Yesterday was the day of my first mileage run. I was doing YUL-SFO on AC - great flight, thanks ^^^, the SFO-YVR on United and then YVR-YUL on AC - just fine, merci.

I am not used to travelling on United, perhaps it is a different culture. Their RCC at SFO domestic is actually quite nice, except they charge for drinks and that includes bottled water (!). The flight to YVR was on their A320 that is two generations behind AC as far as the cabin interior goes. They make many, I mean many annoying announcements, like: "This flight features E+, it is fine to change seats (the flight was 3/4 empty) but if you change to in E+ it will be a paid upgrade". Or coming from the cockpit: "We appreciate the great help from our FAs tonight..." Are they volunteers or paid employees? The security briefing was presented on overhead screens. Why do they still play Gershwin tunes at the same time? What am I supposed to listen to? The cabin was quite run down, resembling TU154 of Cubana de aviacion, that I used to take to Varadero in early 1990s. And it was not even clean, with a sticky floor in the aft washroom. The service consisted of drinks (very limited) and snacks (paid). I had the feeling that if I did not buy something to contribute a little extra to their cash flow, they would go under. Well, I did not.

Anyway, they got me to my destination on time, and I thank them for that. My trip was a mileage run, I did not have to do it. If it was all on UA, I would have probably stayed at home. We often complain about AC. Based on this trip, it is a pretty good airline, and not only by current North American standards.