Inflight service has degraded considerably through the last year, in fact I only had two situations where the "first class" cabin was decent. My very last trip, who the FA saw my AA EXP tag and whispered to me that who she preferred to fly, and the other time when I found out the FA was from my home town.
On-time Arrival is just plain awful, I counted up over 75 hours of delays in 10 months of travels, 4 cancelations, and service with both the elite line and 1K line that made my skin crawl.
Food ... when you get it is pretty bad. As a seasoned traveler, I am used to good food (and really bad food) ... and frankly there were time I looked at it and longed for the days for food from the courtyard refrigerators for microwaving.
IRROPS ... as the Gekko states ... forgedda about it .... all automated all bad all the time ...
Except for the new United clubs they are pretty worn thin, and over packed/crowded. The agents there just aren't very pleasant (compared to Delta's and AA's), and it is very cold .....
As for cheap flights ... I don't see it ... I am having to pay $600-800 to start for a pair of regional jets ... (oh did I say non-mainline baby .... something the folks in the Southeast if they stick with UA will get to know and so love).
I shared some of the stories with a AA Platinum person, when I was booking for a flight on AA for fun, and she said crap that was bad and told me to hold on and passed me over to an EXP person who told me who to contact to do a three month challenge for EXP.
Least to say I already got my Xmas gift on December 1st ....
I really really did try to fly and be positive for United (since I flew pmCO) pretty heavily, and was hoping that it would work out since one of my routes (non-direct mind you) I didn't mind taking ... but at some point the abuse and poor service ... I just couldn't take it anymore ... If I was into that type of service I would go back in time and go into a new fraternity every year for the hazing experience ....
+-ADT