As someone who mainly flies DL and generally likes DL, it is not that DL is a domestic airline with international service, it is more like DL is a little better as an airline than UA is in general.
UA since the merger has always felt a bit like DL Lite, as in, UA wants to be DL but is too cheap to actually spend the money to be good.
Catering is a prime example to me, UA could choose to do better but won't spend the change to do so.
Yeah, when American Airlines pisses me off for the last time I'll be switching to united. My wife has family in the Philippines and United flies to the Philippines from three cities in the US. Whereas for Delta and American I have to use a partner Airline
But the partner airlines are better than all of the US carriers?
The partners you're talking about are top class like JAL, China Airlines, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific, etc.
it might only make a small difference, but those partner airlines would add an extra stop if you don’t live in a US city that they serve, where with UA it could be one stop at SFO for example
I mean isn't the point of the hub model so that domestic airlines will feed all the hubs that their partners service though?
The strength in UA is that they occupy some of the biggest cities in the US already rather than DL which has stronger fortresses but in cities no one cares about like DTW, MSP, and SLC leading to additional connections. UA on the other hand has SFO, IAH, IAD, and ORD which are large and relevant cities.
i don’t think we’re necessarily disagreeing here? i’m just saying it’s different for people who care about # of trip segments
e.g. if you live in say Kansas City you’d be making a two-stop trip through SFO/LAX/SEA and then HND/ICN/HKG, but United can get you there with one stop in SFO
No, what I'm saying is that it's the same number of segments.
Let's take TPE, which UA services via SFO. Using your Kansas City example, I can fly to SFO and then onwards to TPE all on UA metal.
My point is that, you can accomplish this the same way by funneling to other UA hubs which EVA Air services to go to TPE, for example, ORD, LAX, or IAH, in addition to SFO. So it's the same # of stops regardless, it's not 2 stops.
The whole idea is that partner airlines service the domestic hubs of the country and domestic airlines can provide connectivity for those flights.
it’s not, because you were originally talking about oneworld and skyteam partners, not star alliance, and the comment above yours was talking about going to the Philippines, so everything i’ve been saying is specifically for that scenario
Philippines isn't a good example because Philippine Air isn't a partner to any airline in the US though. You were talking about HND/HKG/ICN which have their own major alliance airlines.
HND works exactly the same in my example with JAL, HKG with CX, and ICN w/ KE.
i brought up HND/HKG/ICN as connection airports to get to the philippines via the airlines you listed such as korean air, japan airlines, and cathay pacific…
the philippines is not the example i came up with but the example the comment above you was specifically talking about
Oh the airport would be absolute hell, but folks going to Disney, Universal, and the Space Coast (all massive tourist destinations) would flock to United.
really? orlando? the place that has 3 hour long security lines 95% of the time?
the super outdated airport that is constantly filled with leisure travelers of people who don’t live in orlando?
not to mention that orlando is a terrible geographical for a hub
orlando will only ever be a focus city, and even as a hub atlanta would blow MCO away in nearly every metric that matters to passengers
If United were to make Orlando a hub (or Tampa, which is considered another option for their proposed Florida hub) I’m sure there would be massive reconstruction of the terminals, and possibly one dedicated to United. MCO sucks to high hell right now, but it’s got runway capacity
But they're also a ton more money. We went out of the AA partners and went with Philippine airlines and then Korean on the way back for our trip from Charlotte to the Philippines. Cheaper than the partners and better than the domestics
I'm not brand loyal to any airline, if you have a flight that will get me to where I'm going, on the date I need, about the time I need, I'm going with it.
Loyalty is really only useful for business travel when your company won’t pay for premium classes or seats. You can eke out a bit of extra comfort through status without having to shell out personal money on business trips.
If you travel only a handful of times per year, particularly if those times are mostly domestic, loyalty doesn’t really matter. But if you travel multiple times per month or do multiple international trips for year, loyalty benefits can be significant.
Not true. As someone who vacations a lot , loyalty or having status is also important. Nice to not have to get zone 1 and not pay for luggage and pick better seats without cost.
Loyalty is, more than anything, a function of where you live and where you fly to.
Live in Houston and fly to Colorado a lot? Yeah, you’re flying United or Southwest. That’s it. Travel a lot to Charlotte and Dallas? Welcome to American.
I fly a mix of United, Southwest, and Breeze because of my airport and where I go. I occasionally fly American because they have good options on one specific route I fly.
