I'm going to use my extensive flying with AA and DL along with my less extensive flying with UA to compare them all. This is all my opinion.

Airports: Delta (minus ATL) wins hands down in this category for the friendliness and competence of check-in/gate agents. AA comes in second. I've had some disapointed experiences (mainly LUS GA's) but then again I've had some amazing experience with AA GA's/CS agents. UA comes in dead last. Their GA's are OK but their CS agents and check-in agents are abysmal, act like they are doing you a favor by showing up to work at all, and are just plain nasty towards customers. I've had the complete opposite reaction over the phone, as most UA phone agents (even the outsourced ones) are friendly and competent.

Clubs: Have no experience with Delta/American, but I have been in the UA club a couple times and have nothing but good things to say about their offerings and friendliness.

Aircraft Amenities: Really a hit or miss on all three depending on the aircraft.

Inflight crew: American wins here. Have had really nothing but good experiences with the crew both in the back and up in F. UA's crew were also pretty friendly. Delta comes in last, only because you'll get some really awesome crews (mainly DTW, SLC, MSP, and NYC based) and some really terrible crews (mainly ATL based).

Route network: Highly subjective but AA and DL win here for me. I really don't fly UA too often as they don't offer competitive fares on the routes I fly.

So really, it comes down to personal preference and how well their schedules/routes work for you.

QR is my current favorite as their seats are the most comfortable and the food is great. OS is a close second on both accounts.
Only issue I have with AA is they won't waive EQD requirements for those with a foreign address i.e. me, like UA and DL do. I still have no problem meeting the 12k EQD requirement (and beating it handily,) with a healthy dose of QR, MH, CX, BA premium cabin tickets. I was thinking about shifting to BA and doing GGL, but then I'd have to fly BA which is terrible, especally out of BKK with their worst planes used in that market.

This is exactly what I've been doing, too. With the new Aadvantage program rules, AA almost seems to encourage people to book (international) premium on OW carriers, while penalizing those flying on AA itself. Fine by me, because this frees me to continue shopping for cheap domestic fares.

Plus, throw in the occasional AA I fare ($1500 was the best US-SE Asia,) so you can burn SWU's from J to FC.

UA vs AA - Should I switch to UA?
 

Hi All -

I am MVP Gold with Alaska and was doing most of my flying with AS and AA last year until AA no longer gave main cabin extra seats to MVP Gold or points unless they were booked through AS. I did a status challenge late last year and became Plat on AA.

My main routes on AA are:
SNA - ORD
SNA - Random Midwest Town
SNA - AZO
SNA - SEA

I've been flying pretty regularly on AA, but can't seem to get decent main cabin extra seats to Chicago unless I book 3-4 weeks in advance. I started wondering if i'd have the same issue with UA. Each SNA flight I've checked seems to have economy plus seating available.

I've already re-qualified for gold, and am about 2/3 of the way to requalify at Plat. What would you guys do in my situation?

I've only been upgraded on one flight from DFW - AZO on AA. UA can't be worse, can it?

I still fly on AS on the SEA - SNA route and even LAX - EWR.

Thanks in advance for your help. Also - If I status match, should I wait until after 7/1 to keep status until 1/2020?

Reza

Well as United Gold, you have access to Economy Plus at the time of booking. So you book and you can select your economy plus seat. Not sure what AA does. I did one week out searches for ORD and SEA from SNA and there are still plenty of Y+ seats showing in the seat maps.

I wouldn't expect any upgrades ex-SNA, and ORD-AZO is likely to be on the CRJ-200, which is one of the least comfortable planes in the sky, "E+" or not (in UA's configuration, anyway). At least it would be short.

However, I'd expect that it wouldn't be a problem to get E+ seats if you're booking more than a day or two in advance. I frequently find E+ even for last-minute flights, although that's going to be heavily driven by market and day-of-week -- I wouldn't expect to find a good seat on SNA-EWR for a Sunday night or Monday morning booked 6 hours prior to departure.

I live near AZO and DL is the only airline to offer a FC product into AZO (DTW-AZO, CRJ700 -- sometimes a 900). Most is still CRJ200 (no FC), but daily you can find a CRJ700, sometimes a CRJ900 for the 30 minute ride to DTW (not a bad way to get a few drinks in!). UA/AA only has CRJ200 and only to ORD. DL has DTW and MSP service from AZO, but only DTW has CRJ700's, MSP is CRJ200. I am a DL DM and a UA 1k and got to say, DL is my favorite (sorry) for midwest travel. With DL I can get to just about any Midwest city I can think of with a FC offering - even AZO. I think it is all about routes and options. I don't think you should choose based on upgrade % - all airlines IMO do their best to sell the FC space and it will only get worse. I price out the cheapest discounted F I can find and make my choice. All I use the status for is to get the yearly upgrade instruments which I use for my leisure travel - the other benefits to me is SDC policy (DL wins for me here), and access to a priority line in times of trouble (UA 1k line has been great). Honestly, upgrades is quickly becoming a marketing gimmick. All airlines have to monetize that space and expecting upgrades is not compatible with their monetization strategy. If you fly on business heavy days, upgrades are nearly impossible no matter what airline you choose to be loyal too.

SNA - Random Midwest Town
SNA - AZO

Those two take Southwest out of consideration. I don't think WN has any SNA-SEA non-stops, either.

UA is probably the strongest contender for your route patterns. UA serves most random Midwest towns from ORD.

Don't take Delta expecting upgrades as a gold (although into/out of SEA shouldn't be too bad). You get 4x E75s on SNA-SEA. You can get a couple connections a day on SNA-MSP/DTW-AZO. You'd be connecting SNA-CHI.

I believe UA generally has a larger E+ cabin than AA's MCS, so yes, you should do better with advance E+ seat assignments on UA.

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)

:)