I think UA it´s better than AA, they treat me very good as regular costumer of there services.

Just remember, that no matter where you are, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence!

There may be some clear-cut exceptions, e.g., LH over Aeroflot for Russia/Central Asia, Korean Air over Air Koryo, etc. But, don't expect to find major differences in service between UA and AA.

I was in almost the same boat earlier this year; I'm UA Gold and AS 75K and fly out of SNA as my home airport. Like you, I flew AA regularly last year (as an AS flyer), but sadly those benefits no longer exist.

As others have said, your UA gold status entitles you to select an Economy+ seat at the time of booking. I have never had an issue choosing either an aisle or window seat on any of their routes unless I'm booking only a couple days out. You can forget about upgrades even with Platinum status flying out of SNA so I wouldn't even factor that into your consideration.

I really don't think you can go wrong either way. I was inclined to stick with UA as I felt that AS 'partners' for award bookings were too similar to AA, and I enjoy being able to have more diversity for possible award travel. I also use Chase CC products (and not Citi), so being able to consolidate points with my miles also played a factor. In your case, there are also UA flights direct to EWR from SNA if you are trying to avoid the trek up to LAX to fly AS (although AS would likely yield you more redeemable miles for that route).

You have four options:

AS/VX - which is NOT going to get you into the midwest.
AA - which will get you SNA-ORD/Random Midwest. AA will not get you to SEA, nor to EWR.
UA - basically the same as AA, except they can get you to EWR.
DL - which can get you to everywhere, except ORD, which would require a stop.

UA has larger E+ cabins on some planes. But upgrades are non-existant as a gold/Plt. They do so many TODs and cheap F sales, and you are three levels down in the pecking order.
AA you ought to be able to get some upgrades as you (unless something has changed) get certificates. But if not, and AA MCE is not generally available, I would agree UA may be a better fit for you. You will at least get E+. This said, AA has some comfortable domestic planes (Airbus 320s/321s) but basically everything on UA is junky at this point.

If you want to consolidate your flying (and realizing that SkyPesos are worthless than Alaska MP miles) I might consider DL. They fly SNA-SEA, and you will likely get upgraded by DL (their RJs have lots of F seating, I routinely clear ex-SFO on DL to Seattle). If SNA-ORD is less frequent than is SNA-SEA, they may work better overall for you, and note that they have a bigger network ex-LAX so more back-up than UA can provide (but no LAX-ORD direct flights).

Stay away from AA (so we can keep getting comp UPGs and thus get access to decent meal service)

:)

This must be a typo, you cannot be referring to AA's 320s, which are still in the US configuration.

In my experience as a lowly UA Gold and speaking to some peers who are 1Ks and Platinums, there doesn't appear to be a major bump up in your chances of securing a CPU. At the end of the day getting a CPU is much like winning the lottery, the stars have to align: you need to be on an aircraft that has a decent number of F seats in the first place (i.e a 737 with 16 seats), it needs to be at a time of day business people and elites aren't travelling and on a route that's not so popular (i.e. ORD -> SFO is very unlikely to get a CPU).This seems to be true across all the airlines offering CPUs. The only benefits I can see for getting a higher status like Platinum or 1K would be the upgrade certificates (regional and global) which while giving you way better odds at winning the upgrade lottery still result in waitlisting.

IMHO the best strategy in this case would be to get mid-tier on the major airlines you're flying (UA,AA,AS) and possibly DL if you can swing it so that you'll get access to the key elements we all love about status like priority, seating and lounge access when flying on virtually all airlines anywhere. You can then use a Expert Mode on UA or a tool like ExpertFlyer to research which flights/routings are more likely to nab you an upgrade and book strategically. This of course assumes you have some flexibility in your travel plans (i.e. departure time, city, etc.)

Hope that helps.

Safe Travels,

James

“Enjoy” Kirby.....that’s all I can say. Thank god UA was dumb enough to take him away from HPdbaUSdbaAA

aat least Parker (who I despise) is onbthe record to employees about trying for a world class airline....sure there are faults in their practice but Kirby belongs at Spirit.

I moved from AA to UA, in part because of UA's very generous and flexible same day confirmed change policy, something that AA does not have.

