I (along with some other FT'ers from the CO Board) just returned from New Zealand thanks to United's mistake C fare, managed to upgrade the outbound with miles and was wl'd on the return.

At Checkin @ SFO, 2 whole people working the checkin area 1 for biz one for Y. Nobody for F. Took 20 minutes to check in (was #2 in line). CO probably would have made us use the kiosks but I was on a PTKT so they couldn't have anyways.

Went to the IFL. The agent checked me in, I wanted to see about changing my AKL-SYD to the day before... "we can't do that here, I can give you the 1800 number..." (!!!) No free wireless(pathetic). Mid shelf liquor. The food (sushi and some sandwiches) seemed stale.

Overall: CO PC is better: Wifi, *helpful* agents. UA could have better food sometimes but not this time!

The outbound UA F flight: 2J.
Boarding was fine. FAs came around with preflight OJ/H2O/bad champagne. They save the better stuff for after takeoff. Vis-a-vis BF: Seats are narrower, in much worse shape. No introduction from the purser or your FA. Printed menu with the wine selections. They took orders for the main course.
The flight was uneventful. The food was pretty good. The seat does 180, so that is nice.

Seat: UA by a little
Food: CO BF > UA F (CO has larger portions, and I think the quality is better)
Wine: UA
Cheese Course: CO (UA has only 2-3 selections and 2 of them were gross on the outbound) and they give you like 2 crackers.
Dessert: CO - UA does ice cream with toppings. ITs ok I guess but CO has the cobbler also.

Midflight snack:
UA has some pre-wrapped junk food. CO has an actual meal service.

Hot Towels:
UA's are smaller and have this chemical in there that stings. Gross.

IFE: CO AVOD blows away United's 70s vintage mini tapes. And the screen is about 3". The NC headseats aren't great, its better than nothing but nothing close to real NC, and on the outbound, when the PA came on, they just crackled.
No Channel 9 on either flight, and no laptop power on the outbound.

CO Breakfast was better than United's.


On the way back.... heh, J.Edward and Channa beat out the rest of us for a bump! Luckily, that opened up some F seats, and I got the Upgrade. unfortunately, xyzzy & fam were stuck on the upper deck and were in for a real treat, as I'm sure he'll point out!

So on the return there were 4 FT'ers in F 1/2/3/4 J. That was a blast! I forget which of us has the pics but I don't think I do!

What happened next was very indicative of the airline:
2 of our seats had the armrest held on by duct tape! On the other side, one of the emergency guide lights was fallen off. A bug crawled out of my salad, I got a pic of him flying away but I didn't catch him for the FA.

When we arrived in SFO, we headed for the arrivals lounge. Closed. I went searching for someone to help, went to the int'l check in. Agent there was unhelpful, asked her to call supervisor. Her supervisor was this asian lady who was even less helpful. Closed, nothing she can do. No compensation. No alternate arrangements. Why did they close the arrivals lounge when they had a MX delayed 747 from the other side of the world coming in?

Demanded skykits (we don't have them) but I showed her one from the outbound and she capitulated. A bit later, the CS supervisor came out and unlike her, was very helpful. He offered to give people passes to the IFL to use the showers there or the airport 'travel agency' which is outside security. After a lot of wrangling, they gave us some food vouchers and each of us a SWU!!! He also asked me to send in the pics of the... MX issues on the plane.


Overall. CO J > UA F. Sorry UA, you really stink.