The airport and upgrade opps are also part of service expectations for me.

AA seems to always keep a few seats open until the very last minute for revenue passengers and UA seems to not do this. Flying on any revenue F/A/D/J tickets I could pretty much assure myself of an F seat on AA but several times I had to fly in coach on UA with revenue F/J ticket while upgraders were given all the F tickets. On the other hand, if you are upgrading ahead of time (and not last minute) I guess UA works better. As an EXP this again works in my favor while as a PLAT/PremEx I may have preferred the UA model (more confirmed upgrades ahead of time - no last minute trumping by an EXP/1K or rev passenger at the airport).

I agree that UA food is marginally better than AA's though seems to be tweaking things. I have not yet tasted PS's F so cannot compare that with AA's but expect UA to be better. AA's transcon F has been getting a little tired without much innovation in food or service.

On the coach side, while AA is removing MRTC, UA still has econ+ so maybe UA has an edge (as long as they don't release all econ+ seats well ahead of time - last minute business travellers would be paying more and still sitting in non-econ+ if UA does that a lot).