Flying Porter Airlines from San Diego to Toronto recently (in a PorterReserve seat on the E195-E2) was as satisfying as it was fun.
- Satisfying because it was 1/4 the cost of what Air Canada typically charges for business class from SAN to YYZ.
- Fun because, well, screw AC and their “ambitiously” priced premium seats. I ain’t never not gonna enjoy saving a bunch of money whenever a perfectly good alternative presents itself.
PD682
San Diego, CA (SAN) – Toronto, ON (YYZ)
Monday, February 3, 2025
Aircraft: E195-E2
Registration: C-GZQV
Duration: 3 hours 59 minutes
Seat: 3A (PorterReserve)
My full review of the Porter Airlines PorterReserve experience from San Diego to Toronto
I know. The problem with charging 1/4 the price of your competition is that it’s usually not sustainable. At least for the little guy (which, in this case is Porter).
I’m gonna be ticked if Porter gets run out of San Diego by their Canadian compadres (just as Swoop and Air Transat did – the latter of which never even initiated service). PorterReserve is just too dang good to be swished away like a pesky bug.
Arrival at the airport
The scheduled departure time to Toronto was 2:05 PM, but I already knew that the chances of this flight going out when they said it would were slim to none. Their on time performance out of SAN had been abysmal recently, but that didn’t stop me from showing up at 11:30 AM (and hoping for the best).
Porter operates out of Terminal 2 West at SAN. Their ticket counter is located adjacent to United, which, as you might expect, is better than being located next to Air Canada. I can’t imagine they appreciate each other’s presence all that much.
A slightly delayed a departure worked out to my advantage actually. I used the extra time to check out the Chase Sapphire Lounge here in T2. It was a pretty nice place to hang out while they got things sorted out.
The boarding process
It was kind of hard to gauge how full (or how empty) this flight was going to be while standing in the gate area just prior to the initiation of the boarding process. There didn’t seem to be that many people. But at the same time, It was difficult to visualize the seating capacity of an E195-E2. I was clueless.
Nobody rushed the gate when they called for PorterReserve passengers to board, so that was my first clue that this was going to be a very light load to Toronto today.
Seat overview
The best way to describe the PorterReserve seats on the E195 E2 is to think of it as business class “lite”. Another way is to compare them to the seat you saw in my Breeze Airways A220-300 Ascent review. It’s a very similar premium(ish) seating product, with equal amounts of leg room, but the Porter seat isn’t as wide.
If it isn’t obvious from the pictures, the benefit of the PorterReserve seat is the generous legroom. The seats themselves aren’t all that great, but having what feels like an unlimited amount of room to spread out makes all the difference.
The departure
Our departure from the gate was 22 minutes behind schedule (at 2:27 PM). It probably would’ve been even later had this been a full flight, but things moved pretty quickly once we got rolling.
Having an open seat next to me made all the difference. Especially considering how narrow these seats are. It would’ve been really cramped if someone had been sitting next to me.
Thankfully we were able to get in the air before the menacing looking fog bank approaching from the west consumed the airport. It was close!
Here’s the full video of the departure process for those prefer to watch that instead:
Food and drinks
They surprised me with some pretty good food and drink options. All PorterReserve passengers get a complementary meal – which just so happens to be the same meals that regular economy class passengers can purchase. And they’re actually pretty good. It’s not hot food, but it is fresh (and tasty) in ways which made me wish I hadn’t eaten so much in the lounge before the flight.
In-flight entertainment
There are no video screens in the Porter reserve seats (or any other seat for that matter). In flight entertainment does exist though, and you can access it via the complementary Wi-Fi on your personal device.
The catalog of content was decent. But if I’m being honest, you’ll probably want to fly Air Canada if high-quality video entertainment (featuring all the latest and greatest stuff) is a top priority for you.
The lavatory
Embraer E-Jet lavatories are small and fairly basic – but functional in all the ways you need them to be. The E195-E2 is still a regional jet after all, so it’ll be necessary to lower your expectations (and suck in that gut) before going in.
Seat comfort
What is there really to say about a standard economy class seat featuring gobs and gobs of legroom? The PorterReserve seat isn’t all that comfortable actually (and it offers no additional reclined over a standard economy seat), but that legroom tho. They certainly didn’t skimp on it.
The descent and arrival into YYZ
Having an open seat next to me made this one of the most comfortable regional jet flights that I’ve ever had. Of course my buttocks were a little numb, but I was having a pretty good time being completely antisocial thank you very much.
As you might expect for February in Toronto, it was a very cold and snowy approach all the way into YYZ. It had been along time since I’ve seen snow like this. Beautiful!
We touched down on runway 05 at exactly 9:49 PM local time. We were scheduled to do it at 9:32 PM but, well, stuff happens sometimes.
Total taxi time to the gate was 8 minutes (it was scheduled to be 18), and they turned off the seatbelt sign at 9:57 PM. This resulted in being only 7 minutes late. They came so close to nailing an on-time arrival.
Pros and cons
As long as it’s cheaper than what Air Canada is charging, it’s really hard to beat Porter Airlines (and a PorterReserve seat). It’s 90% as comfortable, and 95% as delicious.
Pros
- The legroom is darn near otherworldly. Maybe not quite as good as what Virgin America A319 first class was, but much better than the current competition.
