Which of the 3 major US carriers do you prefer flying with? I

>>1140347
See when you say "way better" in First Class between any of these three carriers I know you haven't done First very often or to too many regions. Your experience will not vary much on these three brands, but rather you'd understand that it is on the route and equipment on your flight. Even your meal service could greatly vary depending which airport you just left. But, these three? Same exact transatlantic or transpacific experiences. Exact. And, your time of day could determine which equipment you take to say Alaska and whether you felt you were in luxury or back in 1980s business class.

Variances happen when planes are refurbished or just rolled into service with cabinlike sleeper changes. And if they are suddenly better than each other, the other competitor airline meets it within a few months. When you go transatlantc mostly is where all the competitors start their best cabins and equipment too, oh but you pay for them. They are there to reward the most frequent of their customers using their credit cards and mileage and really giving the airline their thousands of dollars each year. You might prefer lie flat, have a door you can close, or the nice toiletries and the right ethnic food. Some airlines are government entities and sort of fall out of the normal business model of making money when their purpose is to support their own countrymen having an airline, any airline, and as a hub to bring tourists through.

>>1140347
I usually prefer Delta, best business/ first class of the 3 US airlines and the most punctual, in my opinion. United is decent, though I'm not a fan of the 2-4-2 configuration in some of their business class seats. Really looking forward to the major upgrade they make to their business class product over the next few years. Even though I have a friend who is a travel blogger who loves American Airlines, I avoid them as much as possible. The times I have flown with have been unpleasant and always have to deal with some sort of delay or cancellation.

Also, Jet Blue has really improved throughout the years. Pretty good business class for a low cost carrier.

>>1140347
I fly United and affiliates more often than the other two, because I live in a United hub city. It is not great, not terrible, like all other major US carriers. I have been impressed with customer service at American. I have found business-class flights on all three (my only first class flights have been on non-US United affiliates) similar enough.

>>1140355
Whats the best way to upgrade into first class domestically?

I fly coach.
Delta
American
United

...in that order.

Mainly, the entertainment systems for United are crap in my limited experience.

>>1140347
Race to the bottom makes them all the same. A step above shit like Spirit and Frontier, but if you're doing an international flight you should never fly a North American airline unless you hate yourself

Delta fan, and what's also good about them their SkyTeam members tend to be top notch

>>1140364
>Whats the best way to upgrade into first class domestically?
Not that guy, but it's always status. Relatively few high-end seats are filled by people paying the full cash fare. Biz class gets plenty of paying biz travelers, who get the status, who get the various systemwide upgrades. But my experience with domestic first is negligible; most carriers have few three-cabin flights domestically these days. It's more often just coach/some kind of economy plus/the big seats--sometimes called first, sometimes called business, near-always more like business than real three-cabin first.

Whats the cheapest way to get plane tickets

FUCK

God I fucking hate buying tickets. You find a good deal and it's gone before you even manage to fill the forms.

>>1140523
>>1140414
How can I get these without paying the full fare though? Do I request an upgrade?

>>1140773
As I said above, it's your frequent flier status with the airline. People who get free upgrades are almost without exception people who fly a lot, ideally in business class (which awards more miles and gives you status faster).

One possible but rare exception might be to get booked on an oversold flight and volunteering to give up your seat in exchange for a later flight. Once in a while the new ticket they offer will be an upgraded class. But more often they'll just give you a new coach seat and a voucher for future travel, because the best seats are all full of frequent flier upgrades or business travelers whose companies buy the expensive seats.

I hear stories now and again of people who get free upgrades just by asking nicely, but I'm not sure I believe in it--only time that has happened to me has been after an airline really screwed up (they caused me to miss an international connection and stranded me en route for close to 36 hours). I whined a bit as they were trying to get me a new itinerary and the gate agent had an open seat and some sympathy. That's only happened to me once, and I used to fly a LOT for work.

