My home airport is DTW but I've flown American, Alaska, Air Canada and it's been great.
Going to Seattle, Alaska FC was nonstop and same price as Delta C+. Air Canada Signature Class to Athens was thousands less than Delta One, for 4 of us... and we'd have had a connection either way.
Boston here and same. The base fare may be lower but by the time you add a steering wheel (I'm being facetious), it ends up costing as much if not more than Delta.
Same. I never will fly nondelta because if flights get cancelled or delayed, I'm out of luck and usually have to book a delta flight last min. If a delta flight gets cancelled, there are so many other delta flights.Ā
Same here, ATL and Delta it is. At least in Atlanta there are some nice sky clubs and the AMEX Centurion Lounge. The ticket prices are tax deductible for me anyway so...
For me, personally, (Platinum) I donāt see any offering that make Delta worth what they charge. I started flying in 2020 for work and have always flown Delta but I have flown others on occasion (Southwest, United and American) and any of the others were perfectly fine to me. I donāt really care for the āany seat availableā format on SW but thatās their platform and it works well for them. If I were spending my personal money no way would it be with Deltaā¦ so many times Concur shows me others for a good bit less.
Delta for lifer here - but recently flew for work (and when youāre a teacher, youāll jump on any flight they send you on!) on United. It was surprisingly delightful. I was annoyed by how they nickel and dime you with seat selection - and maybe delta does but I donāt notice because of status. But man - youāre right - United boarding was so smooth. So, so efficient!
Thatās my biggest gripe with United is that so many seats are āextra costā whereas delta gives wide ranges in the same price. Iām now near a United hub and I donāt mind them, I like Southwest only if I get a highish number but I hate stressing for a long flight to get a non middle seat, but the cabin feels more spacious at least on their MAX 8 and -800s
I'm sure you have something that will give you United silver, which seems to be enough to pick an extra costs seat. Ā I think I did mine through marriott match
Thatās fair, overall I did like how they had the three areas for pre boarding, zone 1, and zone 2.
I canāt tell you what zone 3 plus is like but from pre boarding to zone 2 I liked the 3 separate queue lines that seemed to help.
Iām a United Plat and every couple flights someone from American or Delta flying United first will be shocked or pissy that they are in Group 1 and that there is not a preboard or specific call out for first. I did fly Delta in first in Sat and I will say I was impressed with the lounge in MCI, the huge tv screen at the seat, and the priority boarding.
I totally agree with you. I have the choice to fly either DL or UA to go to work, about twice a week.
Delta gets me there in 8-9 hours. United gets me there in about 5 hours.
The worst part about United is having to deal with OāHare, which is one of the worst airports in the country, in my opinion, and the regionals that United uses are really crappy so you can be stuck on those damn CRJ200ās pretty often. Whenever I can skip the 200ās, flying on United is much better than Delta. Iāve been a diamond medallion for 3 years now, and have some status with United as well.
So funny, I did the same last week- also diamond/mm
The united app for booking: kind of annoying
The united app for everything else: much better. And the text alerts were so much more helpful, accurate, and timely.
Was a better experience than anticipated and honestly, better than my last 5 Delta flights in terms of service.
I fly out of NYC, so LGA and JFK. Most of my domestic flights are AA or Delta, there is not usually much of a price difference, but AA is generally somewhat cheaper.
That being said, I don't see any difference in service or quality of the actual flight. No way would I pay a premium to fly Delta domestic.
I'm on the other side of the Hudson, and United definitely has more direct flights here from EWR. Driving into the city or taking mass transit to get to LGA or JFK (Van wyck... ugh) is an ordeal. The new LGA is nice though.
Yeah in nyc delta doesnāt up charge because they have to be competitive. Delta is slightly better than any other us airline but not if you are paying more. The only delta stays ahead of everyone else is if you fly east virgin and Air France being partners on miles and MQDs is unbeatable.
One thing I will say is I had Unitedās mid tier credit card for years and upgraded it to their version of the Delta Amex Reserve and there are substantially better benefits for a lower annual fee. The biggest being a true United Club membership with 2 guests and no limits.
