Originally Posted by
ung1
In economy, I would probably always choose an airline on which I have status over a marginally better Y product on an airline where I have no status. The difference in hard product won't be enormous, but service (depending on individual crew) could be much better.
As someone who is elite on both airlines, I would say fly EK.
UA has some of the worst flight attendants in the world and the food is very ordinary. Also, UA does not provide complimentary booze on flights across the Atlantic.
The seats on UA will be marginally wider, but that's it.