Originally Posted by
Derrico
The number one thing about UA is Economy Plus. It makes all of the difference to me. I upgrade when I want, and know that I will have an E+ seat when I don't upgrade. I don't have that crestfallen feeling of horror when my CO upgrade doesn't clear on my PDX-EWR flight. CO is great as an airline and service at all levels easily outshines United, but those coach seats are a wicked whip. Its hard to forget the feeling of sitting in Y on a bad headwinds EWR-SEA flight that lasts 7 hours. I had several of those in a row and it was just too much.
That is it! I don't feel so bad when I'm not U/G on UA, because I know I have the Econ Plus. Also, they block middle seats next to, at least, Prem Ex and 1K (I think Prem too) so they are among the last reserved on the plane, unlike CO which throws the "elite" seats open to the wolves at the 24 hr mark. I have been on a few BWI-DEN flights where the E- section was full, but the E+ section had a number of empty middles. I will say the UA FAs are pretty good about enforcing the difference between E- and E+. How hard would it be for CO to auto-block the seat next to an elite?