sharing everything you need to know before you book a flight on Contour Airlines
Living in Charlotte, I’m often faced with sky-high airfares thanks to American Airlines’ monopoly at the airport (Does that feel like a bit of a dramatic overstatement? Well, the carrier operates approximately 90% of the flights at CLT), which usually leads me to seek alternate carriers or airports whenever possible. So when I learned that Contour Airlines, a regional airline based out of Smyrna, Tennessee, was expanding its service at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, I jumped at the chance to fly the carrier for the first time.
This post is not sponsored, and I purchased my own tickets on Contour Airlines. This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking one of these links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Now that I’m back from a quick weekend away in Paducah, Kentucky, I thought I’d share an honest review of my experience flying Contour Airlines – and everything I think you should know before you book your ticket. Ready? Let’s fly.
ABOUT CONTOUR AIRLINES
Contour Airlines is a regional airline operating under the umbrella of Contour Aviation. Founded in 1982 as Corporate Flight Management Inc., Contour Aviation’s current offerings include private jet charter, regional airline service, aircraft maintenance services, fixed base operations, and aircraft sales.
Contour Airlines joined the public market with its inaugural flight in 2016, and today focuses on providing convenient and efficient regional air travel, with a particular emphasis on connecting smaller cities and communities to major hubs.
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO FLY CONTOUR AIRLINES
Service is extremely limited
As a regional carrier, Contour primarily aims to connect smaller destinations with larger hubs – and as you can see from the map above, they definitely don’t serve all markets. In addition, most routes are scheduled for operation only once or twice per day, limiting service even further. If you live in a smaller city and are planning to connect at the hub thanks to the carrier’s interline agreement with American, you may wind up waiting several hours for your next flight.
Selecting your seat is free
I’ve gotten so used to flying “Last Class” over the years on budget airlines and basic economy tickets that I nearly skipped out on selecting my seat on Contour (thankfully I noticed there was no charge, and gleefully chose my own seat). And since we booked our tickets fairly early, Michael and had our pick of seats in the cabin. Note: If you’re connecting via American Airlines, you may not be able to select your seat in advance.
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Plug in your printer before you check in
Check-in is available 24 hours before your scheduled departure, but with seats selected, there’s no need to rush for the best seats like with Southwest or waiting until the last moment like on Frontier or Spirit (we call this playing “Check-in Chicken”).
You can check in on the website or in the mobile app and request to have your boarding passes texted or emailed to you, however, my passes never fully came through (the boarding passes I received in my email didn’t have a barcode and I never received the text – and the app was essentially nonfunctioning). I recommend being prepared to download and print them once you’ve completed the check-in process just in case. For my return flight, I had to make an extra stop at the check-in counter to receive my boarding pass, which steals away precious travel time.
Yes, you can use PreCheck
If you’ve signed up for PreCheck or Global Entry, you’ll find a place to enter your Known Traveler Number while booking and will likely be assigned PreCheck on your boarding pass (this, of course, is also dependent on the program being offered at your departure airport). Hooray for that!
Contour Airlines’ baggage policy is… confusing
By today’s standards, Contour’s baggage policy is fairly generous: In general, all fare types permit travelers to bring one carry-on and one personal item. Standard and Flexible fares are allowed an additional checked bag, free of charge. The website indicates the maximum carry-on dimensions are 22 x 14 x 9 inches, but does not provide dimensions for the personal item. I dug around in their Contract of Carriage and finally found the personal item limit: 9 x 10 x 17 inches. Interestingly, the Contract of Carriage states the max outside dimensions for carry-on bags is 10 x 16 x 30 inches, a significantly larger bag size than stated. Do with that information what you will, but personally, I wouldn’t push it.
When it came time to pack for our inaugural Contour flight, I opted for my Solgaard Carry-On Closet and Away Everywhere Bag, and Michael packed his Away Carry-On and Day Owl Backpack.
But guess what? It doesn’t matter.
The plane’s overhead bins are so small that your typical carry-on bags won’t fit, and you’ll be forced to gate-check anything larger than your personal item. Be prepared to let it go once you reach the jet bridge by removing essential medications, electronics, and lithium batteries.
Every seat is an aisle seat or window seat (or both!)
Contour exclusively flies Embraer Regional Jets, all with a 30-seat configuration. In a 2-1 row layout, this means that every seat has the added benefit of having at least one side free. Yay, no more jostling for the shared armrest!
The in-flight experience is comfortable, but bare-bones
Remember leg room? Because the planes are older, the leather seats are plush and feature 36 inches of pitch. Though it’s not a true luxury experience, flying Contour at least felt civilized.
