Well, it's like they're a different airline. I last had flown US C just before the HP merger, and it was, well, "transportation". This year I've done 2 C TATL's on the new product, and I could hardly recognize the airline as US Airways. Seems to me that with the new C product came a renewed sense of pride, so the soft product was the best I've received from a US-based airline.

Of course, with time, I expect this to wane, but for now I actually actively look to fly US (new C only though).