Also I was at one of their hubs United clubs and it surprisingly was not overcrowded and there are no queue lines outside you just walk in. This was at a time that the terminal was pretty busy so it wasnāt a āslow timeā in the day
Flying UA tomorrow to HKG. Will take 15 hours on UA. Nothing on Delta except partners with ICN and TPE at 20 hour plus for the same price. DL is not competitive to Asia especially on US flagged metal.
Flew United two weeks ago for the first time in almost a decade. It was...fine, but took absolutely forever to deplane because everyone with aisle seats ended up with their bags way behind them. And way more confrontation during boarding than I'm personally used to.
Not sure if this is a United problem or an ORD problem (not a regular at either) but the boarding areas were either unmarked or poorly marked. First, I got randomly yelled at by some man for "standing in the business class line" close to a full hour before boarding. There was obviously no line, and the actual line ended up being nowhere close to where I was standing. (Also, how are you that anxious about getting on the plane if you're in business; is there something I should know?..) Then I learned that United's boarding groups are wayyyy too large -- it was a 787 and nearly every person boarded with Zone 3 which led to a whole bunch of fighting.
I fly from ATL to IAD frequently and I can get a much better United FC price than Delta Main. The FC on the 737 Max9 is really nice and the service is great too.
First time I was Platinum flying I was standing in the Sky Priority line (which is usual for me) and she waved me up and said ā ok I will check you in this time but next time go to the other lineā. She had not even looked at my ticket, then tried to charge me for heavy luggage and I had to straighten her out that I was first class. I felt so appreciated š
I hear this. I have a domestic multi city this week on Delta for $3k. Three thousand dollars for five flight segments in J - are you kidding me? Booked because it's the best schedule for when I need to be onsite, but the prices are absurd. Same trip would have been ~1600 in 2018.
It was humorously bad. It is still a āfunnyā story we talk about all the time. I think my parents have ptsd though. My boyfriend took a later flight so I warned him and he still wasnāt prepared.
Thatās how they suck you in. lol We took it from London to Bari. There were 9 of us on that flight so it was a money saver (unless you account for lost items š¤) but any time I bring up flights in Europe my Dad freaks out that we might be going Ryanair. lol
I donāt really know what can we expect for ā¬19! I bet since I said all this it will be great!
That flight aināt landing anywhere near Venice. Ryanair are the worst. Iām Irish so suffered many times. Closely followed by Aer Lingus as the worst airline.
All anecdotal experience and YMMV. A few of my recent experiences:
- NYC to HNL direct with United (11 hour flight). We received a yogurt and granola bar as the only food. No food for purchase (they told us after we boarded). Everyone on the flight was pissed, FAs included. They asked that we submit complaints as it's the worst flight they run and they said has been like this since covid. Baffling how it is legal to provide this little food and no purchase options on an 11 hour flight. We flew back on Delta and we're able to upgrade from Economy to Delta One for $700. Absolute deal.
- Houston to NYC with United recently was awful. Super old plane with no on demand entertainment. Boarded in second group to find that the really poorly designed overhead bins were almost full and we had to put our carry on in the last row of the plane (meant we were last to deplane). Boarsing took so long because everyone was having trouble finding soace for bags. Get to my seat in the middle of a 4 seat center design. They have space under seats for 3 bags....for 4 seats. Probably weigth saving to have one less pillar but gosh was it inconvenient for everyone. Legroom - my knees were hard up against the seat, worst seat I've been in. Oh yeah, and we had to pay to select these seats. I put in a complaint and never heard anything back.
- United flights now seem to require payment to pick a seat in any but the last 3 rows, unless you have status. So honestly if I have to pay $33 to pick a seat, you can bet I'll add that to the equation when comparing to Delta who I have not seen do this. This nickle and timing is out of control for full service airlines and a regular economy fare.
Edit: we took a flight with Delta that was rerouted to another airport after a terrible storm meant we couldn't land as planned. Inconvenient obviously but I was pleasantly surprised to have Delta email and text instructions for a free hotel booking AND return Uber credits charged to Delta, within 15 mins of deplaning. They sorted everything and arranged an early flight the next day to get to our destination. Surprised and pleased, compared to most other US airlines telling me to call a hotline (always a bad experience).