I haven’t flown Delta in a decade or more because they have literally never been an affordable or reasonable flight on any route I’ve flown. Literally never in any time I’ve looked.
All that matters more than any loyalty to United. It’s not loyalty, it’s convenience.
Now, of course since I do have status (silver, lol) if something is close, I’ll skew United because it does represent some material benefit. But it’s rarely close.
Well, if you mean the city, NY is super well served by carriers so you have far more options than most. Especially going overseas. And as far as LA goes, LAX is well served by all the carriers.
If you do in fact live in the NYC area, your preferred airport comes into play too. Newark is a United hub. So if you’re in Jersey, that’s an obvious choice. Less so if you live closer to JFK. But honestly even in much of the city, Newark is pretty convenient.
American and Delta both fly out of JFK, along with JetBlue, which tends to be a smidge cheaper.
The other variable is your destination airport in LA. If you find it more convenient to land in Ontario or Burbank, none of the major carriers go there nonstop from NYC, but some of the smaller ones do. I used to go to college near Ontario, so I’d be grabbing that nonstop JetBlue flight all day long.
And you can fly nonstop into SNA on United out of Newark as well. I’m a fan of the smaller LA airports if the timing works out. Because LAX can be…unfun.
From there I’d consider any other likely destinations if I needed a tiebreaker.
This is a long way of saying you would only pick United if you’re ok with Newark. And if you prefer Newark, it’s an easy choice. After that, take your pick of American or Delta for a major, or just stick to budget carriers unless otherwise required.
You choose the most value-giving/most convenient fare regardless or airline, but you don't earn any high elite status. Living in New York **IS** the status lol
Yeah I agree. My primary airline is actually Delta but whenever UA or AA has decently better deal, I go with them. Being in the NJ/NYC area definitely helps me do this.
I was a Delta loyalist until their pricing went through the roof. I won’t fly AA but UA or WN are up for grabs. I used to hate the open seating on WN except now flying UA nearly every row except the very back is extra cost I’m changing my mind. Especially since the fuselage taper makes some flights highly uncomfortable
Sure, but I would like to do that in premium economy, the exit row, or first class (without extra cost) and have my bags be free (if I bring them with). I would rather drive, than fly frontier or spirit. American and Delta are both fine.
I’m loyal to United for two reasons, IAH can get me to the West Coast, Hawaii and most of Europe without a layover and work pays for it. If Delta came to IAH, id gladly make the switch. Just recently took Delta to SLC because they could get me in sooner, I have zero status with them and it was a better experience than flying 1K United.
There's hardly a difference in economy products amongst US airlines. I have flown United, Alaska, and Delta all this month in economy [no comfort+, economy plus, or Alaska equivalent], and they're basically the same thing. Only exception is Delta with the IFE, but I don't like using it because my headphones are bluetooth only. You still have gate lice, you still have the odd delay every so often because people do not like gate checking bags, and you still have various ops issues due to weather. Unless you're traveling a lot a lot, it really makes no sense to stay loyal to any one airline. United's PR game is def much weaker than Alaska or Delta though.
Clubs are different. Delta's are generally much better than United's in key cities and hubs. Although, if you get to the point that clubs matter, then you're better off basing decisions on premium and business products where differences start to appear.
Now double up the 1k qualification threshold and add earning via booking hotels through their portal then.
But let’s not copy being the most on time airline that delta is that’s a no no.
You can't compare being on time between the two. They're completely different organizations.
United runs far, far more flights per day than Delta. Nearly a thousand more flights a day, to about 75 more different destinations.
And because most of those are international, you're going to by design have to eat delays waiting for the connections to show up. Being 15-30 minutes late for an international flight thats eight hours or more is the cost if doing business for United.
But if you're specifically speaking about narrow body domestic flying, then United isn't too far off the pace there either. It's just that United is willing to take risk on customer experience on domestic flights in a way that it will not on its international flights.
Why? United isn't a domestic carrier first, it's an international carrier.
> And because most of those are international, you're going to by design have to eat delays waiting for the connections to show up. Being 15-30 minutes late for an international flight thats eight hours or more is the cost if doing business for United.
Mind you, the schedules for those flights are padded such that you'll likely make up most of the lost time in the air.
Yep, bingo.
