I flew EWR -> LAX last Friday night on the 787-10 in business. It was my first premium transcon flight in J on UA in a while.
Pros: the plane (brand new Polaris seats, nice larger lavs behind business, extremely quiet and comfortable flight) and congeniality from most of the crew.
Cons: the only non-pop up United Club in EWR is still an overcrowded disaster, despite being friendly, the crew was seriously ill-trained or prepared to serve the business cabin (no one asks to take your coat, no PDBs offered or requests taken other than for OJ/water, pre-arrival snacks only offered to the front of the cabin and then none offered to the back half for some unknown reason), catering is really underwhelming in terms of quality and preparation, IFE offering not as broad as what DL offers.
On the return I flew a DL A330, and while the hard product on UA was superior in every way, the service and soft product on DL (other than a few quibbles with plating everything at once and a cheapskate dessert) was mostly superior to UAs. Imagine what flying this route would be like if just one airline got both areas right.