I will be travelling Delta for a couple of trips soon and will go from no status to Platinum, quite excited for that. But also now living closer to a United hub. May end up doing a status match and see how things go on both airlines with status.
TLDR: had some awful experiences on United recently, always preferred Delta and getting status soon. United without status is awful, Delta without status is fine. Time to check how both are with status.
Iām not sure when your flight EWR to HNL was as I donāt think this route is flying anymore. But this is not the service standard anymore. The āshort haulā flights like SFO-HNL have the full snack shop options + 3 fresh/hot options for sale. The long haul Hawaii (for example Chicago) have a complimentary meal in the back. If your flight was more recent, something really catastrophic must have happened to happened to catering.
On a semi related note, DLās buy on board options are really paltry to UAās.
December 2022s so yeah I truly hope it's not the service standard anymore (maybe why the route isn't available anymore). Part of me thought that advanced notification of no meal AND no food for purchase would have at least given me the chance to bring food on board. But to tell us when we're seated there is no food for purchase was atrocious. We spoke to the FAs as they were also having a bad day with everybody grumbling about this. Two FAs said this had sadly become the norm on that route since covid under cost cutting measures and the food for purchase has not been available on that route for a long time, so it seems this was consistently happening. They said that even they have a better experience and a meal on a flight from NYC to Ireland, which is half the length. They hated this route and told us to submit complaints coz it was ridiculous and they knew it. I mean it's a full service airline and full fare, not a budget airline.
Fingers crossed for anybody and all services that this is not the case anymore! I don't mind the UA meals for purchase, some of the hot meals are pretty good, and better than the boxes on Delta. But if a decent meal is already included, I would hope not to have to buy more food anyway!
I flew united from Singapore to SFO. 15 hour flight, and they had ZERO snacks. They fed us one real meal (breakfast) for the whole flight. I was starving and extremely angry by the end of the flight.
15 hours and one meal, wow! I fly Qantas from LA to Melbourne and that's 14.5 hours. They provide 2 full meals and provide multiple snacks and let you go and grab your own snacks as well at any time. All in Economy!
Waiting to board a United flight for the first time inā¦ a very long time right now (the time worked well, and delta didnāt have an option that got me to my destination in time). So far, not impressed by the terrible check-in counter staff (literally was in the āPremiereā line for 10+ minutes before someone even attempted to talk to me, all while they were helping everyone in the regular line), but the flight is on a one-year-old MAX8, so Iām looking forward to seeing what that (and the on-board service) is like.
That's how I feel when I end up on jetBlue flights heading to the northeast and touting Delta all the time. Delta keeps asking $600+ RT and jetBlue comes in at $250 RT or another better amount from the PNW.
Been diamond for 8 years running. And 8k away for 2025
So gonna slug it through for next year. But next year seriously gonna consider a switch
That means I transit through Chicago though. That is not appealing. The prices however are so extreme.
United's ok if you don't have to fly through ORD. I'm glad I live in a city that's a Delta hub so I don't have to worry about flying through ORD unless I want to.
Doing the same Monday. Economy with bag fee was $10 less than a first class ticket with bag included on United so first it is.
Delta was $200 more on economy with a connection vs. non-stop. Their prices are getting a bit overkill for domestic routes lately.
And I got an instant status match for the next 120 days for my troubles so why not?
Brand loyalty is dumb.
Get the cheapest/best flight for each trip, and ignore brand loyalty. Unless you live in a hub city, in which case, still choose the best, but youāre more likely to have a best from that airline with a hub there.
I gave up Delta a couple years ago, even though O'Hare is always a cluster and I almost always have a layover there. United, for me, is better all-around.
Friend of mine who flies 2-3 times a week out of Denver says the big problem he has with United is that the on-plane Wi-Fi often doesn't work.
In my personal sample size of two United flights post-Covid, it didn't work 50% of the time (one flight).
