JVPhoto

I thought BA was the UA of EU...

fly18725

The only area BA beats United in a head-to-head competition is with the F ground experience for LHR originating passengers. BA's hard and soft products in F, Y and especially J are worse than United. BA has a Y+ advantage for now.

I am personally not a fan of the VS J seat, but that is subjective. VS does have a better premium ground experience and better service than United or BA.

steveo

Apparently BA is putting the A380 on LHR-ORD!

SFOdelayed

You bias is obvious (and not helpful)

Had the chance to fly VS due to irrops on my UA flight and was proactively reaccomodated. It was awful; service was unprofessional and the seat was grimy and uncomfortable. Clubroom was nice but exactly the same as it was 10 years ago the last time I used it. I prefer the United Club (not to mention the GF club). My sister who was flying with me and, doesn't fly premium usually, said unsolicited "wow, United is so much better..."

UA may not be better than the best of the ME or Asian carriers but LOL at BA being a quality airline!

UA_Flyer

I would disagree with BA being a quality airlines. I think UA is better.

I think UA J is better than BA Club World. This is based on my recent experience. I travel in and out London offen. Although BA offers the best scheduling to/from Asia and North America, the quality of its onboard services is the reason I still take one-stop via Vienna on OS or if I am lucky to find discount J fare on SQ between London and Far East or just take UA to/from North America without a blink of an eye.

fly747first

No bias, just using facts.

BA and VS are superior 4-star airlines with vastly superior services, whilst UA is plagued by one scandal after the other that further highlight its mediocre and often, sub-par approach to things. Seriously, what airline serves sundaes in paper cups?!?!?!? All because UA lacked the proper talent to relaunch the soft product and no one had the brains that even if their new sundae glasses have a tendency to break easily, they can still use other types of existing glassware that historically never had this issue?!?!?!!? This shows you the complete lack of talent the airline has, which is no match against BA or VS.

If UA had true Polaris seats on most of its fleet, I would definitely say it has a better hard product than both BA and VS, but those seats are only available in a tiny minority of UA's fleet.

As for Y, I don't see how UA has a better product in any way or form compared to BA or VS Y.

boat9781

Wifi and AC power on the entire international fleet. Also, E+.

jasondc

Virgin is a massively unprofitable airline - had been in the doldrums for years and had to be rescued by Delta. Still hemorrhaging money. United is profitable and doing well. Maybe they had some issues with their sundae cup issue, but talent United has for sure.

Kacee

It takes a real deep-seated anti UA bias to say that BA is better than UA. BA is on a fast track to become the world's worst major airline. Constant cost-cutting, woeful IT issues which keep shutting down their systems, and terrible labor conflict which has resulted in a still ongoing cabin crew strike.

joshwex90

BA used to be a great carrier. They no longer are. If offered F, yes, I'll take BA any day. And yes, having WT+ is nice (though being watered down). But BA strikes, they seem to refuse to invest in working IT, they nickel and dime seemingly at a Ryanair rate, etc. No, they are not better than UA.

doogie04

Just a data point, but I do EWR to LHR 7-10 times a year, rarely with 2 weeks of notice.. usually a weeks notice. Personally, I often end up as the last seat or on waitlist for the flight I want in J. Seems like the have load figured out. Although agree with the sentiment above having a later flight would be good - maybe 8 -9pm range. I could get home after a full day at the office. Would also make it possible getting home from smaller airports in Europe -- could have used it a few times from HAMo make it home a day earlier.

JVPhoto

I feel many people just think something with "British" or it's stereotypical accent is innately more posh lol.

lhrsfo

It seems that the market thinks that BA is superior in the NYC/LON market. Both airlines have hubs at one end but BA carries far far more people in each cabin. Personally I think that BA is better at F and Y, but UA in C. Obviously PE and E+ are not comparable.

Of course none of that is relevant to the commercial proposition offered to the customer - for me UA wins because of E+ and GPUs from Y to J. But the rest of my family hate UA with a passion: the rude FAs, the vile food and the decrepit aircraft.

CappuccinoAddict

Hold the phone.

You prefer the United Club to the VS Clubhouse?!?! That's the strangest thing I've ever heard.

SFOdelayed

Yep