On the flipside, the age of the fleet means there is no WiFi or any outlets onboard, so juice up your electronics and be prepared to be disconnected for a little while. And since there are so few passengers onboard, there is only one flight attendant in the cabin, resulting in longer safety demonstrations and snack service.
Soft drinks and snacks are free
We were offered a selection of sodas, coffee, and tea and given the choice of a sweet or savory snack on both flights (Biscoff is the only answer – don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise). No alcohol was available for free or purchase during our flight, which makes sense given the short route.
Your bag may not make it to your destination
Grabbing my gate-checked bag from the carousel, I didn’t know how lucky I was. Several passengers on our flight to Paducah were soon making their way to the desk after finding out their luggage didn’t make it to their final destination. Unfortunately, I saw the replay of this experience two days later, and have also spoken to others on previous flights with lost luggage (though we were told their bags were returned a few days later). In all of these cases, it is not clear whether the bags were lost during a previous connection or mishandled during the gate-check procedures. Moral of the story? Pack a spare change of clothes, all necessary medications, and any irreplaceable items in your personal item (and maybe say a prayer, if that’s your thing).
FINAL THOUGHTS ON FLYING CONTOUR AIRLINES
In some instances, passengers may not have another choice in airlines from their regional airport (or they may face the time burden of driving to an airport farther away). If Contour is the only airline available to you, I would count yourself pretty lucky. Though the fleet and planes are small, the in-flight experience is much more like flying a legacy carrier than a modern-day budget airline. Service from gate agents and flight attendants is limited but friendly, the flights are short, and the planes are comfortable. Contour’s interline agreement with American Airlines allows travelers to book flights on both carriers on the same ticket, but where I think Contour really shines is in its nonstop service between smaller destinations and hubs. Most (although not all) flight times are ideally suited for weekend travelers, opening up a new destination for local residents to explore.
Personally, I hope to fly more of the Contour routes available from Charlotte (currently: Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Paducah, Kentucky; Shenandoah, Virginia; Beckley, West Virginia; Clarksburg, West Virginia; Lewisburg, West Virginia; and Parkersburg, West Virginia) as my schedule and travel budget allow, so stay tuned for more travel guides!
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Questions for you
What is the smallest plane you’ve ever flown on?
Is there anything else you would like to know about flying on Contour Airlines?
Where to next? More posts you may enjoy:
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I have lost (delayed) luggage 3 times in the last year since my regional airport started using Contour. (And never before!). It is very frustrating.
My family with a 23 month old had a horrible experience using Contour airlines as a connector to and from AA Chicago to MWA (Marion IL). Trying to make the flight from Chicago to MWA, we missed our flight because no one could tell us where the gate was including AA agents or from Conture’s website. Personnel finally called Air TRaffic Controllers who gave us the wrong terminal. A random airport employee sent us back to Terminal 3 and we found Contour’s gate. They rebooked us luckily to last flight of day.
Returning from MWA to Chicago we were booked on. an early morning flight. The flight was delayed over 6 hours and we missed all possible connecting flights in Chicago. The staff had us wait for rebooking then after hours said it should be all set but you have to book through AA. The Contour staff had done nothing to rebook and due to having us wait for hours we missed out on all possible seats to rebook. What a nightmare. We were stranded in Marion with no immediate access to another airport.
I would never fly this airline because they have a pattern of canceling flights when there are not enough passengers. We had a flight back from Europe into ORD and chose Contour to get us home as our normal American flight was to tight of a connection time. Went to Contour gate and looked like everything was OK, but nobody from Contour ever showed up to the gate. We called and our flight had been canceled. They wanted to reschedule us to the next morning, but would not put us up in a hotel over the phone and said we needed to work with the gate agent for that. Well there was no gate agent. We took a refund rented a car and said never again.
Don’t do it. My bags didn’t make it to my destination. They stonewalled and lied to me for 2 days. No one would call me back like I was told. The whole connection process is confusing and it gives them license to play stupid if they lose your luggage.
I hope someone from Contour Airlines reads this comment. My son was traveling from O’Hare to Marion and he arrived but his luggage did not!! He has been working with the airline for over 24 hours and is still getting messages that they are “searching” for the bag. My son is on a music tour and has moved 3 times in last 2 day but still no word on where his luggage might be. I just don’t understand that in this day and age luggage can be mishandled and no one is able to track it to see where it is. As I write this I am on hold so far for 11 minutes waiting for a supervisor to pick up because after my 4 calling today to track the luggage and being told “someone” would call me I am still without answers!!!! I would walk to my destination before I even think about booking a flight on this airline!!!!!!!!!