Shareholder is correct. The Choice Plus program only covers seating traditionally reserved for US Preferred members. There is absolutely no difference to the seating which can be pre-reserved at no fee. You do, of course, have the ability now to select one of these seats for the fee if you preferred to be near the front of the plane, if you book late and there are no window seats available, etc.

Incidentally, the days of poor performance and a high proportion of lost bags are gone. They have had one of the best record among the US majors since late last year, including several number one performances.

To clarify, the lack of the 500 mile minimum is only for Dividend Miles members. But we also have access to reduced off-peak award travel requirments, such as 35,000 miles to Europe in Y or 60,000 miles to Europe in J so it's a tradeoff.

Avoid the 737/certain 757 and Dash-8 fleet if you are concerned about older A/C. Everything else is in decent shape including the 767s which just received an "XM"ing. Some of the 757 (the trans-Atlantic ones) are relatively new and feature Envoy seating. The older narrow-body Boeings will be replaced by new Airbus' and Embraers within the next few years (I believe a number of E90s and 321s are arriving this year, some additional 320s and 319s in the years following).