AA and UA both do a pretty good job serving the smaller midwest cities, of course there are some airports that are only serviced by one carrier, but generally both have service via ORD.Something like SNA-DEN-GRR would be a good way to get there. The drive down to AZO is super easy, only about 45 minutes.

Switching from AS/AA to UA first thoughts
 

I am PDX based and a current AS75k. I love AS but the loss of long haul partners over the last two years has been brutal including DL and now AA mostly. I travel to Ecuador several times a year and now am trying UA via a status match to PP. I haven't flown UA in 15 years and currently just finished my first F leg (PDX-IAH) on my way to UIO.

1. UA has two flights a day PDX-IAH at 0500 and 1230. Unfortunately the 1230 flight lands 3 minutes after the IAH-UIO flight. So I booked the 0500 ughh

2. PDX-IAH ugh - 3 Hours late arriving due to storms in IAH including a diversion to AUS for fuel

3. Ran out of food choices in F by row 2 and I was row 3....I can't remember my last flight where F was catered for only 12 dishes

4. I am in the United Lounge Term E IAH. No food other than the rather weak buffet. At least Admirals Club has a restaurant, not much but a warm quesadilla beats yogurt for me every time.

5. Asked the lounge lizards in Term E United Club for meal info in F on my 6pm flight IAH-UIO - the answer was in F you get dinner. What kind of dinner? No idea. AA and AS have dinner selection for F. Major downgrade.

6. I have 3 more legs on UA this trip and will make my status match but if this is the sum total of UA I may be remembering why I haven't flown them in 15 years.

1. You might be able to connect in DEN or ORD for better prospects, but it adds another flight and another layer of complexity

2. It happens, if you were scheduled thru MIA on AA during Hurricane season or PHL during winter doo doo happens, can't outwit mother nature

3. Once you have status (1K) you get first food choice

4. I have been in sky clubs and AA club, nothing really stood out putting them above UA

5. Yeah, UA meal selection sucks, unless you order a veggie meal or something like that, it is like the lottery

6. Yup, some good some bad, happens with all of them about something


One other thing, not sure how AA/AS termed this, but for UA this is essentially a domestic flight. It is "Business" but not Polaris, so even when the Polaris lounge opens in IAH you won't have access. That being said there is a Centurion lounge there that is generally not crowded.

I don't see many running from AS to UA but I agree if you are going in and out UIO UA is convenient if nothing else. I have been down to Quito 3 times now over the last 2 years out of SFO through IAH and it wasn't a bad connection. I think maybe it was a little over an hour. While this may add a stop you could also try routing through SFO, the PDX to SFO flights are like buses these days and this may save you the 5AM departure. The Centurion lounge suggestion is great given the quality of UC clubs at IAH. As noted it is not a "Polaris" flight but who knows that may change.

Good thing you had a 7 hour layover :p

For a regular PDX-UIO run AA through DFW might save you a couple hours.

To answer your question, your experience is rather typical. United - especially domestically - is clearly the worst of the "big 4" airlines service wise. And wait until you find yourself in Y on any of its new 77W/772 conversions. The seats, even in E+ are .6" narrower than on a 737. And Oh, the United Airbus are horrible, just terrible seats. An no nice new A321s like AA has gotten recently.

Oh, and if you expect any complementary upgrade, ha, ha, ha...., UA TODs any extra sets.

Stay with AS... its a much better experience. AA international partners are all good airlines and you can earn status miles with them. UA Basic Economy sucks. This is a 1MM giving you this advice.

About the only thing I will add is that DL SkyClubs depending on the club are better than UNITED Clubs.

However, delays happen, that is part of fkyifl, uninformed staffs, ditto.

UNITED is no great shakes, but (I cannot believe that I am saying this) they are not terrible either.

What you experienced is a typical UA nonevent. In other words, that's normal for UA service nowadays. Overall, I don't see drastic differences among AA, DL, and UA, but in specific service areas, each airline has its quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. If lounge and F menu (also the ability to preorder) are important to you, stick with AA. I have been content with AA myself, but when I first switched most of my flying from UA, I had to get used to AA's inferior mobile app, more rigid SDC (instead of UA's 24H change), and lesser award redemption. UA is better in those regards, so YMMV.