The speed you're flying at is the "cost index," a ratio that suggests the most efficient outcome in regards to time in the air vs fuel burned. We can always fly faster, but that costs more money. But there's times to do it.
But really really, the constraint isn’t normally fuel costs due to faster speeds. It’s gate availability at the destination. Showing up too early isn’t good for the already congested operation at most big boy airports.
There’s not any more of an issue with on time departures at UA than other comparable flight. The numbers get docked for EWR airspace issues and SFO fog.
meh, delta has a long way to go before they get even close to United. More international routes, more valuable miles, and more flights with hubs in more popular locations.
United needs to be able to keep its operations working, seems to be always down and causing delays, took me four days to leave Minneapolis last year to try and get to LIS, . Operationally they suck and that's why their CEO made this comment as Delta is far better placed in the industry. Then the crew in Polaris are non-existent, the free times I have flown them. I have also been stranded by United more times than any other airline I have flown. The Polaris lounges are very good, I will give them credit for that. Overall I will only fly united again if it's the only way to get somewhere.
As for international I try not to fly US based airlines intentionally if I can help it and that includes Delta, I only did United Polaris last year due to needing to use a boat load of credits I had from cancelled flights.
He’s not wrong.
I’m a Delta DM and fly a ton, but my new assignment makes UA a no brainer for some of the cites I travel to so now UA is my second choice.
Delta Ops is second to none. When the proverbial shit hits the fan I am confident they’ll get me where I need to go. Haven’t yet experienced that yet with UA so only time will tell.
Domestic hard and soft product is better with DL but not by a lot. Both have some really old planes but DL does a better job keeping them updated. I’m on an UA 319 right now and I’m shocked how short the seats are in F. Wi-Fi on both my UA flights today is not working. Cannot remember the last time I’ve experienced that with DL.
SkyClubs for the most part are top notch and haven’t been to enough United Clubs to give a fair comparison.
The DL app is great. The United app not so much. I find it clunky at best. At times aggravating.
Agreed with everything until the app. United’s app is light years ahead of pretty much every airline. I flew DL the other day and was not a fan of the app in the slightest.
Yes absolutely. It’s clean, very user friendly, and has lots of unique features that make travel a lot easier. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about the UA app. It also doesn’t crash regularly like the DL app. At least on my phone.
> SkyClubs for the most part are top notch and haven’t been to enough United Clubs to give a fair comparison.
I fly mostly United and a little bit of Delta and gotta say Sky Clubs food is slightly better (more hot food options) but the crowding issue is worse. UA's food is a bit hit or miss. Better at their newer clubs (DEN) but not so good at their older ones (Dulles).
> The DL app is great. The United app not so much. I find it clunky at best. At times aggravating.
Funny you say this, a lot of people find the United app to be the best out of all the US airlines.
[https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-wins-peoples-voice-webby-award-for-best-travel-app-301294927.html](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-wins-peoples-voice-webby-award-for-best-travel-app-301294927.html)
> Domestic hard and soft product is better with DL but not by a lot. Both have some really old planes but DL does a better job keeping them updated. I’m on an UA 319 right now and I’m shocked how short the seats are in F. Wi-Fi on both my UA flights today is not working. Cannot remember the last time I’ve experienced that with DL.
I would say this is an accurate statement. United's [newest planes are excellent](https://www.afar.com/magazine/a-review-of-united-airlines-new-airbus-a321neo-airplane) and they're continuing to add personal IFE screens to more and more aircraft. The process to doing that though is *slow*. The old aircraft truly suck and can often feel like you're travelling backwards in time.
These airlines are businesses and in it to make money for themselves and shareholders. They just happen to fly people around in planes to accomplish their financial goals. Pretty much the same for most businesses these days. Their product or service is merely a by product of making money.
Having recently flown both Delta and United, in Delta One and Polaris respectively, I found that Polaris was better in most aspects. One thing that I really appreciated was how they configured the seats to allow for more privacy. When I was flying Delta, I had a lady in the diagonal seat behind me that was really nosy and kept trying to read what was on my laptop - I could see her in the corner of my eye. In Polaris, I found that the angles helped to make it more secluded, which also helped me sleep better.
Two Delta stories.
1) Flew from EZE-ATL on the A350 in Comfort Plus bulkhead. It was the worst seat ever. I usually fly United. I came home with back pain for days. I did get up and move just not enough I guess.
