aisleorwindow

Well, thanks to a generous FTer, I was able to fly F on my SEA-ORD trip this weekend for the first time, and rjque was right on.
Outstanding service from purser Mary Ann in the F cabin.

My observations:

- The seats were a little banged up, and the 734s have certainly been around the block, but I'm one that actually likes leather.
- I'm only 5'7", so not the best judge for leg room, but clearly the leg room in F is less than on UA. However, the middle armrest seems bigger, and the drink area is not as crowded as on UA.
- Am I crazy, or are the F lavatories significantly larger on this aircraft?
- The digeplayers are VERY VERY cool. I really like that feature. Its great to be able to pause your movie, etc.
- Food was comparable. My expectations of airline food are VERY low - that way I'm rarely disappointed . I had the beef, which was very tasty. The broccolli and potatoes were soggy and mushy, but again: its airline food.
- Service was excellent from start to finish at both ORD and SEA and on the plane. UA ground at SEA is excellent as well. UA ground crew at ORD is usually good, but you can't count on it like you can at SEA.
- Agree with the comment earlier poster said about AS having more casual passengers. I was business casual, and was by far the most nicely dressed. I think this is indicative of AS being a west coast airline with west coast customers. Having lived in SEA for 17 years, this does not surprise me (or bother me). There was even an AS employee (assume non-rev) on one of my flights, and he was wearing jeans in F. UA has a strict dress code policy for employees flying in premium cabins, does AS not have such a dress code? (Again, I don't really mind, just curious).

I am flying UA to SEA again on Friday. I'm flying business on the 777, so that is not really a fair comparison. But the return is an A319, so will get another comparison for leg room.
All in all, I would definitely fly AS again with such reasonable fares, but my first choice would still be UA solely due to their more frequent schedule.
I routinely fly same-day standby on UA (about 50% of my flights), and like having the flexibility to miss my flight on a Sunday and take the redeye instead if I want to.
But I was very impressed with AS. You guys got a pretty solid airline, and its not even bankrupt!!

Westcoaster

I don't know if the F lav is bigger, but if it is it's because it has to handle all of the F passengers, the flight crew, AND all of the coach passengers who come up as well. Two weeks ago on my ORD-SEA flight there were more coach passengers using the F lav than F passengers -- a regular parade even when the cart wasn't in the aisle.

Also, AS does seem to be more casual up front. Casual dress is fine with me, but on the same flight I noticed that there was a jeans wearing man who spent the entire flight with the F flight attendant. He may have been an off duty FA. The only thing that bothered me was that while one of the pilots was in the lav and there was a coach FA standing watch at the front of F, this "extra" FA had friends from coach up visiting him at the same time. It was quite a gathering at the front of F. No doubt it was perfectly innocent, but to anyone who listens to the warnings about no gatherings of people around the front galley it certainly would have looked like, well, a gathering.

On my SEA-ORD flight, things were more normal. Maybe the crews leaving ORD just go a little crazy.

aisleorwindow

I've seen complaints about that on this board before, but on my SEA-ORD flight, the purser was strictly enfocing the "no F lav for Y passengers" rule. I saw her turn at least one Y passenger back as he was opening the F door