techgirl
Mar 15, 02, 4:25 pm
Part I of III – Thursday, March 14 and Friday, March 15, 2002
Disclaimer: I’m publishing this purely for my own amusement, not to start a debate on the relative merits of various airlines. I thought – probably incorrectly – that others might be interested in someone else’s thought process in comparing two major airlines from a heavy domestic flyer’s vantage point. As such, I’m not going to be discussing relative merits of AAdvantage vs. MileagePlus.
I must make a revelation to those who know me primarily from the AA Forum… I do fly other airlines outside of One World. (I say that because I’m sure I’m shocking a few folks here who think that my anti-whining stance on the AA Forum either means I’m being subsidized by The Airline in some way or that I’m just plain ignorant – I assure you that the first is true and the second, well… let’s just leave well enough alone.) I fly other airlines for a couple of reasons – one, because AA doesn’t serve many of the very small rural towns where business requires me to travel (and UA generally does) and two, because I am cost conscious with the company’s dollar and if AA can’t get me there at a reasonable cost, more often than not either UA or an AA/UA combo will do the trick.
I will also admit that I’ve been somewhat ignorant about what UA had to offer that AA didn’t (or vice-versa) although I’ve flown UA enough to have status, I have merely been a lurker on the UA Forum for the most part due to a lack of credible knowledge in comparison to what I know about AA. I set a goal this year to give UA at least 50k of my business (and with 200k projected for travel, that should be more than do-able) and make a decision from there whether to go ahead and run for 1K status. To boot, since I earn my statuses what I call the “hard way” – 500 to 700 miles at a time – the little things on an airline make a big difference.
As flight scheduling would have it, I managed to schedule two weeks of biz travel on UA so that I could have enough concentrated flights to finally compare for myself. So this trip report is, essentially, my own personal comparison of UA flights that are comparable to the ones I fly on AA during the business week – shorter haul (2.5 hours or less) or commuter flights out of and through a major a hub. I’m going to compare all the things I generally encounter in my flight experience as they differ flying two different airlines.
Flight #1 – DFW-DEN
Parking – Since arrival/departure gates are “solid” when flying UA in and out of DFW, I decided to forgo the park-n-ride offsite lot and park directly at the terminal for this short trip. Of course, the ubiquitous Terminal B Parking is Full sign was flashing but I ignored it knowing that like with TWA before, the “other” end of Terminal B would have plenty of spaces. I was right and scored parking right up front. Additional cost of onsite parking - $8 per day. Time saved by parking at the terminal – thirty to sixty minute total plus drain on the cell phone battery.
Check In – Stepped right up to the *A Gold check-in line. Waited about thirty seconds for a counter agent to be free and got checked in. The counter agent couldn’t smile if she tried, I’m sure and she interrupted me while I was very evidently trying to wrap up a cell phone call. Considering that I was not holding up any kind of line, I found that to be rude.
Gate Area – The gate area was TOO crowded. Not enough seating for a commuter flight let alone even half of a 320. I found Brandy and we headed to the Red Carpet Club.
Red Carpet Club – After some careful early research into a second club to join (since I don’t have Admirals Clubs in all of the cities where I fly regularly), I had already decided to buy a RCC membership. We headed into the DFW club and asked the desk agent (a UA, er, veteran, I would guess) about membership. I guess I expected a tour or something – instead, I was merely handed an application – since when I joined the Admirals Club, they offered a tour. She quickly redeemed herself, however, when she very quickly processed my membership and got me my temporary card. After I became a “member”, I even saw her crack a smile. Oh, how the little things thrill me. The RCC at DFW has a coffee machine that makes hot cocoa, a toaster, bagels, and a refrigerator full of juices and beverages. Oh, and they also had the pretzels and fruit that the AC offers. Of course, the lounge is small and cramped compared to the three AC’s at DFW and lacks AA’s considerable investment in modern art, but I could handle waiting an hour for a flight here, particularly if I were hungry.