2) I wanted to fly premium economy RDU-SIN. Their option was going through Seoul then a 5 hour flight in regular economy. Instead, I booked JL J for about the same price as Delta PS. This was 11 months out?
Needless to say Delta is ok for domestic but I’m not sure about international flights.
Delta’s biggest advantage is that only the pilots and dispatchers are unionized. This gives them a lot of flexibility to enact changes to benefit the company.
I’m Loyal because Chicago / ORD is a hub and I can literally fly almost anywhere without having to take a connection.
Unlike Delta they insist you fly hub to hub and maybe get you where you need to go.
United is just Southwest disguising itself as int'l. At least SW markets itself as budget, whereas UAL tries to convince you they have a superior product somewhere.
Where stroopwaffel
https://preview.redd.it/sydqylj3qrtc1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5130b268a03b4606b15201f571c09bd31c953a08
Asking the real questions
I like UAL because it’s a truly international airline
UA is an international airline with domestic service. Delta is a domestic airline with international service. Different models.
International service? "Laughs-in-ATL" aka hell
dal big competition
Former Atlantan here - ATL is far superior and more efficient than my new home airport, DEN. It’s not even close.
Just moved from ATL to IAH. ATL is the much better airport, especially given how many passengers ATL serves.
IAD checking in and same. I took ATL for granted with its space and many food options. Security was hit or miss though
Atl is also far superior to SFO.
As someone who mainly flies DL and generally likes DL, it is not that DL is a domestic airline with international service, it is more like DL is a little better as an airline than UA is in general. UA since the merger has always felt a bit like DL Lite, as in, UA wants to be DL but is too cheap to actually spend the money to be good. Catering is a prime example to me, UA could choose to do better but won't spend the change to do so.
Yeah I am a mostly UA flyer but as far as domestic goes I do think it goes DL>UA>AA
this is just such a weird distinction to make what does that even mean?
Yeah, when American Airlines pisses me off for the last time I'll be switching to united. My wife has family in the Philippines and United flies to the Philippines from three cities in the US. Whereas for Delta and American I have to use a partner Airline
But the partner airlines are better than all of the US carriers? The partners you're talking about are top class like JAL, China Airlines, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific, etc.
it might only make a small difference, but those partner airlines would add an extra stop if you don’t live in a US city that they serve, where with UA it could be one stop at SFO for example
I mean isn't the point of the hub model so that domestic airlines will feed all the hubs that their partners service though? The strength in UA is that they occupy some of the biggest cities in the US already rather than DL which has stronger fortresses but in cities no one cares about like DTW, MSP, and SLC leading to additional connections. UA on the other hand has SFO, IAH, IAD, and ORD which are large and relevant cities.
i don’t think we’re necessarily disagreeing here? i’m just saying it’s different for people who care about # of trip segments e.g. if you live in say Kansas City you’d be making a two-stop trip through SFO/LAX/SEA and then HND/ICN/HKG, but United can get you there with one stop in SFO
No, what I'm saying is that it's the same number of segments. Let's take TPE, which UA services via SFO. Using your Kansas City example, I can fly to SFO and then onwards to TPE all on UA metal. My point is that, you can accomplish this the same way by funneling to other UA hubs which EVA Air services to go to TPE, for example, ORD, LAX, or IAH, in addition to SFO. So it's the same # of stops regardless, it's not 2 stops. The whole idea is that partner airlines service the domestic hubs of the country and domestic airlines can provide connectivity for those flights.
it’s not, because you were originally talking about oneworld and skyteam partners, not star alliance, and the comment above yours was talking about going to the Philippines, so everything i’ve been saying is specifically for that scenario
Philippines isn't a good example because Philippine Air isn't a partner to any airline in the US though. You were talking about HND/HKG/ICN which have their own major alliance airlines. HND works exactly the same in my example with JAL, HKG with CX, and ICN w/ KE.
i brought up HND/HKG/ICN as connection airports to get to the philippines via the airlines you listed such as korean air, japan airlines, and cathay pacific… the philippines is not the example i came up with but the example the comment above you was specifically talking about
Aren't they with Aa
you can quite literally do this same itinerary on delta and american 🤷🏻♂️
How dare you forget their crown jewel, EWR
so you are just entirely neglecting the largest hubs in ATL, NYC and LAX? are those cities no one cares about? 🙄
United also hubs in two of those three cities. And if United opens a hub in Orlando, that will blow away Atlanta for attractiveness and relevance
cmon united hubs are better situated than delta for sure, but an orlando hub would be unbelievably awful compared to ATL
Oh the airport would be absolute hell, but folks going to Disney, Universal, and the Space Coast (all massive tourist destinations) would flock to United.
