Well, there you have it. Live in CLT. Ton of direct domestic flights, and a fair amount of direct to Europe through the summer. If I were to take UA or DL and make a stop, I think *at minimum* it adds around two hours of travel time, if that stop is on a bee line to my destination, and if they have no operational delays.

While with a ranked list you will ultimately have someone ranked first and someone ranked last, if you go on SkyTrax or whatever none of the Big 3 domestic airlines get rave reviews. 3/10 for United, 3/10 for American, a whopping 5/10 for Delta. Then you look at the rest of the world and you've got airlines like ANA at an 8/10. Point being, even if you're the best of the US domestic airlines, it's not necessarily saying a whole lot or that your experience is going to be amazing.

I would give DL a serious consideration on trips where I'm going to have at least one stop regardless of who I go with. But even then, (a) I'd probably still lean AA to bank elite and bonus miles, (b) for TPAC I am very likely taking an Asian airline over US.