SFflyer123

Mods, please merge if there is an Delta vs UA thread already; I could not find it with search.

I have been flying UA for 700,000 BIS miles so far, and 1K for the past 4-5 years. I recently flew domestic Delta first class on a REGIONAL jet, and I was blown away. Here are some things I saw that I don't see on UA anymore:

1) You arrive, are greeted with a friendly greeting, and as you go to your seat, there is already a pillow and a blanket on the seat (this is a 1.5 hour flight) and on every pax's seat.

2) A bottle of water is sitting on the drink spot on the arm rest of every single first class passenger

3) We are offered a pre-departure drink of ANYTHING, not just water or OJ.

4) The FAs (both the business and economy class ones) EACH took a passenger's bag that was too big for the overhead bin, and brought them up to the front of the plane to be gate checked. Anybody who flies UA knows that there is no way on earth an FA will ever lift a bag, let alone bring it up to the front of the plane to have it gate checked.

5) The FA's were actually nice, positive people. They weren't jaded, upset, rude, and bitter humans. They actually seemed happy at their job!

I thought this was incredible, and I was simply blown away. This was true "first class" service, and this was on a short flight in a regional jet! I was so impressed, I was reading the Delta FF program to think of switching. Maybe it was an anomaly, but I was really impressed. Way to go, Delta! ^

izzik

Delta service vs Delta freq flyer program are miles apart.

MatthewLAX

Indeed. Ultimately, no superior service on Delta flights can make up for this shortfall.

FlyWorld

Well, if our FF program continues its downhill trajectory, we shall be there too soon enough.

Seat1A

everything is pluses and minuses... you've definitely hit on what delta does right on short-haul F, and your experience sounds typical. they're pretty consistent with the PDB's, in addition to the bottle of water at your seat. gogo wifi is ubiquitous domestically on anything CR7 or larger. some equipment has live TV (free).

longer haul, the domestic meals aren't great -- especially lunch. they're adequate, and the FA's are great about providing you something to wash it down.

read up on skymiles -- redemption is tough, and SWU use and mileage upgrades are far more restricted than on UA.

IROPs handling is very good to excellent at the higher tiers. (in IROPs, i'd rather be a general member on delta than anything on united.)

so, what's important to you? as a domestic flyer, i'm happy with DL these days, and the drop to "Member" on united.com didn't even bother me.....

MatthewLAX

I think we've got two years at least--until then, I'll stick with United. But as I cross the MM threshold this year, stories like your SFO incident really make me want to switch to the dAArskide, which has not only a far superior domestic service than UA, but an award program that is at least tolerable (and far better than Delta in many aspects, first among those upgrades).

EmailKid

Haven't flown DL since CO dropped Skyteam, but to be fair on both of my last SkyWest flights in FC was offered a pre departure drink as well as in flight drink.

Early departure on first flight so only asked for OJ, but on the just arrived IAH-DAL - OK, almost TWO hours late, as is the norm these days - asked for Margarita, alas, it was not loaded

OK, Heineken it was, as well as inflight, and also offered a refill, though I passed.

Of course I would have preferred ontime arrival

EmaillKid

FlyWorld

They have a new status match with good terms. If I were in LAX, I would be on it.

MatthewLAX

I'm an EXP now (took advantage of the offer last year) and did do some flying on AA...and loved it. But I loved Star Alliance more and figured I was so close to MM status I would stick with UA (and will shortly lose my EXP status).

Time will tell if that was a mistake.

username

Delta's reputation, stock price, service and miles required for redemption are both like what their ads say: "Keep Climbing" SkyMiles is a nonstarter for me so I am sticking with UA.

luv2ctheworld

As a former DL Plat, I think DL has hits and misses just like any other airline. I've had equally opposite FA's that could care less about their job and not care. On average, their service was good; and I can say that UA has been similarly good for me. YMMV based upon individual experiences, but the one true constant that is consistently bad is DL's FFP, which is why I dumped them in favor of UA.

This is in addition to the previous 35K/55K 1K -> ExPlat match?

username

A colleague said he can spot a DL FA vs. NW FA a mile away because of the difference in attitude.

channa

You missed the part about the DL RJ serving F drinks in glassware. On longer flights, there are meals served on china with metal utensils.

UA's RJ plasticware and snackbox pale in comparison. Of course those are better than CO's RJs with no F at all, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

bworrell

I'm now maintaining both UA 1K and Delta DM. For any shorter flights I always choose Delta, as there are way too many CRJs in UA's fleet. With Delta I'm almost always on a CR7 or CR9 and get upgraded to first class. If not then I still have WiFi to distract me.

UAL4life

It also proves that newer aircraft should mean nothing to the customer. All this rah rah- I like the 787 and other new aircraft as much as the next guy but it really doesn't do much/anything for the customer and DLs fleet with its service proves it.