I agree. While the in flight power and a few extra inches of pitch in the 737s are nice, and I've had SOME -rare albeit- fantastic service on AA (but I just got off a set of AA F flights where the crew was exactly as OP has described), I've found US to be much more consistent. Having flown both AA and US pretty equally in the past year, today I wouldn't hesitate flying US over ANY domestic carrier - certainly UA but have no problems flying paid F on US over AA, DL, and even AC. Is it the best? No. Does it match up to Asian standards? No. But then again I'm paying $800-$1,500 for F (ok, in reality it's some YUP fare booking into A) for most destinations in this vast expanse of land - being based in Cali. US works, they dont get enough credit, and they work comfortably well. I'd say they are a solid B+ player most of the time I've flown and I'm more than OK with that. In fact, I'm looking forward to my ATL-PHX-LAX journey this Saturday in paid F - all US obviously - which I deliberately chose over ATL-DFW-LAX ... For what it's worth I'm also a bit over the AA crew attitudes that OP had described, which I kind of picked up too over the past few months (not everyone but the few have really stuck out) - not sure if it is merger related.