While not directly on topic to the thread, I find AS mainline crew to be pretty consistent & excellent. After the VX acquisition, pre-merger I actively booked away from VX because of the filthy dumps they were and the attitude of the crew. After the merger it was immediately apparent who came from the AS side & who came from the VX side but that has waned.

I would say QX, a sister of AS, is a little more consistent, refined & in tune with Mainline crews than OO. QX provides generally excellent service and feels more AS than OO does.

Pre-pandemic, I have had some great hot meals on QX consistent with mainline offerings, sometimes exceeding. Hot meals on QX were offered despite OO not having ovens. I would hope they return to that model. As QX e175 fleet expands, AS could use QX for longer routes where a meal service is provided and use OO for shorter routes where it isn't.

Of course, upgrades are easier in some markets than others. My PHX-SFO flight was upgraded around T-117. I had a choice of any of the 12 seats in F. By OLCI, only 3 seats were occupied, 2A, 3A & 4A; popular seats. At boarding, one non-rev sat in 2C and a couple in 4CD likely paid for the upgrade at the gate. We departed with 6 in F & a total of 20 onboard.

The photo in my last post was taken on August 31st from my 2A seat on PHX-SFO for the SFO Lounge opening. We had a simultaneous parallel landing and I snapped the picture through the awesome large window. I have video of the landing but too large for FT.

James