Hello all,

We are travelling from Phoenix to Virginia this summer for a vacation and have received a generous offer of First Class tickets from family. Best flight choices are on Delta (through Atlanta on 737-900ER) and American (through Charlotte on A321), although Delta's layover is longer. Not having flown First Class for many years, and likely not again for many more, is there any substantial difference in the quality of service between these two airlines or should we pick flights based more on departure time/layover time, etc. I know not to expect too much, but would like to maximize the experience to the extent we can.

Any and all opinions welcomed - thank you!

The high-level view is that theyre more or less identical. Everyone has their opinion though. I like the food on AA better but DL usually has Woodford.

I think the consensus among DL regulars is that the 739 is a really bad FC experience ... the 757 has the same seats, but (a) you generally board thru the 2L door which minimizes the pre-departure parade of all the coach pax (hence increasing the likelihood that you can get your pre-departure Woodford or other beverage of choice), and (b) the FC lav hasn't been miniaturized

I think the consensus among AA regulars is that the ex-US 321s are rather more bare-bones than the AA birds (32B) in terms of configuration and amenities; AA is also reportedly very inconsistent in terms of pre-departure beverage service

I fly to RIC through CLT on AA every couple of months in FC (most recently last week as it happens).

The A321s that AA has vary from ropey to rather new and nice! It's somewhat potluck though and varies on day of travel. Between RIC and CLT I've flown a mixture of E175s, CRJ-900s and on all my flights in the last year it's been the newly fitted out 8 F seat A319s with in seat power.

RIC is a nice little airport with TSA Pre. The Delta side has a bit more to offer than the AA side but there's now a restaurant/bar with reasonable beer/cocktail options on the AA side.

It's been a few years since I've flown DL F between PHX and RIC but personally I'd be more swayed towards AA. CLT is a lot easier to connect through than ATL, IMO. However, it's not as if you're making a huge rookie mistake by picking one airline over the other.

I find the legacy US routes to be much better at open bar guaranteed PDBs, I must be close to 100% hit rate over the last few years. It's the legacy AA routes where you're more likely to be offered water or juice or if you get unlucky, nothing.

AA has had Woodford in domestic F for almost a year now.

This.

I'd pick based on flight times/duration first. If it's really a dead heat, I'd personally lean AA but that's just me.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply - I really appreciate it. We decided to go with American, based primarily on departure times and a shorter layover, but good to know that Delta would have been a similar experience.

You made the right choice. Within the US and Canada, domestic first class options are largely the same. It's best to choose based on cost and schedule convenience. (And which frequent flyer program you're loyal to, of course. This is FlyerTalk!)

When cost, schedule, and rewards programs are a tossup you can get down to details such as which aircraft offers a better seating configuration and which airline serves food or drink that are more appealing to you. We frequent fliers do consider these types of issues and in fact countless threads here discuss them. For typical not-so-frequent fliers, though, this is splitting hairs.

Enjoy your trip!