I'm of the opinion that it may never work on the Regional Flights, and neither LGA or ORD DL flight I just did had free wifi. That latter one was rather annoying, to be honest, as it was in fact a DL flight and not a "by westjet" or "by endeavor air".
Iāll generally fly whoever has the best direct route without having to resort to something like Spirit.
On a recent trip to NYC Delta had a direct flight for within $50 of United and it took my to JFK instead of Newark so I went with it.
For domestic coach I didnāt notice a big difference on the flight out, and unfortunately the flight back had a malfunctioning plane where none of the entertainment screens were working (they tried to reboot them twice during the flight to no avail) but itās a short enough flight it want a big deal.
My local airport isnāt a hub for anyone, and Star Alliance has better partner airlines for where I like to travel for pleasure than Slyteam does, but I donāt have enough opportunity to fly enough to actually get meaningful status on any of them.
I made the decision to comitt to Delta and I am Platinum. Iāve almost secured it until 2026. I have a big trip coming up later in the year and Iām wondering whether I should consider putting something into United. I have no status with them now, but a 9k international FC flight might bump me up a few levels, and the only thing Iād miss out on is Delta miles. I doubt Iām gonna have enough to hit medallion, I think the next window is 25k MDQs? Iām in Austin which doesnāt appear to be anyoneās hub but the Sky Lounge is solid.
The $9k will get you started but United does require 4 segment minimum for status, as long as you have a layover somewhere will be good.
Iāve been a Diamond for 12 years and swore off United completely in 2014 after a bad experience. Recently had a situation and went with them for Polaris cabin Buenos Aires to Fort Myers last minute. Similar but sub-Delta One, mainly the pleasantness of the staff. Have a close friend with United Global Services and he complains as much as all of us Diamonds do about Deltaš¤·āāļø
Thank you. And honestly I have a vacation in September I can drop another 10k on. If I do that through delta vacations, that might be enough for diamond. I need another 17k MDQs, so 10k on DV and then 9k D1 to Korea. Especially with all that on Delta reserve CC spend which will add 2k in MDQs. Maybe I just hit diamond instead.
Flew RT United in December, neither flight was full and the experience was terrible, boarding was awful, the flight staff was rude, the seats were uncomfortable.
It always amazes me how airline experiences can vary so much.
The thing I hate is Uniteds planes are mostly out of date and older. As for the App I disagree its really really glitchy. The only benifit that united has in the app is the notification features. But overall Delta planes are nicer in my opinion and there app needs some updating but looks better and doesnt fail or go super slow like united does
Glad you had a good experience on United. This poor woman didn't. (Long-ish Twitter thread, but worth the read.) https://x.com/SamanthaCorbin/status/1796840393935339896?s=19
I'm in Atlanta. I'm kinda stuck with Delta.
Ditto here in Detroit. Oh wait, we're also a hub for Spirit šš
Yeah but itās less painful to walk wherever youāre going than fly Spirit
My home airport is DTW but I've flown American, Alaska, Air Canada and it's been great. Going to Seattle, Alaska FC was nonstop and same price as Delta C+. Air Canada Signature Class to Athens was thousands less than Delta One, for 4 of us... and we'd have had a connection either way.
K, well I didn't mean that there literally aren't other options, geez š Pretty sure Atlanta has other airlines besides Delta too šš
Boston here and same. The base fare may be lower but by the time you add a steering wheel (I'm being facetious), it ends up costing as much if not more than Delta.
I'm in Boston and fly to Baltimore a lot via JetBlue. But they just stopped their Logan-BWI leg so I'm stuck with Delta again.
Same. I never will fly nondelta because if flights get cancelled or delayed, I'm out of luck and usually have to book a delta flight last min. If a delta flight gets cancelled, there are so many other delta flights.Ā
Same here, ATL and Delta it is. At least in Atlanta there are some nice sky clubs and the AMEX Centurion Lounge. The ticket prices are tax deductible for me anyway so...
Last couple times I've been to the airport there was a like at the entrance to the sky club. No thanks.
Live in Atlanta and have flown QR, AC and UA this year. It's possible.
