Originally Posted by
Thunderroad
I might quibble with your view a bit (e.g., I'd never call UA a fantastic airline) and add a few elements to the calculation, but basically I think you've summed up the differences quite well.
thanks.
I suppose fantastic has its own meaning. For me, it's mainly the hard product. I find UA's planes to be spotless and clean, decent audio/ch 9 and video entertainment options, and really comfortable F cabins with wide armrests and level of recline.
Aside from that, UA has an amazing ability to turn a plane in under 15 minutes (something AA couldn't do for the life of itself) and get the plane out to the runway as quickly as possible for takeoff. This is what the making is of a good airline.
Their weaknesses compared to AA are the new FFP (which largely puts revenue before status in a lot of areas, and to AA's credit, status comes 1st in most)--and airport experience. SFO T3 is a madhouse in the morning and at UA the TSA security checkpoints have long lines -- if AA was still in T3 I don't know *how long* we'd be waiting. lol