Originally Posted by
Rhinolicious
i also agree about the coach dialogue, it is actually a bargain over seas these days, my aging oversized frame isnt willing to do coach anymore. As a younger more pliable man, these are a steal
For me the big difference is that I can do a coach award on DL in Y+, because the seats on the 763/777/330/350s DL flies are not micro-narrow. The Y seats on the UA are horrible in comparison (for me and my normal sized son) not to mention the UA Y soft product is really sub-standard. A little math exercise helps to show this, by taking the cabin width, removing the aisles (typically 19", but 18" on the 10x 777s AA/UA are flying) and looking at effective seat width:
-A380 (at 10x, lower deck) has 21.8/seat (at 8x, upper deck) has 23.8"/seat
-777 (at 9x) has 21.3"/seat
-763 (at 7x) has 21.2/seat
-A320 (at 6x) has 21.2/seat
-A330/330neo (at 8x) has 20.8"/seat
- A350 (at 9x) has 20.3/seat
-737 (at 6x) has 20/seat
-787 (at 9x) has 19.8"/seat
-777 (at 10x, using 18 aisles as UA/AA are, which is why they are so narrow) has 19.4/seat
What this means is that I can use an overseas Y+ seat on DL, but not AA/UA or can use certain partners (LH, OZ in *A comes to mind, or CX on the A350, but not the 77W using AS or AA miles). My point being that its much more complex with Y than simply saying "all Y is bad", for me at least a Y+ seat on an A380 or on a A330 or A350 is doable, on a 777 at 10x or a 787 is not.
Originally Posted by
jdrtravel
Well, those airlines are now well past their mergers, they (UA in particular) have made some real investments in their hard products and they seem to still offer better redemption value and certainly better alliance redemption options.
UA has gone from having J product that was seriously behind the curve, to having J product (the Polaris seat) that is perfectly acceptable on the 777, and tight on the 787 (which is narrower and shorter). Delta's new D1 seat is far better. But UA's
Y product, as is AA's is far behind what Delta is offering. Narrower seats (see above) worse soft product. In PE all three airlines have the same seat.
But the reality is that I am happy to trade a subpar J product for a decent milage redemption. The useable tickets at this point are (excepting some *A redemptions, where UA has a slight advantage) in Y, and Delta's product is a real advantage, at least for me, in valuing miles...