I've had a different experience with ET out of ORD than susiesan has had with the 788 angled/flat seats. I suspect that we differ on this because of our physical statures. I am well over 6 ft tall and weigh in at around 230 lbs. The 788s that have the Zodiac Aura lite seats do not have a footwell and I have encountered ones where the seat mechanism if hard to work with and/or partially inoperable. I do not sleep well on these seats. IMO it is the size and condition oi the seats. These angled/flat seats are on the oldest aircraft in ET's fleet. I have flown on other airlines with similar seats and had a much better experience. If you are shorter and slimmer you may very well have no issues with the seat (especially if you get a seat that works properly).

susiesan and I agree totally on the catering. I haven't flown UA Polaris recently but my experiences with both airlines before and during COVID were that ET's on board food and service in business are much better than UA. The only issue for this in flying out of ORD on ET is you are flying out of T5. ORD is a construction zone right now (and T5 in particular). Unless you are flying in on a very early morning connection into T1, you will not get Polaris lounge access. Also the new ADD Cloud Nine Lounge at ADD is really quite good.

I significantly prefer the B77L, B77W ad A359 aircraft that fly on the morning flights out of IAD (ET500/ET501) and YYZ (ET552/ET553). The evening flight between IAD and ADD (ET516/ET518) gets similar aircraft as ORD does. I have found the lounge/restaurant situation at both IAD and YYZ for superior to T5 as well. The AC Maple Leaf Lounge in the international departures area of YYZ T1 is very nice. And at IAD you have access to both the Polaris Lounge as well as the TK lounge. Both are very nice and uncrowded (especially in the morning).