Originally Posted by Darlox

That's a bit over-simplified, wouldn't you say? Most of America has to take a connection through an Int'l gateway, so whether it's a UA one or a DL one doesn't affect probably 80%+ of travelers, overall. Since I fly both UA and DL frequently, upgrade opportunities have been, in my experience, about equal on both lately -- which is to say, largely nonexistant except for very off-peak midweek flights.

... and, it's anecdotal, but virtually every Int'l UA flight I have quoted out this year has been the same or more expensive than the DL equivalent, for paid-J. Sooooo... (And if you're looking at buying Y and upgrading, for comparable "upgradeable fares", DL's K has generally been considerably less expensive than UA's W, but upgrade-bucket availability on both has been complete crap.)

I wish the early opinions of the Polaris seats in the 773 were better. I haven't had the opportunity to personally fly it yet, but while it seems like it's a big step up for UA, as one used to flying Int'l carriers, the DL seat is a lot more competitive globally for Int'l travel. *shrug*