I recently flew the LAX-NRT route on SQ and UA. The SQ flight had better service (always called by my name, quick and responsive to requests) and food. It was the old plane with the small screen VOD. The UA flight had better seats and better VOD, but the service and food were worse. In addition, my gfs VOD system did not work at all for the whole flight. If the prices were the same I think I'd fly SQ over UA on this route even with the older planes, but if UA was significantly cheaper I'd go with it.