Kremmen:
I have flown domestic ANA too, and yes, it's really nothing to write home about.
It's also true, that ANA's lounges are mediocre at best.
I do think, however, that it's quite unfair for you to judge (if this is the case) their entire service on their domestic case. Internationally, as far as I can judge, their service is far superior to US carriers and I personally find their FAs pleasant and competent. Well, it depends on what you mean by competent, of course. What do you find so incompetant about ANA's FAs? As far as I can see, ANA's service makes UA's look like a big joke (against an unfortunately large number of passengers). This is international flights I'm talking about, of course. Many FTers will tell you ANA's First Class service, for example, is in a differnet league entirely from UA's.
It also depends on the service style you're looking for. If you're used to the American (sorry if this is a generalisation) style, where the FAs are like friends rather than serving you, then you might be uncomfortable with the asian style. Asians, however, are used to the all-polite and the "typically asian" style of service, so to speak. Since Japanese passengers probably account for well over three-quarters of the total passengers, I am not surprised this is the case with ANA.
Also, I try hard not to use ANA's lounges. One of the best things about ANA's membership in Star is the ability to use other member airlines' lounges. For example, London has about 5 other member airlines in the same terminal as ANA, whilst in Seoul they use the Singapore Airline's lounges anyway. Seeing as there usually is a choice of lounges other than ANA's, it's not one of my foremost considerations.
Overall, I personally see no comparison between ANA and UA, especially considering you can use other Star airline's lounges and their international service being far superior to their domestic service. Try their First Class using miles, you'll see a completely different world to UA (in any class)
StarAllianceFlyer:
I thought all Super Style (so that includes some 747s) equipment had PTVs in Y?
(corrected for UBB codes)
[This message has been edited by stargold (edited 07-19-2001).]