US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - UA or US Transcon First Class Product

I have the opportunity to fly FC from LAX - ALB on either UA or US.

Was wondering who has the best food, seats and overall service. Thanks for all your information.

You would really need to go into the flight schedules to get the answer.

On US, you would need to connect in PHL or PIT. That would mean an A320, A319, or 757 on the transcon legs. Both are comfortable in FC. Or, a 767 is now running between the west coast and PHL/PIT. This would have Envoy Class seats, the international biz class, which is excellent. Service would still be domestic First, I think.

On United, if you connected in ORD, you would could fly a 777, which is much more comfortable in First Class. If you find a 777 flight, check ITN and see if it is three cabins or just two. If it is 2, it is normal domestic F class. But if it is three, F Class would be the international First Class product, with a chance at First Suites.

Excellent advice - but you may just want to go US - while you still have a chance too! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

doc, you must be optimistic about the merger going through.

Jay

Thanks for your advice. I was also curious about the food service. I've heard from coworkers that UA has "some of the best FC food". Is this true?

I flew this route in first a few months ago. As noted, connections are generally through PIT or PHL, though it is possible to go through CLT. The eastern connections are on 73X, while I flew 757 to the coast in one direction and a Airbus 319 on the other.

I thought the food and service were significantly better on the Airbus (much smaller FC), but that could just reflect my bias towards the 319,329 vs 757.

Connecting through PIT is better than ORD and far better than PHL.

In terms of connecting hubs PIT is far superior and yes I'm biased, but it's the fact. In terms of service UA might have the edge since they might have three class service available.

If you can get on the 767 LAX-PIT I'd humbly suggest US. Airbuses (Airbii?) are nice too. Good luck..

Depending on time of year, I would advise connection through PIT as other discussions have mentioned. The airport is less likely to be congested (PHL has bad problems with a/c backed up waiting to pushback or waiting for other a/c to push back so they can get to gates). PHL can also be hit by bad Atlantic weather.

Having said that, PIT can be bad if you're arriving in a 757 as gates which can handle this a/c are limited.

CLT is also good but has problems in the summer with thunderstorms and showers.

Originally posted by terenz:
Depending on time of year, I would advise connection through PIT as other discussions have mentioned. The airport is less likely to be congested (PHL has bad problems with a/c backed up waiting to pushback or waiting for other a/c to push back so they can get to gates). PHL can also be hit by bad Atlantic weather.

Having said that, PIT can be bad if you're arriving in a 757 as gates which can handle this a/c are limited.

CLT is also good but has problems in the summer with thunderstorms and showers.

I agree about the hub issues for the most part. I tend to avoid hubs to the north of D.C. (read BWI, PHL, and PIT) during winter as the chances of snow are much higher than at CLT. Conversely, I will attempt to avoid CLT in summer due to thunderstorms and PHL because whenever there is an east coast clog, PHL will see delays. PIT gets affected, but less so than PHL.