I just took my first flight in 2002. United Airlines from Los Angeles(LAX) to Salt Lake City(SLC) via San Francisco (SFO).

I was quite impressed with the overall service. All of the flight attendants on all segments were friendly and personable. The skycaps(luggage porters that we have domestically) and ground staff were also friendly. LAX-SLC is one of the few routes that I fly that American or one of its Oneworld partners doesn't do, so it allows me to explore the competition,of course, sans perks.

I like Delta(DL owns SLC) but their legroom is terrible, sometimes painful. Surprisingly, as I was not able to book a seat in the United Premier zone(first 8 rows in coach) as I am not a Premier/elite level, the legroom in row 11 and so forth was very good and comfortable. I am assuming that UA has extended their premier seating or became realistic and realized that they would have to compete with American?! Their seats could definitely use some upgrading.

The agent in Salt Lake allowed me to take an earlier flight out of SFO, confirmed, no change fee, which was greatly appreciated. My favorite aspect of UA is that one can listen to the air traffic control conversations, very nice around SFO with parralel landings(we had another UA 737 on our left on final)and very busy traffic. I wish that all airlines would match this.

The one real negative was the intense security check at SFO. My first time to have my shoes checked(this is very personal, in my opinion) and I am in no way looking forward to more searches such as these. The staff spoke poor English, I couldn't understand them, and they tore through my small Swissair carry on bag, taking everything out and examining it, which is rare. I could see this sort of thing on ELAL, but I think this has only happened on Qantas coming back from Sydney right after 9/11. I was grateful that I wasn't profiled and had to do this again at the gate.
The security check was so intense and bad on the outbound that I had chosen not to leave the security area while chaning at SFO on the return as I just didn't want to go through that again. Conversely, the check at LAX was fine and quick and at SLC even friendly and professional(ok, they have actual Americans there who speak English). Hmmmm

Overall, UA scored some major points from this trip and I may even fly them out West, vs. Delta, where AA doesn't fly.



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