A few other thoughts:

- There were 2 UGS's on my PDX-IAH flight and only one got upgraded At 0500 on a Wednesday, are there that many UGSs? That is a tough upgrade. As an AS 75K I haven't missed an upgrade this year.

- My problem with AS is they neutered the AA partnership with domestic legs getting zero anything. I book J for my trips to Ecuador. If I use AA then the domestic half of the trip in paid F gets zero credit. That is wasteful...

- I am trying this experiment with UA for this trip and next trip. I will also book a PDX-DEN work trip in coach to check out E- and upgradeability.

- What is going on with award miles? As a PP my next trip to EC in J which I got a screaming $1,200 deal on only nets me 8,000 award miles. Last year on AS/AA a $1,200 J trip netted me over 25,000 award miles.

- DL is another possibility to examine

I don't want to make any excuses for UA, but here goes:

1. Every airline has some scheduling issues that won't appeal. I'd like to see a direct flight from TXL-RSW but that isn't going to happen. TXL-EWR gets in at 1230, the next EWR-RSW is 1825. Or I can go to FLL and drive across.

2. Not specific to UA.

3. Meh. Food is pretty lousy. I generally eat before. No excuse but you're not missing much.

4. True, not great food selection if you don't like cheese or carrot sticks. Centurion Lounge much better.

5. Some are much better than others. A big shout out to Maria in EWR Club who proactively rebooked me during the storm mess last week and even processed the upgrade on the new (full) flight.

Interesting experiences, but absolutely normal for UA. I would not switch from AA/AS to UA, especially these days: remember, the same guy that ran AA is now running UA, and he's just getting started with his own special "branding." Think things are bad now?

I've been doing sort of the opposite thing this year, as I status matched from Plat to 75k on AS. I think I'll probably be sticking with UA next year. My flights on AS have been great, and upgrades are waaaay easier, but it's not great flying them out of SFO. Besides the fact that there's no AS lounge available when flying domestic in SFO, I pretty much always have to connect in SEA. SFO-SEA is a short flight, so it bears the brunt of delays when SFO has the dreaded CLOUDS AND FOG. If I then miss my connection, there aren't a lot of options for rebooking, and I have to stand in line at the tiny customer service counter. The ability to SDC for free in the app is really the best thing about UA for me, that added flexibility makes all the difference. Those factors might not be as important out of PDX, but something to consider.

The tl;dr : AS is a better in flight product, UA is better for scheduling flexibility

Why would you check out E- if with your status match to Platinum you can get E+ seats when you book your ticket?

How much was the base fare of your ticket (fare without taxes and surcharges). As a Platinum you should receive the base fare x 9.

Funny - I am looking for any reason to jump to AS but they just don't have the network or partners that I need.

My experiences have been good with UA as well as DL. The DL club at PDX is ok and if you have PP you can get a $28 credit at one of the restaurants to supplement the lack of food in the lounge (but perhaps not at 5am)

I think your UA experience can only get better and one trip shouldn't influence your decision.

As the airlines have gone to fare-based system for award miles / RDM, "screaming deals" means a lot fewer RDMs. AA/DL included.
As a UA Plat, you get 9 * PQDs

2. DFW is also subject to summer thunderstorms. And every once in a great while, in winter, storm will shut it down.

3. 1K is SUPPOSED to get first choice (usually but not always does).

As to the other thing, LIM has a 763 with true lie flat Int'l Biz, and with several PMUA three class converted to true Polaris, but I think they fly to Europe / Deep South America.

Does AS not fly PDX-DFW? (Pretty sure they do). You would get full miies for domestic AS and Int'l AA @:-)

Yup, E+ at booking.

AS is the only airline left where you can rack up RDMs, so "a screaming $1,200 deal on only nets me 8,000 award miles."

Yup, recall well buying cheap UA fares when UA would attack AA's DFW hub, and the miles I earned as Gold would pay the miles portion of Ca$h and miles upgrade to lie flat Biz seat. Alas, long gone :(

"Does AS not fly PDX-DFW? (Pretty sure they do). You would get full miies for domestic AS and Int'l AA "

AA only flies DFW-UIO 3 days a week Wed/Fri/Sat. Never seems to work out for me. MIA is the main hub to UIO with 2 flights a day but getting to MIA from PDX is a real pain requiring a red-eye in a 321 on AA. AS doesn't fly to MIA just FLL. Splitting an itinerary is too dangerous when it comes to IRROPS like yesterday for me.