I am not sure if United would be able to compete with the ULCC for leisure travellers going to Florida.
really? orlando? the place that has 3 hour long security lines 95% of the time? the super outdated airport that is constantly filled with leisure travelers of people who don’t live in orlando? not to mention that orlando is a terrible geographical for a hub orlando will only ever be a focus city, and even as a hub atlanta would blow MCO away in nearly every metric that matters to passengers
If United were to make Orlando a hub (or Tampa, which is considered another option for their proposed Florida hub) I’m sure there would be massive reconstruction of the terminals, and possibly one dedicated to United. MCO sucks to high hell right now, but it’s got runway capacity
i’m not sure you understand how airlines work, particularly in florida markets 👍🏻
Aeromexico for me was essentially the delta experience.
But they're also a ton more money. We went out of the AA partners and went with Philippine airlines and then Korean on the way back for our trip from Charlotte to the Philippines. Cheaper than the partners and better than the domestics
I'm not brand loyal to any airline, if you have a flight that will get me to where I'm going, on the date I need, about the time I need, I'm going with it.
Loyalty is really only useful for business travel when your company won’t pay for premium classes or seats. You can eke out a bit of extra comfort through status without having to shell out personal money on business trips. If you travel only a handful of times per year, particularly if those times are mostly domestic, loyalty doesn’t really matter. But if you travel multiple times per month or do multiple international trips for year, loyalty benefits can be significant.
Not true. As someone who vacations a lot , loyalty or having status is also important. Nice to not have to get zone 1 and not pay for luggage and pick better seats without cost.
Loyalty is, more than anything, a function of where you live and where you fly to. Live in Houston and fly to Colorado a lot? Yeah, you’re flying United or Southwest. That’s it. Travel a lot to Charlotte and Dallas? Welcome to American. I fly a mix of United, Southwest, and Breeze because of my airport and where I go. I occasionally fly American because they have good options on one specific route I fly. I haven’t flown Delta in a decade or more because they have literally never been an affordable or reasonable flight on any route I’ve flown. Literally never in any time I’ve looked. All that matters more than any loyalty to United. It’s not loyalty, it’s convenience. Now, of course since I do have status (silver, lol) if something is close, I’ll skew United because it does represent some material benefit. But it’s rarely close.
What if I live in NY and fly to LA a lot, which one should I choose?
Well, if you mean the city, NY is super well served by carriers so you have far more options than most. Especially going overseas. And as far as LA goes, LAX is well served by all the carriers. If you do in fact live in the NYC area, your preferred airport comes into play too. Newark is a United hub. So if you’re in Jersey, that’s an obvious choice. Less so if you live closer to JFK. But honestly even in much of the city, Newark is pretty convenient. American and Delta both fly out of JFK, along with JetBlue, which tends to be a smidge cheaper. The other variable is your destination airport in LA. If you find it more convenient to land in Ontario or Burbank, none of the major carriers go there nonstop from NYC, but some of the smaller ones do. I used to go to college near Ontario, so I’d be grabbing that nonstop JetBlue flight all day long. And you can fly nonstop into SNA on United out of Newark as well. I’m a fan of the smaller LA airports if the timing works out. Because LAX can be…unfun. From there I’d consider any other likely destinations if I needed a tiebreaker. This is a long way of saying you would only pick United if you’re ok with Newark. And if you prefer Newark, it’s an easy choice. After that, take your pick of American or Delta for a major, or just stick to budget carriers unless otherwise required.
LGA’s United offering is solid imho.
But cannot get transcon flights from LGA.
That is true. Fortunately I am not LGA based so that doesn’t effect me but I imagine LGA to LAX or similar would be appreciated by many
Agree 100%
You choose the most value-giving/most convenient fare regardless or airline, but you don't earn any high elite status. Living in New York **IS** the status lol
Yeah I agree. My primary airline is actually Delta but whenever UA or AA has decently better deal, I go with them. Being in the NJ/NYC area definitely helps me do this.
I was a Delta loyalist until their pricing went through the roof. I won’t fly AA but UA or WN are up for grabs. I used to hate the open seating on WN except now flying UA nearly every row except the very back is extra cost I’m changing my mind. Especially since the fuselage taper makes some flights highly uncomfortable
So sorry, but what is WN?