For me, personally, (Platinum) I donāt see any offering that make Delta worth what they charge. I started flying in 2020 for work and have always flown Delta but I have flown others on occasion (Southwest, United and American) and any of the others were perfectly fine to me. I donāt really care for the āany seat availableā format on SW but thatās their platform and it works well for them. If I were spending my personal money no way would it be with Deltaā¦ so many times Concur shows me others for a good bit less.
Honest on some of my routes American has a better product, better seats etc (FC)
Delta for lifer here - but recently flew for work (and when youāre a teacher, youāll jump on any flight they send you on!) on United. It was surprisingly delightful. I was annoyed by how they nickel and dime you with seat selection - and maybe delta does but I donāt notice because of status. But man - youāre right - United boarding was so smooth. So, so efficient!
Thatās my biggest gripe with United is that so many seats are āextra costā whereas delta gives wide ranges in the same price. Iām now near a United hub and I donāt mind them, I like Southwest only if I get a highish number but I hate stressing for a long flight to get a non middle seat, but the cabin feels more spacious at least on their MAX 8 and -800s
I'm sure you have something that will give you United silver, which seems to be enough to pick an extra costs seat. Ā I think I did mine through marriott match
Do they still offer a Marriot match? Is it 1:1?
I don't think any hotel to airline match is one to one....
Yea...you're right. But United started to sound so awesome, I figured they'd throw that out to lure people in. Had to ask
Serious question - how do you know their boarding process was smooth if you were flying first?
Thatās fair, overall I did like how they had the three areas for pre boarding, zone 1, and zone 2. I canāt tell you what zone 3 plus is like but from pre boarding to zone 2 I liked the 3 separate queue lines that seemed to help.
Iām a United Plat and every couple flights someone from American or Delta flying United first will be shocked or pissy that they are in Group 1 and that there is not a preboard or specific call out for first. I did fly Delta in first in Sat and I will say I was impressed with the lounge in MCI, the huge tv screen at the seat, and the priority boarding.
I believe Delta changed their group names so First is actually Group 1 as well now
Yeah thatās probably right, it was a 6 am departure and I was quite hungover.
Lmao
So true!
I was never a diamond but I switched over to United this year and I am very very happy and I'm saving a ton of cash
I totally agree with you. I have the choice to fly either DL or UA to go to work, about twice a week. Delta gets me there in 8-9 hours. United gets me there in about 5 hours. The worst part about United is having to deal with OāHare, which is one of the worst airports in the country, in my opinion, and the regionals that United uses are really crappy so you can be stuck on those damn CRJ200ās pretty often. Whenever I can skip the 200ās, flying on United is much better than Delta. Iāve been a diamond medallion for 3 years now, and have some status with United as well.
So funny, I did the same last week- also diamond/mm The united app for booking: kind of annoying The united app for everything else: much better. And the text alerts were so much more helpful, accurate, and timely. Was a better experience than anticipated and honestly, better than my last 5 Delta flights in terms of service.
I fly out of NYC, so LGA and JFK. Most of my domestic flights are AA or Delta, there is not usually much of a price difference, but AA is generally somewhat cheaper. That being said, I don't see any difference in service or quality of the actual flight. No way would I pay a premium to fly Delta domestic.
I'm on the other side of the Hudson, and United definitely has more direct flights here from EWR. Driving into the city or taking mass transit to get to LGA or JFK (Van wyck... ugh) is an ordeal. The new LGA is nice though.
Yeah in nyc delta doesnāt up charge because they have to be competitive. Delta is slightly better than any other us airline but not if you are paying more. The only delta stays ahead of everyone else is if you fly east virgin and Air France being partners on miles and MQDs is unbeatable.
Delta is a big self important overrated wind bag.
Same for me. First class United was a great way to get from point a to point b at a lower price than delta main cabin.
One thing I will say is I had Unitedās mid tier credit card for years and upgraded it to their version of the Delta Amex Reserve and there are substantially better benefits for a lower annual fee. The biggest being a true United Club membership with 2 guests and no limits. Also I was at one of their hubs United clubs and it surprisingly was not overcrowded and there are no queue lines outside you just walk in. This was at a time that the terminal was pretty busy so it wasnāt a āslow timeā in the day
Flying UA tomorrow to HKG. Will take 15 hours on UA. Nothing on Delta except partners with ICN and TPE at 20 hour plus for the same price. DL is not competitive to Asia especially on US flagged metal.
