Travelmom777

Hello, I'm planning on making this trip next week. I'll be spending 6 days in LA. I've been living overseas for nearly 20 years and am horribly out of touch with US domestic airlines. I'd like to use American or United as they are part of my miles programs but I'm willing to give up the miles if they are no good or there is another carrier that is better. I've done a lot of searching but have, surprisingly, not been able to find any info online. All information and opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

pinniped

UA and AA operate it with 738's and 739's. VX runs an A320.

United has the most frequencies. Virgin (I think) would have the best seat.

This board is full of opinions on which is "better". These are all products that the rest of the world would consider Business Class.

wrp96

You may want to also look at DCA-LAX-DCA depending on where you are in DC.

jrl767

DCA-LAX is Alaska and 2x American, all 738s ... I'm on AS tomorrow morning and have always found them to be very friendly, attentive, and professional

samosa

I have done this many times and at times, I admit, I have taken the long way. On return redeyes I tend to prefer LAX-JFK-DCA and fly AA's business or first. I have tried UA's BF but didn't like it as much. Flying west, I usually do AA or AS's First class depending on schedule and airport. BWI tends to be the cheapest, though.

simmang

I think Virgin has a much better domestic first class seat compared to UA and AA. First class pitch is huge, and the seat reclines more with an extendable footrest. I'd go Virgin for this route.

Tchiowa

Domestic First Class isn't.

Travelmom777

Thanks for the input. I really appreciate it. I know everyone has a different opinion but it is nice to hear them. Seems a lot of people prefer going from DCA but I'm going to need to go from IAD as it is much closer and more convenient for me at that time.

So, with Alaskan off the list, it sounds like Virgin is the best option followed by AA. I will check out what Virgin has to offer. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like any of them do a stellar service. At least it is not yet another 30 hour trip to or from Asia. Thankfully, there are still small mercies in this life.

pinniped

It just depends on what you're used to and what you expect. There aren't many airlines in the world putting lieflats and other world-class amenities into 737s. I find U.S. domestic F (38x21, give or take) to be far better than regular European narrowbody J (which could be 31" pitch and a blocked middle seat). European J often includes lounge access, but you're going nonstop IAD-LAX so I'm guessing lounge isn't terribly important.

I have zero experience with Asian carriers' narrowbody service, so no idea how it compares to them. Looking at Seatguru, Virgin is 55x21. That's downright awesome for an A320 if you ask me. The only other airline I've flown with something similar is Austrian's "enhanced" narrowbody service they used for 4+ hour flights.

If you want something closer to an F experience, you could do the LA-to-NY routing that samosa suggests.

belfordrocks

UA has a 777 on this route but currently it is the Hawaii/Guam configuration with domestic F but may see swaps to the international 777 and/or the new reconfigured flat bed domestic 777.

MtlTourist

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this. IAD and LAX are both UA/United hubs. There should be more availability of direct flights just because of this.

samosa

The issue is the flight is nothing to write home about so it's not really a great "value"

pinniped

On the plus side, since there are 3 competitors on the route, there are some sensible F fares on at least some of the flights.

Not an amazing inflight product, but it's still 12 hours (R/T) you aren't spending in coach.

And yes, one of the first things I noticed was United's total frequencies. That might not sway me on a single trip, but if I planned to fly it regularly it certainly would. Especially on UA where once you reach mid-tier elite (I think) you can do same-day changes.

TrojanHorse

What sucks about AA is that LAX > IAD is 2X daily but to make things even worse, one of those 2X is a red eye

jrl767

what sucked worse is that, until very recently, AA ran a 319 on that trip