Boarding – Boarding started on time and UA has a nice privacy screen set up for continuous random gate screening which AA does not. After I was seated in row seven, I was notified by Brandy (who boarded later) that I was being paged in the gate area. The ultra-friendly purser Javier called down to the gate to find out what they needed me for and then they allowed me to walk down and collect the credit card back from the gate agent that the RCC had neglected to give back to me.
In-Flight Entertainment – One of my favorite things about UA is Channel 9 and as usual, I got the pleasure of enjoying this. I like that UA’s planes almost all have inflight audio/video. I also caught an episode of Friends that I had missed – it was nice to see something other than CBS Eye on American. AA doesn’t have audio/video on a good number of the routes I fly with them so this is always a treat.
Beverage/Snack Service – Since I generally don’t burn upgrades on short-haul flights, I did the coach thing. While UA’s savory mix packet is smaller, it tastes much better than the rotten-cheddar Rold Gold garbage that AA substituted about six months ago. Also, the FA gave me a cup of ice and the full can of my beverage without me having to ask. Nice.
Miscellaneous - I like that the UA blankets are more like the AA Flagship Service blankets. Nice and cozy – frankly, the AA domestic fleece frightens me… I’m not sure why, but I always worry about their sanitation. The plane seemed cleaner than a lot of the AA plans I’ve been on lately (I’m guessing it just must be newer, because in the past I’ve been known to comment on how battered the UA fleet seems) and the seats were very comfortable.
Flight #2 – DEN-BFF
Red Carpet Club – Now this is what a hub club is supposed to be like. In all fairness, I LOVE the DEN Admirals Club (more on that later), but the RCC has food. This is something I’m not used to and frankly I like it. One thing I don’t like as much was the open layout of the club – during mid-morning it seemed very loud and crowded.
Terminal and Gates – I like DEN and I’ve never felt that flying any airline out of there was a problem. I love Colorado Collection on concourse B and have dropped many a $ on jewelry in there for my friends and myself. The food offerings (as if I might need anything after grazing at the RCC) are good and well distributed through the terminals. There are lots of arrivals/departures monitors, the moving walkways are in good order, and the gates are all well labeled.
United Express – The Great Lakes flights take off from Terminal A now – the waiting area was somewhat unkempt and crowded. Nonetheless, it is a vast improvement over the old gates where one had to navigate stairs and cement lined hallways to board flights.
Pilots – Brandy and I both agreed that we needed to add a note about the pilots. Major babefest and they are mostly younger than us. They are also very friendly. I don’t think either of us has ever complained about a UAX pilot out of DEN. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif
Flight #3 – BFF to DEN
In-Flight – I’ll combine my comments about the flight to and from BFF because frankly they all seem the same. Scary prop plane flights with young (but cute) pilots on tiny planes with out of date magazines. I don’t enjoy flying ANY airline when runways are icy so I was too busy saying Hail Marys to worry about evaluating the airline on both the outbound and return.
Website – The UA website rocks. It is easy to navigate and deals with cookies well. The AA website is neither of these things. I was able to guess as we drove to the hotel in the snow in the Big Orange Truck that we would not be taking off on time. I got that confirmed for myself easily with a couple of clicks. Very good.
Eensy-Teensy Station – BFF loses points for NOT knowing that our flight was delayed until close to departure since the crew went illegal the night before and WE knew about it from the hotel shuttle driver (and the UA website). We were chastised by the counter agent for not being at the airport earlier as we were the last two check in (and I should note here that we arrived a good thirty minutes before our pilots did and over an hour before our scheduled departure.
Flight #4 – DEN to DFW
Reaccomodation – Okay… I tempted fate here, mainly because I was curious to compare how UA treats its elites compared to AA. It was fairly evident that we were likely to misconnect in DEN. In my experience, when I’ve been issued boarding passes through and a flight is a likely misconnection, I’ve automatically been protected on a later flight. I actually did another colleague flying with us who was interlining over to AA a favor by calling the EXP desk and getting him the last AA seat available for sale DEN-DFW (and actually getting him an upgrade, to wit). When we arrived in DEN, he took off for Terminal C and the AC while we double-checked to see if we had indeed misconnected – we did. We headed up to the RCC to see what we could do about reaccomodation. Bonnie was most helpful – alas, UA had NOT protected us nor could they have, she told us. All flights out of DEN that day were oversold, even in F, and we would have to try another carrier although they were oversold as well.
