^ This is great stuff. Given all the nay-saying about how terrible this "outsourced" route is for United, America and humanity, it is great to hear something positive about the customer experience.

I care a lot about the hard products, but it is amazing how much more important crew interactions can be on overall passenger perception; I think that's what I remember most from flight to flight. I still have all the cards and notes I've received from UA team members on flights - may favorite was a really nice note on United embossed/folded card stock delivered to me on UD 747 ORD-HKG from the purser - she came upstairs to drop the card(s) off and introduce herself. It was extremely classy.

I have to say that I've met *plenty* of really classy, interactive, smart and/or just generally good United employees, from the 1K line all the way to the cockpit. Nonetheless, it will be more than just a little ironic if this IAD-WAS route gets the reputation for being a generally better customer experience than UA mainline from a crew standpoint.