jdcece

I normally fly US PHX-ORD-PHX but recently got to try UA and AA in F. There has been much negativity about the US F product. I thought it would be interesting to compare.

PHX-ORD AA MD80 F - slightly more seat pitch than US in F, no pre-flight cocktails offered. FA offered to hang my jacket. Warm nuts and cocktail after takeoff. Hot towel service. Meal very similar to US but had a shrimp appetizer in addition to entree and salad. Higher quality wine that US. Real glasses vs plastic. Fresh baked cookie for desert. Drinks refilled constantly. Mints passed out at on approach. Very professional and efficient service. I think the AA F service is very consistent in my opinion. The MD80 is amazingly quiet up front. On-time. No IFE. Payed F fare of $862.00 one-way.

ORD-PHX US A320 F - 4:30 scheduled departure. Aircraft arrived at gate at 4:15. Departed at 5:20 but arrived on time. Preflight cocktail. Cocktails and snack basket after takeoff. Hot towels. Chicken breast, pasta, salad, roll. Very good. No dinner rolls served but they were provisioned on the flight. Wine in plastic cup and very marginal quality. German chocolate cake. Multiple offers for drink refills by very efficient FA. Sat in 2A and when 1A reclined it became a little tight. No IFE. I was in a A320 that had the newer generation seats. The cabin overall seemed more updated that the AA MD80 and much wider. Paid refundable coach fare of $326.00 and upgraded via Platinum status including companion. Great value.

DEN-PHX UA 752 F - preflight glasses of water passed out. Nice seat pitch. Large F cabin, 24 seats. I like that the aircraft boards via door 2A. Minimal aisle traffic in F during boarding. No meal - short duration flight under 2 hours. Cocktails and bag of peanut mix. Only 1 FA for 24 passengers degraded the service somewhat. IFE was nice, documentaries and music channels. Loved the ability to listen to the cockpit radio traffic with ATC. on-time arrival. Paid full F fare of $296.00.

Overall Impression:

I guess it really depends on your expectations, the attitude of the FA's, the aircraft, and the tools the FA's are given to provide service to their customers.

What do I value on a domestic F flight;

1) on-time & safety
2) among the first on the plane
3) pre-flight drink - I am a nervous flyer
4) among the first off the plane
5) decent meal or snack depending on flight duration/departure time
6) more legroom, seat width than Y
7) professional and efficient service

Based on the 3 flights mentioned above they all had their subtle pros and cons. Overall I would say that they all met my expectations of a domestic F experience in the reality of today's economic times.

My bottom line with US. I always fly first class and 90% of the time I am upgraded for free on US. Their service is somewhat inconsistent but when I compare the money I am spending vs. the overall F product on US as compared to AA and UA, I think US is a good value for my particular situation living in PHX. Are they perfect? No but I think the domestic F product differentiation between the players is narrowing for sure.

IMHO

Turnus127

This is interesting and nicely detailed. Thanks for sharing. I hope people will give US a(nother) try.

As you and others point out, the FA can make or break the experience. We also all agree that US can do much better on that issue.

Grunion

I agree with your assessment completely. Having flown UA and AA service in F a well in the last few months, I agree that generally speaking it compares favorably....however, in my opinion it is very, very dependent on US in particular on the quality of the crew.

Two weeks ago I flew US LGB-PHX-EWR R/T for the holidays and was upgraded to F on PHX-EWR and EWR-PHX. FA's on both flights were stellar - I handed out 4 A+B certs, as they really busted their humps the entire flights to keep passengers comfortable, fed and watered - they were very professional and did it with a smile. I also plan to write an e-mail to Tempe giving kudo's on these flights.

I think this sort of service is what will make or break a US flight (more so than UA or AA) due to the lack of IFE (a big problem) or in-seat power (a bigger problem). On a 5-6 hour flight I like to have an option of IFE OR a place to plug in my laptop - a video diversion can be a nice way to unwind and relax.

In my recent experiences where I think UA has a leg-up is on their transcon PS service - I was op's up to biz in April 2009 and this is C/F I would pay for. I have subsequently paid to upgrade to biz class LAX-JFK a few times and in my opinion it is worth it (you can purchase a ticket for $150 ow and then upgrade for around $389 - so around $540 total ow). The service and both the soft and hard product on PS is in a different league from standard UA, US and AA domestic F. I hear AA has an upgraded transcon J/F product but haven't flown it.....

If only US could clone the crew from my recent PHX-EWR-PHX legs I'd be a happy camper !!

Grunion

Fanjet

To me UA F is only better than US F because of the seat pitch. But US gets good grades for the improved alcohol selections. The food is about the same, as is the service. However, AA F surpasses both by wide margins (as does CO). Plus, both AA and CO have more generous meal times/length of flight time. Sorry, but a snack basket on a PHX-SEA early evening flight just doesn't seem right. And nothing says heaven like AA C-class on a dinner JFK-LAX flight.

tommyleo

I agree with that. I flew PHX-YYC rt in F over the holidays. No meals. There are only so many bags of potato chips (all that other stuff in the snack basket is total junk food, including that "healthy" granola bar) one can eat after a while!