Inter-Airline Relationships – I requested that if I could not be accommodated on UA that they try to put me on AA. Bonnie made a call to AA operations at DEN and got us seats on the next oversold flight out on AA. Of course, this was accomplished partially through my pulling out the little black card and prompting her to tell them that I was an EXP. I don’t expect other airlines to be familiar with each others elites, but she seemed to understand the AA status levels and how to deal with that quite well. Let me put it this way – if she understood that I was EXP on AA and a mere 1P on UA and how to explain this to AA, I have no issue that if I were a 1K on UA, I would be in very capable hands with her taking care of me. Score one point UA for initiative and score one point AA for coming through as always.
Bumping Opportunities – Alas, I fear I missed the golden opportunity. If I hadn’t misconnected my DEN-DFW on UA, I should have been able to bump all day (and possibly into Saturday) with no issues. Of course, AA loads looked even more favorable when we checked them, so we were giddy as we headed over to the AC to get seat assignments. I have to pause here to insert the praise I lavish whenever the opportunity arises – The DEN AC crew is the best in the system . We were most thrilled to see our DEN friends again although I hated the sad looks I got when I had to explain my UA itinerary. We immediately got on the bump volunteer list for our flight and then grabbed mimosas with our colleague who was already there (with his F upgrade that would have been mine http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif ). At thirty minutes preflight, we headed down to the gate to (hopefully) collect our first bump voucher of the day. Alas, the flight checked in with the “perfect” number and we got to head home to Dallas.
Am I bitter that I lost out on a prime bumping day? You betcha. Nonetheless, UA did what I paid them to do which is getting me to my destination. On most days, that would have been the prime objective anyhow. Besides, spring break continues and I’ll have another DEN installment next week. So far, I haven’t noted anything that would cause me to leave AA for UA, but I’m definitely feeling price sensitivity between the two, so all things are equal.
[This message has been edited by techgirl (edited 03-15-2002).]
Disclaimer: I’m publishing this purely for my own amusement, not to start a debate on the relative merits of various airlines. I thought – probably incorrectly – that others might be interested in someone else’s thought process in comparing two major airlines from a heavy domestic flyer’s vantage point. As such, I’m not going to be discussing relative merits of AAdvantage vs. MileagePlus.
I must make a revelation to those who know me primarily from the AA Forum… I do fly other airlines outside of One World. (I say that because I’m sure I’m shocking a few folks here who think that my anti-whining stance on the AA Forum either means I’m being subsidized by The Airline in some way or that I’m just plain ignorant – I assure you that the first is true and the second, well… let’s just leave well enough alone.) I fly other airlines for a couple of reasons – one, because AA doesn’t serve many of the very small rural towns where business requires me to travel (and UA generally does) and two, because I am cost conscious with the company’s dollar and if AA can’t get me there at a reasonable cost, more often than not either UA or an AA/UA combo will do the trick.
I will also admit that I’ve been somewhat ignorant about what UA had to offer that AA didn’t (or vice-versa) although I’ve flown UA enough to have status, I have merely been a lurker on the UA Forum for the most part due to a lack of credible knowledge in comparison to what I know about AA. I set a goal this year to give UA at least 50k of my business (and with 200k projected for travel, that should be more than do-able) and make a decision from there whether to go ahead and run for 1K status. To boot, since I earn my statuses what I call the “hard way” – 500 to 700 miles at a time – the little things on an airline make a big difference.
As flight scheduling would have it, I managed to schedule two weeks of biz travel on UA so that I could have enough concentrated flights to finally compare for myself. So this trip report is, essentially, my own personal comparison of UA flights that are comparable to the ones I fly on AA during the business week – shorter haul (2.5 hours or less) or commuter flights out of and through a major a hub. I’m going to compare all the things I generally encounter in my flight experience as they differ flying two different airlines.