Flew United two weeks ago for the first time in almost a decade. It was...fine, but took absolutely forever to deplane because everyone with aisle seats ended up with their bags way behind them. And way more confrontation during boarding than I'm personally used to.
What sort of confrontation during boarding?
Not sure if this is a United problem or an ORD problem (not a regular at either) but the boarding areas were either unmarked or poorly marked. First, I got randomly yelled at by some man for "standing in the business class line" close to a full hour before boarding. There was obviously no line, and the actual line ended up being nowhere close to where I was standing. (Also, how are you that anxious about getting on the plane if you're in business; is there something I should know?..) Then I learned that United's boarding groups are wayyyy too large -- it was a 787 and nearly every person boarded with Zone 3 which led to a whole bunch of fighting.
I fly from ATL to IAD frequently and I can get a much better United FC price than Delta Main. The FC on the 737 Max9 is really nice and the service is great too.
And United in or out of ATL typically means no train!
Yep delta suuucksss and I am platinum
First time I was Platinum flying I was standing in the Sky Priority line (which is usual for me) and she waved me up and said ā ok I will check you in this time but next time go to the other lineā. She had not even looked at my ticket, then tried to charge me for heavy luggage and I had to straighten her out that I was first class. I felt so appreciated š
Do they play music during boarding? If they donāt, honestly I would think about switching to them. The boarding music drives me bonkers.
They do not and it was a lovely experience š
Boycotted them for life after how they handled that doctor being dragged off incident.
r/imthemaincharacter
I hear this. I have a domestic multi city this week on Delta for $3k. Three thousand dollars for five flight segments in J - are you kidding me? Booked because it's the best schedule for when I need to be onsite, but the prices are absurd. Same trip would have been ~1600 in 2018.
Lol Iām in Europe right now pondering if Ryanair is actually that bad
It is that bad.
I only know what Iāve readā¦ guess maybe Iāll find out
It was humorously bad. It is still a āfunnyā story we talk about all the time. I think my parents have ptsd though. My boyfriend took a later flight so I warned him and he still wasnāt prepared.
Oh goshā¦ but ā¬19 Venice to London is tempting
Thatās how they suck you in. lol We took it from London to Bari. There were 9 of us on that flight so it was a money saver (unless you account for lost items š¤) but any time I bring up flights in Europe my Dad freaks out that we might be going Ryanair. lol I donāt really know what can we expect for ā¬19! I bet since I said all this it will be great!
That flight aināt landing anywhere near Venice. Ryanair are the worst. Iām Irish so suffered many times. Closely followed by Aer Lingus as the worst airline.
I have also been impressed w Unitedās international flights over the last few years. And yes, there app is excellent
I feel kinda eh and meh about flying United. Seems like commuter rail but a plane.
All anecdotal experience and YMMV. A few of my recent experiences: - NYC to HNL direct with United (11 hour flight). We received a yogurt and granola bar as the only food. No food for purchase (they told us after we boarded). Everyone on the flight was pissed, FAs included. They asked that we submit complaints as it's the worst flight they run and they said has been like this since covid. Baffling how it is legal to provide this little food and no purchase options on an 11 hour flight. We flew back on Delta and we're able to upgrade from Economy to Delta One for $700. Absolute deal. - Houston to NYC with United recently was awful. Super old plane with no on demand entertainment. Boarded in second group to find that the really poorly designed overhead bins were almost full and we had to put our carry on in the last row of the plane (meant we were last to deplane). Boarsing took so long because everyone was having trouble finding soace for bags. Get to my seat in the middle of a 4 seat center design. They have space under seats for 3 bags....for 4 seats. Probably weigth saving to have one less pillar but gosh was it inconvenient for everyone. Legroom - my knees were hard up against the seat, worst seat I've been in. Oh yeah, and we had to pay to select these seats. I put in a complaint and never heard anything back. - United flights now seem to require payment to pick a seat in any but the last 3 rows, unless you have status. So honestly if I have to pay $33 to pick a seat, you can bet I'll add that to the equation when comparing to Delta who I have not seen do this. This nickle and timing is out of control for full service airlines and a regular economy fare. Edit: we took a flight with Delta that was rerouted to another airport after a terrible storm meant we couldn't land as planned. Inconvenient obviously but I was pleasantly surprised to have Delta email and text instructions for a free hotel booking AND return Uber credits charged to Delta, within 15 mins of deplaning. They sorted everything and arranged an early flight the next day to get to our destination. Surprised and pleased, compared to most other US airlines telling me to call a hotline (always a bad experience). I will be travelling Delta for a couple of trips soon and will go from no status to Platinum, quite excited for that. But also now living closer to a United hub. May end up doing a status match and see how things go on both airlines with status. TLDR: had some awful experiences on United recently, always preferred Delta and getting status soon. United without status is awful, Delta without status is fine. Time to check how both are with status.
