  We re-examine a non-Gaussian quantum error correction code designed to
protect optical coherent-state qubits against errors due to an amplitude
damping channel. We improve on a previous result [Phys. Rev. A 81, 062344
(2010)] by providing a tighter upper bound on the performance attained when
considering realistic assumptions which constrain the operation of the gates
employed in the scheme. The quantitative characterization is performed through
measures of fidelity and concurrence, the latter obtained by employing the code
as an entanglement distillation protocol. We find that, when running the code
in fully-deterministic error correction mode, direct transmission can only be
beaten for certain combinations of channel and input state parameters, whereas
in error detection mode, the usage of higher repetition encodings remains
beneficial throughout.
