Sarah Lottman

I've been meaning to post this for a long time, as I've searched for something similar when I began my travel journey and couldn't find anything comprehensive.

Full disclosure: I've been Delta Diamond for a number of years and just recently started looking at United as I live in Denver and fly to Houston a lot.

Clubs: It depends on the airport, but in my experience United clubs are better. They have better food and are less crowded. I travel frequently through: DEN, ATL, IAH, SLC, MSP and United is consistently better for crowd size, food and drink options.

Airplanes: Delta wins this one, while United has an updated fleet from their main hubs (Denver, Houston), they have dated airplanes from their non-hub locations.

Codeshare: Delta also wins this one. They retired most of the CRJ-200 flights (hell on earth) while United still has these dinosaur planes.

First Class: United wins hands down. The food is better, and they offer a meal on short flights unlike Delta.

Wifi: Delta wins hands down. They have recently upgraded the gogo inflight internet on most of their flights and it has a noticeable difference on internet speeds.

International: Delta. Not Even Close on this one. I get the sense flying United that they are new to this arena. I would choose Delta internationally over any other domestic American airline.

FF Membership: Hard for me to tell at this point, as to me both seem equal. I'm Delta Diamond and have no status with United so this remains to be seen until I have traveled more with United.

I hope you enjoy reading this. This is the information I was seeking when looking at making the switch to United.

LarryJ

Not sure I understand what this means. Every flight has a hub at either the origin, destination, or both.

gobluetwo

Probably spending a lot of time on older regional jets she mentions CR2s, also 757s, and 767s.

To be fair, DL has their share of older aircraft ready to be phased out, like the MD88 and MD90, 747, 767. And aren't there still CR2s in DL's regional fleet?

Glad you shared your experiences, OP (and welcome, btw!). There are many who would agree on your points, and probably just as many who would disagree on many points. That's what makes FT fun - everyone having and sharing their differing perspectives.

Sarah Lottman

That is exactly what I meant - and yes, Delta still has plenty of flights on MD-88's and the like. Anything is better than the CR2's, and for the record I am 5ft 0 and still feel cramped in those awful planes!

VivoPerLei

Been flying UA TATL since the 90's, mostly economy in recent years. Actually seems like the last couple of years flights have seen a big improvement in catering and in service. And, flying out of LHR, seems like the flights are always half full.

In which areas is Delta's international service superior?

darthbimmer

How do you rate the economy/premium economy service the two offer? Or do you pay to travel in First all the time?

lhrsfo

I'm surprised by the International bit, but I think it depends which class you are flying. I have found both to be shockingly bad, to very mediocre in Economy but, at least for FF members, UA I think has the edge because of significantly sized E+ sections. If you are talking Business, I would agree. UA launched its "Polaris" product, which is basically meant to be better food and bedding materials - but the food isn't really any better and, for the great majority of the fleet, the seat is the same. Lie flat, yes, but not generously proportioned. Crucially, the service remains lackluster at best.

As to FF membership, this is the crux of the matter. When you fly with status on either airline, then experience flying in the back without status, it's brutal. I personally find UA miles to be very useful for premium redemptions, and DL miles to be next to useless.

dinoscool3

There certainly are. Upstate NY is plagued by DL CR2s. I'd much rather fly even a UA Q200 over the devil chariots.

BearX220

I think Delta has clearly better products, people, and culture systemwide. United has a somewhat better frequent flyer program, but not enough to induce me to fly United. Both airlines have their share of unpopular aircraft. I don't think either club system is much to write home about, let alone pay for.

pinniped

Agree on this.

United's people and culture are Spiritesque. (That might be unfair to Spirit - I don't fly them much.)

Aircraft and hard product are, well, US3... None of them are spectacular. Maybe slight edge to UA since they have more aircraft with more rows of E+ than AA or DL seem to, but this might be anecdotal. If I'm flying long-haul and have a choice of avoiding these carriers, I will. Holds true in any cabin.

That said, if I lived in Denver and needed to be on the Houston often, I'd suck it up and fly United or Southwest depending on which airport was more convenient. I certainly wouldn't connect to get DL or AA.

andyh64000

As a UA MM and now Delta Diamond (I switched the beginning of last year) I pretty much disagree across the board .

Delta has nicer domestic lounges with a much better class of complementary food and drinks (SEA A gate lounge is the best domestic lounge I have ever seen).

United's planes are nicer and I never ever had to worry about getting a decent E+ seat.

International is about the same...I would maybe give a slight edge to united.

Domestic F I think Delta wins slightly.

WiFi Delta wins

Codeshare and network United wins by a mile.

Overall service 1K vs Diamond...about the same with maybe a very slight edge to United.

FF program...United is better pretty much across the board.

maverickar15

I'm based out of SFO (sometimes DEN) and fly to east Asia a lot.

United wins for me because
-More direct flights from SFO. They fly directly to ICN, KIX, NRT, HND all from SFO so this is no brainer for me. UA also has DEN-NRT which I flew many times as well.
-Miles that you can actually use to book not only UA direct flights but also codeshare flights such as OZ/NH. I've booked many domestic NH flights using UA miles, 5K each way, that is dirt cheap. When I tried to use Delta miles to book KE in the same region I couldn't book anything (No availability)
-Longshot, but first tier MM status that actually is beneficial (UA)

I agree Delta has better Wifi and lounge, hands down. UC at SFO is barely better than sitting at the gate. The only thing I like about that lounge is illy coffee.

KDS777

Because we had a lot of flying into MN and WI in the last 24 months, our company started using Delta quite a bit.

After 20 segments on DL at their expense, all I can say is that I will never spend a dime of my own money on Delta.

Sure, it was all in RJ's thru bad hubs, but still, the experience was enough.

Duke787

Interesting to see everyone's take on the various carriers.

Back in my consulting days I was at various times United 1K and AA EXP - both programs had their benefits and their faults (I moved from 1K to EXP after $misek destroyed the program).

These days I don't travel enough to get much above Silver on any one program and our company has preferred with DL/AA which gives us exit row for free. When faced with being stuck in Y for my trips, I've found myself increasingly going the DL route - I think their treatment of non-status Y passengers and the general Y experience is leaps and bounds ahead of the others.

UA is my backup since I still have Silver there due to my Marriott Platinum and my 4 AA flights this year were the worst of the year.

Plus ex-RDU we have an increasing number of direct flights on DL which helps.

Downside is that the SkyMiles program is by far the weakest of the 3 though I definitely take the earn and burn approach with SkyMiles (as opposed to the other programs) and I've been able to make saver level redemptions throughout the past couple years even with fairly fixed dates so I can't complain too much about SkyMiles.

HVDUDE

Thank you for bringing this up, Sarah
As a DL Diamond, I too am dissallusioned with the current state of affairs and the predominance of "Connection" aircraft, and was considering spreading the "wealth" to another airline.
I will be looking into the status match program and see if I qualify. Possibly get the Explorer card down the road. I can get to EWR from home just as easily as LGA, with the traffic differential.