Review of American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Roanoke in Economy

This is the second leg of my convoluted trip to visit my parents (really to review AA for once and the Charlotte Centurion Lounge).

Charlotte american express centurion lounge

The new CLT Centurion Lounge can be found up the stairs at the intersection of Concourses D and E. I believe this is the first review of the lounge here on Flight-Report.

The entrance has the standard American Express check in with friendly agents as always.

The lounge is quite large, with lots of seating and quite a bit of variety as well.

I'm not quite sure how to describe the decorations, other than this is kind of what I've grown used to at Centurion Lounges?

More seating:

There's a great view of the E gates well.  Unfortunately all regional jets here.

There are also some private call rooms/booths.

At the end of the lounge is the buffet area.

The spread was pretty good.

Adjacent to the buffet station is a larger dining area.

The bar sits in between the buffet and the dining area.

Here is the drink menu:

They were out of the Chianti, but offered a glass of Il Poggione Toscana Rosso instead. I couldn't tell what vintage it was, but it was a fairly meh Tuscan.

There are some additional views of a few of the D gates from the dining area.

After eating, I explored a bit more and found what appears to be a kids playing area. Not many toys in there though.

The bathrooms were clean and spacious, having the same L'Occitane amenities found through the Amex network.

AA6050

My second flight of the day was on N686AE, a 17-years old ERJ-145.

Boarding began at 2:06pm, on schedule and right as I got to the gate. Funnily enough, no one was in groups 1-4 and only a few people in group 5. Guess this is not exactly a elite-laden route. 

AA's ERJ-145 was set up in a 2-1 configuration, all economy class.

I was seated in 4A.

Dimensions-wise, the seat was what you expect on an ERJ-145: tight.

Here's a look at the bulkhead seats for comparison. I'm not sure if these actually have more leg room.

Note that the overhead compartments on the smaller regional jets are tiny. These can barely accommodate a full backpack.

The captain informed us that it should be about a 30-minute flight and that it would be bumpy because winds were gusting at over 25 mph.

Doors closed at 2:27pm and we pushed back 12 minutes later. We took off at 2:52pm.

I was not expecting any service at all, but the flight attendant passed out mini pretzel bags.

We touched down at 3:30, just under 40 minutes of flying.

Unfortunately, because the previous aircraft was still at the gate, it took another 10 minutes before we were finally parked.