My first flight on the quest is JFK-LAX. The day before today I decided to meet up with some friends in LAX for dinner, and United still had seats for $118 one way (as a consumer I love it, as a member of the airline industry I cringe!), so I went ahead and purchased on united.com. The flight I purchased was actually a bit later than I was hoping for, so I went ahead and checked in online and also put myself on the standby list for an earlier flight. I arrived at Terminal 7 about 45 minutes before the flight and waited at the gate for a seat assignment. Once my name was up on the board as cleared I went up to the counter and got my seat assignment. The agent informed me only middle seats were left, so I asked her for the "best" middle seat, and sure enough I sat next to a pleasant older, and, most importantly, small lady (yes conicidence I know).

This was my first time onboard a United PS service plane. Of course it is not your average looking 757. The coach cabin is only 12 rows, which I think gives it sort of an intimate feel. Legroom is decent. I liked that there was a fresh blanket on every seat. The interior itself does look dated, old seats, old style overhead bins, and Verizon airfornes in the seat that don't seem to actually be hooked up anymore. In flight entertainment is solely overhead monitors, no personal tvs, and no wireless internet of course as American offers on this route. The one piece of IFE that United does stand out with is channel 9. The captain mentioned ATC communications would be available to us in his introduction. I'm not sure why other airlines don't add this. It's great to listen to, especially on a 45minute taxi out of JFK.

I would give the service an above average ranking. The flight attendants were very pleasant, and after food and beverage service, they came around multiple times offering water and coffee. I purchased the turkey asparagus wrap...at $9 it is a rip off, but you can't exactly pop into Steak Escape at 38,000 feet. I watched whatever movie they were showing (which differed from the announced movie and what the in flight magazine said the movie would be). We arrived into LAX about 15 minutes late due to the long taxi out of JFK.

Positives: Legroom, aircraft configuration, pleasant flight attendants, channel 9^
Negatives: Other IFE, rather old interior