Flying through LIM is a possibility but pricing is usually like $5k crazy and you have to overnight in LIM

If your main issue is the getting down to UIO then again I would consider UA/Copa out of SFO. I take UA through IAH as I don't want to go through PTY (never have and it may be ok I'll let others respond to that). Copa F class is supposedly actually pretty good and relative to UA cheap but again that is not first hand knowledge as I use UA. They have at least a couple of flights a day with one around 10am (and some latter) so you don't have to knock yourself out by getting to PDX for a 5am flight into IAH and wait hours. Check it out.

Using this term says to me that you've already made up your mind to hate United, so why go further?

Last time I flew through PTY, it was very easy as there was no security to go through, just like a domestic flight :) And the dutyfree is cheap :D

Don't know if Copa ever went to E+ and they have bidding for FC upgrades, though you can technically use UA's RPUs (and GPUs).

Connecting in PTY is super easy but I encountered the most dragon-like FA imagineable on Copa which has put me off them forever.

As others have said PTY is a very easy connection, the biggest downside to PTY is that the food choices are not the best, but other than that, it is no muss, no fuss.

Wouldn't DL be a better choice out of PDX?

PDX-ATL-UIO

I'd say your experience is pretty par for the course with UA. Their hubs, especially the sCO hubs, have inferior clubs to the Admiral's Clubs and surly agents.

DL charges much more for their UIO flights and flies the same old planes that everyone else flies to UIO.. No lie-flats on any carrier to UIO. I just wish someone would start a west coast to UIO service - I'd pay extra for that.

My next flight in early July is on Copa PDX-DEN-PTY-UIO. Now I just need to figure out how to reserve seats on Copa with UA ticket stock. I'm flying business. Oh and after my last trip I'm only 1,300 PQM from completing the status match. Probably should have tried for a 1K match...

If you go to your Rez on UAL.com, look at the top of it. Look for other airlines or some such thing - that is where Copa record locater is, put it into Copa site with your name and you *should* be able to select your seats.

I'm sort of half switching to AS because I'm flying at least once a month to PDX for the foreseeable future. I'm stuck with some time on UA because they're a preferred airline for work so they often come up cheapest, though not always. I managed to fly an LAX-BOS RT last week with UA out and AS back. The difference is pretty dramatic - I managed to get a premium seat on the AS flight (and had E+ out) so got whats left of the VX MCS service before they discontinue it. I also got upgraded both flights of LAX-PDX RT this weekend as an MVP. As a perpetual silver I have low expectations, and haven't ever really had bad experiences on UA so much as there's nothing exceptionally good most of the time either. Consistent E+ at T-24 is about as positive as it gets. The only place they really stand out is IRROPS, as long as you have any status at all. I fly Delta infrequently and my experiences with them are consistently bad - if you don't have status, IRROPS is about what I'd expect from the worst of the old NWA.

My return flight from UIO to IAH was 2 hours late which blew my connections. Soon as I landed I opened the UA app and saw that I had been rebooked on a flight that got me home earlier and in F. That was pretty slick.

I would like to stick with AA but now living near DEN, I feel compelled to switch to UA for more direct flights. Any one have success with US matching their million miler amounts?

As AA EXP, I get upgraded 90+% of the time. It sounds like 1K doesn't. True?

I have never heard of such a thing.

It really, really depends on your travel patterns. I happen to be a "mythical" 1K with a 100% CPU percentage*, but that's because I have an excellent knowledge of upgrade odds and I don't tend to cut it close. So yes, I get upgraded "always", but I also buy F much more than half the time. If you're going to be flying DEN to another UA hub during peak times, you can count on missing the upgrade as a 1K. I don't really know how that compares to AA EXP.

*I've done 3 segments in 3 years in UA Y: missed an RPU, flew an E45, and declined a GUM-TKK upgrade to keep the window. Also, if I expect to be in Y (for shorter trips on the West Coast), I'll fly WN instead.