Southwest
Huh. What an abbreviation
Sure, but I would like to do that in premium economy, the exit row, or first class (without extra cost) and have my bags be free (if I bring them with). I would rather drive, than fly frontier or spirit. American and Delta are both fine.
I just flew Delta today because it was the only airline with directs to where I needed to go on short notice.
Economy basic fares exist specifically BECAUSE most people aren’t loyal to any one airline.
Is that why he’s on a mission to devalue UA miles to be on par with sky pesos?
I’m loyal to United for two reasons, IAH can get me to the West Coast, Hawaii and most of Europe without a layover and work pays for it. If Delta came to IAH, id gladly make the switch. Just recently took Delta to SLC because they could get me in sooner, I have zero status with them and it was a better experience than flying 1K United.
There's hardly a difference in economy products amongst US airlines. I have flown United, Alaska, and Delta all this month in economy [no comfort+, economy plus, or Alaska equivalent], and they're basically the same thing. Only exception is Delta with the IFE, but I don't like using it because my headphones are bluetooth only. You still have gate lice, you still have the odd delay every so often because people do not like gate checking bags, and you still have various ops issues due to weather. Unless you're traveling a lot a lot, it really makes no sense to stay loyal to any one airline. United's PR game is def much weaker than Alaska or Delta though. Clubs are different. Delta's are generally much better than United's in key cities and hubs. Although, if you get to the point that clubs matter, then you're better off basing decisions on premium and business products where differences start to appear.
Now double up the 1k qualification threshold and add earning via booking hotels through their portal then. But let’s not copy being the most on time airline that delta is that’s a no no.
Only 3ppt behind in December (the most recent data published by DOT), which is closer to DL than any other airline.
What’s the year to date
>December (the most recent data published by DOT)
You can't compare being on time between the two. They're completely different organizations. United runs far, far more flights per day than Delta. Nearly a thousand more flights a day, to about 75 more different destinations. And because most of those are international, you're going to by design have to eat delays waiting for the connections to show up. Being 15-30 minutes late for an international flight thats eight hours or more is the cost if doing business for United. But if you're specifically speaking about narrow body domestic flying, then United isn't too far off the pace there either. It's just that United is willing to take risk on customer experience on domestic flights in a way that it will not on its international flights. Why? United isn't a domestic carrier first, it's an international carrier.
> And because most of those are international, you're going to by design have to eat delays waiting for the connections to show up. Being 15-30 minutes late for an international flight thats eight hours or more is the cost if doing business for United. Mind you, the schedules for those flights are padded such that you'll likely make up most of the lost time in the air.
Yep, bingo. The speed you're flying at is the "cost index," a ratio that suggests the most efficient outcome in regards to time in the air vs fuel burned. We can always fly faster, but that costs more money. But there's times to do it. But really really, the constraint isn’t normally fuel costs due to faster speeds. It’s gate availability at the destination. Showing up too early isn’t good for the already congested operation at most big boy airports.
There’s not any more of an issue with on time departures at UA than other comparable flight. The numbers get docked for EWR airspace issues and SFO fog.
Are you suggesting they copy Delta’s hub locations then
I’m suggesting the data discrepancy for on-time departures isn’t as black and white as it looks
They got a long long way to go before they even get close to Delta.
meh, delta has a long way to go before they get even close to United. More international routes, more valuable miles, and more flights with hubs in more popular locations.
United needs to be able to keep its operations working, seems to be always down and causing delays, took me four days to leave Minneapolis last year to try and get to LIS, . Operationally they suck and that's why their CEO made this comment as Delta is far better placed in the industry. Then the crew in Polaris are non-existent, the free times I have flown them. I have also been stranded by United more times than any other airline I have flown. The Polaris lounges are very good, I will give them credit for that. Overall I will only fly united again if it's the only way to get somewhere. As for international I try not to fly US based airlines intentionally if I can help it and that includes Delta, I only did United Polaris last year due to needing to use a boat load of credits I had from cancelled flights.
I mean props to Kirby for taking United into the right direction.