- The food they serve is substantial. It won’t be hot, but it will be tasty (and enough to keep you satisfied for the entire flight).
- The relative small size of the Embraer 195-E2 makes it feel kind of (sort of) like a business jet experience.
Cons
- Maybe it was just my particular flight, but the flight attendants didn’t seem to be all that interested in doing any work. They sat most of the way to Toronto.
- In-flight entertainment is just OK. I’d recommend loading up your devices with movies and TV shows beforehand.
The wing view makes the E195 look like a mini 777 lol
Hi Scott:
Thank you for taking the time to write this detailed review! Excellent information and food for thought. My wife and I are eyeing Porter for a flight from YYZ to Vegas this coming March. Never flown them before. Only flown WestJet and AC (very down on both right now). While I LOVE to fly, my wife is COMPLETELY afraid of flying!
I am 6’1″ and 230, so I’m not exactly a small guy by any stretch. While initially I was going to consider going Porter classic Flex, you have me seriously considering Reserve simply for the extra leg room. Have to admit, I’m concerned about the seat widths though on a 5 hour flight to Vegas.
While it’s a significant upcharge to swith to Reserve, I’m thinking the extra leg room for my height might just be enough to consider the premium. The only other real benefit it sounds like is the priority boarding as the meals are modest at best.
As you have far more flight experience than I, I am interested in hearing your thoughts about the ride quality of the E195 vs the Boeing 737 MAX-8’s that WestJet or AC typically use. My ask again, is primarily for my wife. Given her phobia of flying, every little bump and shake causes her extreme stress. In your experience and opinion, is the E195 a smoother flight than the 737? At the end of the day, I would likely choose the plane with the smoother ride over perhaps a better seat quality.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize until reading and watching your review, just how much of a difference this economy-type plane achieves what they do by cutting out the middle seat. On the flip side, boarding a plane of this design surely must be a more civil experience than boarding a WestJet or AC 737?
I may just end up springing for Reserve in the end just to get that extra leg room depending on what I hear back from you. Thanks in advance for your reply and for the time you’ve taken to detail your experience!
You’re very welcome Brian! The generous legroom makes up for the lack of seat width IMHO. It’s not that bad.
I slightly prefer the ride of the 737 over the E175. The 737 is a larger and heavier aircraft, which does a better job of absorbing the bumps. The E175 feels sportier and more nimble due to its smaller size, but if I’m being honest it’s not that big of a difference. You’ve got to be really paying attention to notice anything.
I can’t recommend Porter Reserve highly enough! Totally worth the money IMHO.
Hi Scott. Thank you for the review. My wife and I tried this based off of your review when we flew back from Toronto to LAX. Fortunately, we had very attentive flight attendants (maybe they saw your video and thought they should do a better job? LOL).
We did sit in the Porter Reserve seats and you are absolutely right. I am 6′ tall and although the seats had plenty of leg room…. as far as the width, very narrow and definitely not “cushy.” Good thing I travel a lot so I brought along my inflatable cushion.
Anyway, thank you for all that you do and we are trying flights based off of your reviews so please do keep up the great content!
You’re very welcome Marc! Good to know that the flight attendants on your flight were more proactive than the ones on mine. Perhaps the flight attendants on my flight already knew that San Diego was going to be canceled, so it wasn’t even worth trying anymore lol.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the reviews. Much more to come!
What happened to that Delta Flight is crazy! https://x.com/Mr_JCE/status/1891832593579954489
(sorry for the link)
This Porter flight looks to be similar to the Dash-8 with similar seats and food. Porter airlines is a incredibly underrated airline. I’d even dare to say that it’s almost the Canada regional version of Etihad or Emirates(very flipping nice).
Also can you make a blog post like this for a airline reviewer? https://www.driveandreview.com/how-to-become-a-car-reviewer-on-youtube/
Great review as always!
Thanks! The fact that the Delta incident happened so closely to the time that I was there makes it hit a little more closer to home for me. The videos are spooky – and it’s a miracle that everyone walked away from it mostly unscathed.
But yeah, this Porter E2 experience makes me really want to give the Dash-8 a try. It’s a neat little airline.
And thanks for reminding me that I need to update that “how to be a car reviewer” post lol. I wrote that along time ago, and things have definitely changed since then. I agree that it would be fun to do similar version for aspiring airline reviewers…
Hi SANspotter! I was just reading the blog, and yes I am an aspiring airline reviewer! It would be huge help if you posted something like that! TYSM and great post!
Nice to see that you landed right side up at YYZ!
Ok, jokes aside, this looks like a pretty decent experience. Porter seems like a nice little airline with plenty of character (at least, more character than Air Canada), and that legroom looks really impressive!
Also, just wondering, this was your first time on an E2, right? How would you compare it to, say, the first-gen E-Jets or the A220?
lol there’s no point in complaining about being a few minutes late when you arrive right side up, right?
This was a surprisingly nice flight. It wasn’t as good as the Breeze Airways premium experience IMHO (the closest thing I can think of to compare this to), but it was decent enough. The food was really good, but the seat was meh.
And yup, my first time on an E2! It didn’t feel (or sound) like a regional jet at all. I assume it’s added weight and size is what made it smoother than a typical E-Jet. It felt about the same as an A220.