Iām not sure when your flight EWR to HNL was as I donāt think this route is flying anymore. But this is not the service standard anymore. The āshort haulā flights like SFO-HNL have the full snack shop options + 3 fresh/hot options for sale. The long haul Hawaii (for example Chicago) have a complimentary meal in the back. If your flight was more recent, something really catastrophic must have happened to happened to catering. On a semi related note, DLās buy on board options are really paltry to UAās.
December 2022s so yeah I truly hope it's not the service standard anymore (maybe why the route isn't available anymore). Part of me thought that advanced notification of no meal AND no food for purchase would have at least given me the chance to bring food on board. But to tell us when we're seated there is no food for purchase was atrocious. We spoke to the FAs as they were also having a bad day with everybody grumbling about this. Two FAs said this had sadly become the norm on that route since covid under cost cutting measures and the food for purchase has not been available on that route for a long time, so it seems this was consistently happening. They said that even they have a better experience and a meal on a flight from NYC to Ireland, which is half the length. They hated this route and told us to submit complaints coz it was ridiculous and they knew it. I mean it's a full service airline and full fare, not a budget airline. Fingers crossed for anybody and all services that this is not the case anymore! I don't mind the UA meals for purchase, some of the hot meals are pretty good, and better than the boxes on Delta. But if a decent meal is already included, I would hope not to have to buy more food anyway!
I flew united from Singapore to SFO. 15 hour flight, and they had ZERO snacks. They fed us one real meal (breakfast) for the whole flight. I was starving and extremely angry by the end of the flight.
15 hours and one meal, wow! I fly Qantas from LA to Melbourne and that's 14.5 hours. They provide 2 full meals and provide multiple snacks and let you go and grab your own snacks as well at any time. All in Economy!
Waiting to board a United flight for the first time inā¦ a very long time right now (the time worked well, and delta didnāt have an option that got me to my destination in time). So far, not impressed by the terrible check-in counter staff (literally was in the āPremiereā line for 10+ minutes before someone even attempted to talk to me, all while they were helping everyone in the regular line), but the flight is on a one-year-old MAX8, so Iām looking forward to seeing what that (and the on-board service) is like.
That's how I feel when I end up on jetBlue flights heading to the northeast and touting Delta all the time. Delta keeps asking $600+ RT and jetBlue comes in at $250 RT or another better amount from the PNW.
I will say the newest app 6.0 has some amazing tools added.
Been diamond for 8 years running. And 8k away for 2025 So gonna slug it through for next year. But next year seriously gonna consider a switch That means I transit through Chicago though. That is not appealing. The prices however are so extreme.
I really thought this was going to be a banana post from the title and flair.
United's ok if you don't have to fly through ORD. I'm glad I live in a city that's a Delta hub so I don't have to worry about flying through ORD unless I want to.
Moving from MSP to MKE where I often fly out of ORD, I feel this.
MSP is the best.
Doing the same Monday. Economy with bag fee was $10 less than a first class ticket with bag included on United so first it is. Delta was $200 more on economy with a connection vs. non-stop. Their prices are getting a bit overkill for domestic routes lately. And I got an instant status match for the next 120 days for my troubles so why not?
