Lets just face facts here....and I think many will agree....UA First Class doesn't even compare with many of the Middle East or Asian Carriers.

Many on the FT board here, including myself, have enjoyed a "real" F product on numerous carriers mainly because of FF miles we've redeemed. We've been able to get these tickets mainly because of the, IMHO, accumulation of miles via the UA MP program.

TG, NH, SQ(if you can ever get them) offer a pure premium product for MP redemption.

After sampling the UA, AA, BA, CX, MH, TG, SQ and other airlines F products, the US airlines are woefully lacking. If you are a regular Asian traveler (Intra Asia) UA and Delta are just bad....period. If you want a complementary upgrade on your way to Asia because you need to get there then the F product is acceptable. Most business travelers from the US either have to buy their tickets because of the schedule (me included), or are forced into taking US carriers abroad.

There are many people on FT who wonder why anyone would take a US carrier in F/C to Asia...given the bad seats/bad service/bad food/ etc etc etc....For most it's not a choice unfortunately...It just is how it is.

I certainly don't think that US carriers are going to change their focus any time soon on the product...and especially service...that they offer on their International flights because it makes up so little of the revenue pie. I have actually laughed with a GS agent on more than one occasion about taking the UA flight to BKK when the TG flight was available.......10 seconds in to the conversation they totally understood the "service" factor.

Maybe things may change......I'm not holding my breath though