Well, I have no experience with these (and don't have plans to change that), but TED was definitely far, and I mean FAR below the service I experienced on WN on a quite comparable BUR-SJC-BUR flight earlier this year.

Btw, on LAS-LAX, my "blocked middle seat" was no more, with a gentleman sitting between me and my travel companion. Of course, most other middle seats in E+ stayed free throughout the flight, so there was no reason for not keeping the seat next to me blocked. Obviously, UA doesn't care about those 220,000 EQMs in C and F (most of it international longhaul) I travelled in 2005, as those little 1K perks are quite worthless when you really need them.

On BUR-SJC, when I told the check-in agent that this was my very first flight on LCC, she smiled and gave gave me "A" boarding, so I could board first and pick the best seat in exit row.