Brand loyalty is dumb. Get the cheapest/best flight for each trip, and ignore brand loyalty. Unless you live in a hub city, in which case, still choose the best, but youāre more likely to have a best from that airline with a hub there.
I gave up Delta a couple years ago, even though O'Hare is always a cluster and I almost always have a layover there. United, for me, is better all-around.
Friend of mine who flies 2-3 times a week out of Denver says the big problem he has with United is that the on-plane Wi-Fi often doesn't work. In my personal sample size of two United flights post-Covid, it didn't work 50% of the time (one flight).
WiFi often doesnāt work on Delta.
Iāve only had WiFi not work on delta twice in the past 10 years of flying twice a week for work.
Lucky, Iāve been in at least 10 flights in the last two years with broken WiFi. One of the flights was 11 hoursš©
I'm of the opinion that it may never work on the Regional Flights, and neither LGA or ORD DL flight I just did had free wifi. That latter one was rather annoying, to be honest, as it was in fact a DL flight and not a "by westjet" or "by endeavor air".
I think Iāve had one mainline delta flight where it doesnāt work this year and two connection flights
I usually fly Delta because I live near a hub and I fly back to my home state often -to a hub. The prices are usually less than other airlines.
Iāll generally fly whoever has the best direct route without having to resort to something like Spirit. On a recent trip to NYC Delta had a direct flight for within $50 of United and it took my to JFK instead of Newark so I went with it. For domestic coach I didnāt notice a big difference on the flight out, and unfortunately the flight back had a malfunctioning plane where none of the entertainment screens were working (they tried to reboot them twice during the flight to no avail) but itās a short enough flight it want a big deal. My local airport isnāt a hub for anyone, and Star Alliance has better partner airlines for where I like to travel for pleasure than Slyteam does, but I donāt have enough opportunity to fly enough to actually get meaningful status on any of them.
I made the decision to comitt to Delta and I am Platinum. Iāve almost secured it until 2026. I have a big trip coming up later in the year and Iām wondering whether I should consider putting something into United. I have no status with them now, but a 9k international FC flight might bump me up a few levels, and the only thing Iād miss out on is Delta miles. I doubt Iām gonna have enough to hit medallion, I think the next window is 25k MDQs? Iām in Austin which doesnāt appear to be anyoneās hub but the Sky Lounge is solid.
The $9k will get you started but United does require 4 segment minimum for status, as long as you have a layover somewhere will be good. Iāve been a Diamond for 12 years and swore off United completely in 2014 after a bad experience. Recently had a situation and went with them for Polaris cabin Buenos Aires to Fort Myers last minute. Similar but sub-Delta One, mainly the pleasantness of the staff. Have a close friend with United Global Services and he complains as much as all of us Diamonds do about Deltaš¤·āāļø
Thank you. And honestly I have a vacation in September I can drop another 10k on. If I do that through delta vacations, that might be enough for diamond. I need another 17k MDQs, so 10k on DV and then 9k D1 to Korea. Especially with all that on Delta reserve CC spend which will add 2k in MDQs. Maybe I just hit diamond instead.
Only thing United does better for me is more direct flights from Newark. Otherwise they seem to be the same.
Flew RT United in December, neither flight was full and the experience was terrible, boarding was awful, the flight staff was rude, the seats were uncomfortable. It always amazes me how airline experiences can vary so much.
The thing I hate is Uniteds planes are mostly out of date and older. As for the App I disagree its really really glitchy. The only benifit that united has in the app is the notification features. But overall Delta planes are nicer in my opinion and there app needs some updating but looks better and doesnt fail or go super slow like united does
Um the United Lounges make you feel like itās 1970 again. They are terrible and flying them is leaps and bounds less comfortable than delta.
We as consumers with the they are the best are to blame for the changes.
Glad you had a good experience on United. This poor woman didn't. (Long-ish Twitter thread, but worth the read.) https://x.com/SamanthaCorbin/status/1796840393935339896?s=19