Flight #1 – DFW-DEN
Parking – Since arrival/departure gates are “solid” when flying UA in and out of DFW, I decided to forgo the park-n-ride offsite lot and park directly at the terminal for this short trip. Of course, the ubiquitous Terminal B Parking is Full sign was flashing but I ignored it knowing that like with TWA before, the “other” end of Terminal B would have plenty of spaces. I was right and scored parking right up front. Additional cost of onsite parking - $8 per day. Time saved by parking at the terminal – thirty to sixty minute total plus drain on the cell phone battery.
Check In – Stepped right up to the *A Gold check-in line. Waited about thirty seconds for a counter agent to be free and got checked in. The counter agent couldn’t smile if she tried, I’m sure and she interrupted me while I was very evidently trying to wrap up a cell phone call. Considering that I was not holding up any kind of line, I found that to be rude.
Gate Area – The gate area was TOO crowded. Not enough seating for a commuter flight let alone even half of a 320. I found Brandy and we headed to the Red Carpet Club.
Red Carpet Club – After some careful early research into a second club to join (since I don’t have Admirals Clubs in all of the cities where I fly regularly), I had already decided to buy a RCC membership. We headed into the DFW club and asked the desk agent (a UA, er, veteran, I would guess) about membership. I guess I expected a tour or something – instead, I was merely handed an application – since when I joined the Admirals Club, they offered a tour. She quickly redeemed herself, however, when she very quickly processed my membership and got me my temporary card. After I became a “member”, I even saw her crack a smile. Oh, how the little things thrill me. The RCC at DFW has a coffee machine that makes hot cocoa, a toaster, bagels, and a refrigerator full of juices and beverages. Oh, and they also had the pretzels and fruit that the AC offers. Of course, the lounge is small and cramped compared to the three AC’s at DFW and lacks AA’s considerable investment in modern art, but I could handle waiting an hour for a flight here, particularly if I were hungry.
Boarding – Boarding started on time and UA has a nice privacy screen set up for continuous random gate screening which AA does not. After I was seated in row seven, I was notified by Brandy (who boarded later) that I was being paged in the gate area. The ultra-friendly purser Javier called down to the gate to find out what they needed me for and then they allowed me to walk down and collect the credit card back from the gate agent that the RCC had neglected to give back to me.
In-Flight Entertainment – One of my favorite things about UA is Channel 9 and as usual, I got the pleasure of enjoying this. I like that UA’s planes almost all have inflight audio/video. I also caught an episode of Friends that I had missed – it was nice to see something other than CBS Eye on American. AA doesn’t have audio/video on a good number of the routes I fly with them so this is always a treat.
Beverage/Snack Service – Since I generally don’t burn upgrades on short-haul flights, I did the coach thing. While UA’s savory mix packet is smaller, it tastes much better than the rotten-cheddar Rold Gold garbage that AA substituted about six months ago. Also, the FA gave me a cup of ice and the full can of my beverage without me having to ask. Nice.
Miscellaneous - I like that the UA blankets are more like the AA Flagship Service blankets. Nice and cozy – frankly, the AA domestic fleece frightens me… I’m not sure why, but I always worry about their sanitation. The plane seemed cleaner than a lot of the AA plans I’ve been on lately (I’m guessing it just must be newer, because in the past I’ve been known to comment on how battered the UA fleet seems) and the seats were very comfortable.
Flight #2 – DEN-BFF
Red Carpet Club – Now this is what a hub club is supposed to be like. In all fairness, I LOVE the DEN Admirals Club (more on that later), but the RCC has food. This is something I’m not used to and frankly I like it. One thing I don’t like as much was the open layout of the club – during mid-morning it seemed very loud and crowded.
Terminal and Gates – I like DEN and I’ve never felt that flying any airline out of there was a problem. I love Colorado Collection on concourse B and have dropped many a $ on jewelry in there for my friends and myself. The food offerings (as if I might need anything after grazing at the RCC) are good and well distributed through the terminals. There are lots of arrivals/departures monitors, the moving walkways are in good order, and the gates are all well labeled.
