I started flying DL this year after 20+ years as a CO customer (and then a UA 1K after the merger).
I've never been happier. And I don't even have much status yet.

No more EWR.
Friendlier airport personnel and FAs.
Pillows and blankets in F on domestic flights.
Hearing "yes" more than "no".
Flights that regularly depart and arrive on time.
No canceled flights yet.

I find that my entire airport experience is less stressful as I don't wonder how long my flight will be delayed or if it will be canceled.
DL simply knows how to run an airline.

How do you do upgrades on the app?

This is the killer for me on buying tickets on UA. I get that United is not going to upgrade me, full stop. So that does not enter my calculation, I fly DL on flights I don't buy F, as IMHO I get upgraded at times and C+>E+

But on trips that are 4+ hours, I buy F if its not crazy expensive. On DL every time I've had IRROPs, I've been seamlessly moved always in FC. On UA I don't trust that happening. So confronted with a choice of buying F on DL and gettting F (and a much lower change of IRROPs) or buying F on UA, and perhaps not getting it, and instead being stuck in a bad seat in Y, stewing, I've been buying DL.

United is trying to "monitize" its seats, but I am trying to get a seat for my money, the airline that might not give me what I paid for always will lose. :o

I fly from SFO, which is a UA hub, and I rarely find UA to be more expensive, and usually its quite a bit cheaper. The exception is where UA has a direct then it may be expensive, but if you connect on UA its cheaper. E.g. I just flew SFO-PHL-SFO, bought the ticket 5 days out, UA was $604 each way in A fare connecting, Delta was $728 each way, connecting, UA N/S was as I recall $780, and AA direct was $1100.

But on head to head routes I fly (e.g. SFO-ATL, SFO-SEA, SFO-LAX) UA is almost always cheaper.

This means that I am not willing to take UA unless its (1) direct, and (2) cheaper. On direct flights it is not so much an issue, but UA runs 6-7% behind Delta in OT, meaning more issues, and they are then not handled well.

This is my experience. A lot of issues would be resolved if they would go back to the pmUA system of saving 2-3 F seats on every plane (more as you get later in the day, or on flights with lots of people connecting on them) for IRROPs. I don't know what UA is doing with these seats, my guess is cheap TODs.

I am flying DL a lot more, but agree with your summary of the differences. They exactly match mine flying from SFO.

The only thing I would add is that Delta's domestic First meals seam to be getting smaller portion wise. Quality is about the same, but quantity is down, often times leaving me hungry. The snack box has also been lousier of late.

United still IMHO lags in food quality, but at this point they have caught up to Delta in beverage quality (new Coffee, and brown spirits, plus craft beer). The main failing I continue to see is UA's wines are just horrible and Delta's are drinkable.

I don't fly AA much, but with the recent major downgrades in the FFP, I wonder why you are saying this? They went to spending based mileage awards and the ONLY difference I can see is that EXPs still have a good upgrade rate. If you are flying for upgrades, and are EXP, then I might still agree with you.

But the soft product is now the worst of the 3 majors and they have a lot of very poor hard product on the sUS flights.

Although I understand that TODs are the FT bogeyman, you've answered your own question. UA doesn't have extra F seats because they're selling them, in advance, to people like you. I'm seeing more and more flights where F is full or nearly full at the start of the elite upgrade window, well before TODs would kick in.

Add in the small FC cabins on a number of UA planes (8 on the A319, 6 on the E170), and you have the recipe for making SDC and IRROPS more difficult in F than in Y.

I just flew 2 segments on Delta last weekend - first in 13-14 years. Compared to UA:

I saw Delta GA greet all passengers by name as they boarded and all Medallions were thanked for their loyalty.

Their new A321 planes are much better than UA 737-900 Next Gen - AVOD displays, seats, service etc.

I also liked DL app a lot - it even gave me push notification when the flight was boarding.

So, overall, I have been very impressed with Delta hard and soft product, as well as their app, on this trip.

I can't remember the last time when I experienced a delay with Delta. Reliability has become their thing - UA just isn't there and will never get there.

I also appreciate AVOD on DL's fleet - I don't do the whole streaming thing. I think it's cheap of UA to offer such an inferior product.

Mileage Plus is probably better than SkyMiles. It used to be a LOT better until they devalued it to SkyMiles levels.

Even on a bad day with DL, they are still better than UA on a "good" day in my option.

"Better" is completely relative.

I live in NJ - half hour from EWR.

UA gets me anywhere I have to go, without a connection. Almost always on time (or close) and with my stuff.

The rest, IMO, is fluff.

If I were to fly AA or DL, I'd have to connect to get to almost any of my customers. That, alone, is a showstopper.

I can do full-day meetings halfway across the country and still be in my bed that night. No amount of 'thank you for your business' greetings (which, frankly, I get often enough on UA anyway!) can replace that.

And hey, now I've got Illy. Me and United, we're good. :-)

Um, yeah well you also have to deal with the armpit of a hub airport called EWR and the lousiness of Terminal C.

For many years I avoided CO at EWR by connecting with AA & DL. Never bothered me to connect to avoid the managed chaos which was CO at EWR

Not sure if it's a connection thing but O&D at EWR is fine. Not sure what the issue is.

I show up, go thru security quickly (even at the worst of the tsa problems, my longest wait was 10 mins), grab a coffee and snack at the UC, get on my plane and go.

Coming home, I get off the plane, walk thru the connector into the garage, get in my car and drive home.

It's just not a problem. Maybe it is if you connect there, but I wouldn't know - never have, likely never will.

I care about product more than convenience. I know that was the selling point for the local Jersey population with CO at EWR (I grew up there) but I never bought into it. They ran a scrappy operation which continues into today with UA.

I am a former UA flyer and have left them for numerous reasons including:

• Always delayed
• Inferior hard product
• Poor AVOD
• No Woodford Reserve
• Dismal customer service

I completely agree, I'll take a connecting flight through ATL going from EWR to CHS on DL and beat UA flights because of their consistent and substantial delays. Atleast with DL I know when I'll arrive so I don't miss a meeting - as opposed to playing the UA on-time/how delayed lottery.

Completely disagree with everything you said.

Topic Check

This is a FF forum and discussion about our experiences of UA relative to other airlines. It is not useful to discuss the motivations of why an individual left a previous position and to attempt to apply that to our experiences as a passenger. Let's return to discussing our personally experiences.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

Twelve months ago, I would have laughed at the idea UA is even in the conversation with DL or, to a lesser extent AA. But I've flown them a fair bit recently and I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the service (including one instance where multiple people went above and beyond). They aren't at DL's level on service, and the numbers don't lie that they aren't as reliable, but they are much closer on both fronts than they were.

Why? Because he was mildly critical of United? He brings up all the points as to why I don't fly them either