Originally Posted by
SouthernCross
I understand that route map is possibly the most important factor for most folks, but a side-by-side comparison of the mainline carriers would be extremely useful. There are many objective metrics that contribute to a carrier's overall value, comfort, and customer service: qualification levels, mile value, fleet size, average seat pitch, average lavatory size, etc. Even though a given traveler might value these in different ways, collecting the factual details in a single document lets them make that assessment.
Of course compiling all of this would be a *lot* of work.
Well, it depends on what you want and on what you have and on what you're willing to pay for.
For example, i have AA lifteime plat status, and UA Silver through high-end Marriott hotel status. As a tallish person, I want extra-legroom seats. On AA, I get into MCE free at booking time. On UA, I have a good chance at E+ at 24-hour check-in (but I feel I have to be able to check in close to 24 hours). But on Delta, C+ is a separate class, and I have zero status there, so I have to pay extra typically for that separate class. Theefore if everyone prices are equal and flight options are the same, AA is best for me seat comfort to price ratio, UA second best, and DL last.
But that just illustrates that what works for someone and what is important to someone varies a whole lot from one person to the next. And thus such general comparison charts are usually worthless to me when they exist, because they don't cover all of that which Id described above.
Furthermore, things change over time. DL used to have C+ in main cabin, just like UA and AA, but a year or two ago they made it a separate booking cabin, and that changed the logistics of getting an extra legroom seat at DL.
But for someone with no status at all, yet wanting extra legroom seats, it's even more complicated. Because in one case it's an upsell after the base price (AA and UA), while at DL it's a price of a different cabin. So it's tricky just to compare the price of extra-legroom seats if you have no status anywhere.
And I haven't even talked about anything other than extra legroom seats, and already the comparison is getting tricky.
So let me just throw out one other complication: At least on some routes, UA has no free IFE, but they have seat-back paid DirectTV, while AA and DL tend to have free IFE (usually on your own devices) but no live TV on most flights. For someone who wants to watch live TV on board and doesn't mind paying for it, UA might be the best of the threer, but for someone who wants a good selection of free stuff to watch, UA may be the worst of the three.
And there are zillions of other factors besides extra-legroom seats and IFE, but most of them are likely to be just as complicated to compare.