United Express – The Great Lakes flights take off from Terminal A now – the waiting area was somewhat unkempt and crowded. Nonetheless, it is a vast improvement over the old gates where one had to navigate stairs and cement lined hallways to board flights.
Pilots – Brandy and I both agreed that we needed to add a note about the pilots. Major babefest and they are mostly younger than us. They are also very friendly. I don’t think either of us has ever complained about a UAX pilot out of DEN. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif
Flight #3 – BFF to DEN
In-Flight – I’ll combine my comments about the flight to and from BFF because frankly they all seem the same. Scary prop plane flights with young (but cute) pilots on tiny planes with out of date magazines. I don’t enjoy flying ANY airline when runways are icy so I was too busy saying Hail Marys to worry about evaluating the airline on both the outbound and return.
Website – The UA website rocks. It is easy to navigate and deals with cookies well. The AA website is neither of these things. I was able to guess as we drove to the hotel in the snow in the Big Orange Truck that we would not be taking off on time. I got that confirmed for myself easily with a couple of clicks. Very good.
Eensy-Teensy Station – BFF loses points for NOT knowing that our flight was delayed until close to departure since the crew went illegal the night before and WE knew about it from the hotel shuttle driver (and the UA website). We were chastised by the counter agent for not being at the airport earlier as we were the last two check in (and I should note here that we arrived a good thirty minutes before our pilots did and over an hour before our scheduled departure.
Flight #4 – DEN to DFW
Reaccomodation – Okay… I tempted fate here, mainly because I was curious to compare how UA treats its elites compared to AA. It was fairly evident that we were likely to misconnect in DEN. In my experience, when I’ve been issued boarding passes through and a flight is a likely misconnection, I’ve automatically been protected on a later flight. I actually did another colleague flying with us who was interlining over to AA a favor by calling the EXP desk and getting him the last AA seat available for sale DEN-DFW (and actually getting him an upgrade, to wit). When we arrived in DEN, he took off for Terminal C and the AC while we double-checked to see if we had indeed misconnected – we did. We headed up to the RCC to see what we could do about reaccomodation. Bonnie was most helpful – alas, UA had NOT protected us nor could they have, she told us. All flights out of DEN that day were oversold, even in F, and we would have to try another carrier although they were oversold as well.
Inter-Airline Relationships – I requested that if I could not be accommodated on UA that they try to put me on AA. Bonnie made a call to AA operations at DEN and got us seats on the next oversold flight out on AA. Of course, this was accomplished partially through my pulling out the little black card and prompting her to tell them that I was an EXP. I don’t expect other airlines to be familiar with each others elites, but she seemed to understand the AA status levels and how to deal with that quite well. Let me put it this way – if she understood that I was EXP on AA and a mere 1P on UA and how to explain this to AA, I have no issue that if I were a 1K on UA, I would be in very capable hands with her taking care of me. Score one point UA for initiative and score one point AA for coming through as always.
Bumping Opportunities – Alas, I fear I missed the golden opportunity. If I hadn’t misconnected my DEN-DFW on UA, I should have been able to bump all day (and possibly into Saturday) with no issues. Of course, AA loads looked even more favorable when we checked them, so we were giddy as we headed over to the AC to get seat assignments. I have to pause here to insert the praise I lavish whenever the opportunity arises – The DEN AC crew is the best in the system . We were most thrilled to see our DEN friends again although I hated the sad looks I got when I had to explain my UA itinerary. We immediately got on the bump volunteer list for our flight and then grabbed mimosas with our colleague who was already there (with his F upgrade that would have been mine http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif ). At thirty minutes preflight, we headed down to the gate to (hopefully) collect our first bump voucher of the day. Alas, the flight checked in with the “perfect” number and we got to head home to Dallas.
Am I bitter that I lost out on a prime bumping day? You betcha. Nonetheless, UA did what I paid them to do which is getting me to my destination. On most days, that would have been the prime objective anyhow. Besides, spring break continues and I’ll have another DEN installment next week. So far, I haven’t noted anything that would cause me to leave AA for UA, but I’m definitely feeling price sensitivity between the two, so all things are equal.
[This message has been edited by techgirl (edited 03-15-2002).]