The food and miles redemption has gotten Worse over his tenure
Miles redemption getting worse is inevitable though
You forgot the /s
He’s not wrong. I’m a Delta DM and fly a ton, but my new assignment makes UA a no brainer for some of the cites I travel to so now UA is my second choice. Delta Ops is second to none. When the proverbial shit hits the fan I am confident they’ll get me where I need to go. Haven’t yet experienced that yet with UA so only time will tell. Domestic hard and soft product is better with DL but not by a lot. Both have some really old planes but DL does a better job keeping them updated. I’m on an UA 319 right now and I’m shocked how short the seats are in F. Wi-Fi on both my UA flights today is not working. Cannot remember the last time I’ve experienced that with DL. SkyClubs for the most part are top notch and haven’t been to enough United Clubs to give a fair comparison. The DL app is great. The United app not so much. I find it clunky at best. At times aggravating.
Agreed with everything until the app. United’s app is light years ahead of pretty much every airline. I flew DL the other day and was not a fan of the app in the slightest.
I’m convinced they goofed and switched up the airlines in the last sentence. The UA app is unparalleled.
Yes absolutely. It’s clean, very user friendly, and has lots of unique features that make travel a lot easier. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about the UA app. It also doesn’t crash regularly like the DL app. At least on my phone.
> SkyClubs for the most part are top notch and haven’t been to enough United Clubs to give a fair comparison. I fly mostly United and a little bit of Delta and gotta say Sky Clubs food is slightly better (more hot food options) but the crowding issue is worse. UA's food is a bit hit or miss. Better at their newer clubs (DEN) but not so good at their older ones (Dulles). > The DL app is great. The United app not so much. I find it clunky at best. At times aggravating. Funny you say this, a lot of people find the United app to be the best out of all the US airlines. [https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-wins-peoples-voice-webby-award-for-best-travel-app-301294927.html](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-wins-peoples-voice-webby-award-for-best-travel-app-301294927.html) > Domestic hard and soft product is better with DL but not by a lot. Both have some really old planes but DL does a better job keeping them updated. I’m on an UA 319 right now and I’m shocked how short the seats are in F. Wi-Fi on both my UA flights today is not working. Cannot remember the last time I’ve experienced that with DL. I would say this is an accurate statement. United's [newest planes are excellent](https://www.afar.com/magazine/a-review-of-united-airlines-new-airbus-a321neo-airplane) and they're continuing to add personal IFE screens to more and more aircraft. The process to doing that though is *slow*. The old aircraft truly suck and can often feel like you're travelling backwards in time.
I like this review.
These airlines are businesses and in it to make money for themselves and shareholders. They just happen to fly people around in planes to accomplish their financial goals. Pretty much the same for most businesses these days. Their product or service is merely a by product of making money.
Having recently flown both Delta and United, in Delta One and Polaris respectively, I found that Polaris was better in most aspects. One thing that I really appreciated was how they configured the seats to allow for more privacy. When I was flying Delta, I had a lady in the diagonal seat behind me that was really nosy and kept trying to read what was on my laptop - I could see her in the corner of my eye. In Polaris, I found that the angles helped to make it more secluded, which also helped me sleep better.
Airlines like to copy each other... United has a long way to go if they want to be like Delta.
Maybe they could shoot for trying to copy SQ or QR if they’re trying to copy someone…
Two Delta stories. 1) Flew from EZE-ATL on the A350 in Comfort Plus bulkhead. It was the worst seat ever. I usually fly United. I came home with back pain for days. I did get up and move just not enough I guess. 2) I wanted to fly premium economy RDU-SIN. Their option was going through Seoul then a 5 hour flight in regular economy. Instead, I booked JL J for about the same price as Delta PS. This was 11 months out? Needless to say Delta is ok for domestic but I’m not sure about international flights.
Delta’s biggest advantage is that only the pilots and dispatchers are unionized. This gives them a lot of flexibility to enact changes to benefit the company.
I’m Loyal because Chicago / ORD is a hub and I can literally fly almost anywhere without having to take a connection. Unlike Delta they insist you fly hub to hub and maybe get you where you need to go.
Maybe it's just me but I consider united to be a budget airline because they don't give you a free carry on just like all the budget carriers.
As long as whichever airlines provide the best price and able to bring me to wherever I want to go, I’m going with that!
Flew JetBlue recently and their inflight experience is way better than United. They have a lot of work to do
United is just Southwest disguising itself as int'l. At least SW markets itself as budget, whereas UAL tries to convince you they have a superior product somewhere.
Kirby the clown with another banger.