>>1140773
It's right there when you do online check-in, the option to add some more fees. You can pay for the upgrade right there if the computer shoes seats, or you can waitlist yourself. You could do it at the airport again on the kiosk in some cases, or walk up to the ticket counter and ask a question of them "hey there, I'm leaving on flight 999 and I wonder how it looks for upgrades to business today" and let them do their Meet The Fockers keyboard clickyclicky for ages, where you'll eventually hear "there are 7 seats available, and the fee is $150, would you like to upgrade?" or something like "currently 23 requests and oversold, so doesn't look good. Note that people who are using their status to do it for free don't get priority over someone willing to pay the fare difference. Sometimes the fare difference is minimal at the last minute, so ask again at the gate. Be careful though, these are the grumpiest overworked employees at an airline, someone who doesn't make eye contact or want you to walk up to the counter may not be so friendly seeming. In somewhere like Atlanta, you can check with the customer service counter at the center of the terminal or even a stray agent who is very early or post departure at a different gate.
When they put you in the computer and you have no frequent flyer program associated with you, for sure they don't turn on the big smile and worry about what kind of complaint you can write about them. So.....get with the program. Get a SkyMiles card, join the club, whatever it takes. Use your credit card perks to visit the airlines lounges, and while there, you'll find the BEST of their employees who might do very nice things for you in their computers.

>>1140776
>I hear stories now and again of people who get free upgrades just by asking nicely
I got lots more opportunities a lot more often pre-911.
I think for the most part, planes have a fuller load factor. It could be logistics and computer algorithms have simply perfected that all flights are full all the time. Certainly, there are a ton more frequent fliers/business class with status taking up every last seat up front, thanks to hubs and lower airfares both.

I used to get buddy pass travel through both of my grandparents who had pre-1943 hire dates with Delta. Since you board and get seats by seniority, it would be puzzling to gate agents doing seat assignments that someone even existed alive anymore with that date (good genes) and that you could get better seats than the entire rest on the list of standby. Not sure why they seemed unfriendly about it at the gate sometimes, maybe would have friends in the crowd trying to get on, but I could count down the minutes until a flight attendant found my name on the manifest and would come and ask a question about that date. Post 911, forget it, it became so difficult to get a seat, any seat, let alone the guaranteed 1 or 2 seats left in First, it because an unusual perk, from someone who mastered the standby game chances. I used passes only to avoid change fees in the end for really flexible travel needs, like awaiting a birth, or very spontaneous travel. Today, the prices for miles/fees for almost all employee travel is higher than normal fares for most routes, and is only a deal with First.

>>1140789
>>1140786
Thanks for the advice.

I don't want to hijack, but I don't want to start my own thread either, because it's pretty simple really.

Hour layover in Atlanta? Or 45 minutes in Minn./St. Paul? I'm flying Delta from Austin to Dayton and the two flights I'm looking at have the aforementioned lay overs.

>>1141652
If it helps, I can include the types of planes with their seat configurations offered as well as the time of the year...Late November. Atlanta seems more promising, because well...I'm not sure whether or not I'll run into delays in Minn./St. Paul because snow could be a thing. But Atlanta is kind of insane as far as airports go in terms of size, scope, capacity, busyness, etc.

>>1141652
>>1141653
Only real hiccup in Atlanta is getting through security on a busy day. The train gets you around the terminals quick and easy. I'd go with the hour to better accommodate any delays, and if none the time will fly by in ATL. Though I can't speak on the other airport

>>1141655
Thanks! I'll probably stick with Atlanta. Late autumn weather could pose problems in Minneapolis. I just imagine snow and delays. I have heard though Atlanta is something else...207 gates, incredible volumes of people, a frenetic pace of sorts.

Pretty much have only flown Delta, nothing real to complain about.

Tried to fly American a few weeks ago, they cancelled (not refunded, cancelled) my reservation because they overbooked the flight without notifying me then tried sending me off on a 5am flight the next morning. Which I declined. Getting a refund took an hour on the phone and being told no, it's impossible etc etc before they finally agreed. Never attempting to fly with them again.

ATL-fag here.

>>1141660
1 Hr is kind of close for a layover at any airport in my opinion, but assuming everything is on schedule and you're not planning on leaving the secured area, you'd be fine. The underground train gets you from one terminal to another pretty quickly.

As for airlines, I've only ever flown coach domestically. Mainly on Southwest, Delta, and Frontier. The difference between them as far as inflight goes is miniscule, other than Southwest's no assigned seating, so I just go for the cheapest fares.

That being said, I'm planning on flying to Japan next April, and I've opened a rewards card (Chase Sapphire) to try and help with the airfare. Possible transfer partners for card points to miles for my case is United, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, and Southwest. My best bet for a reward upgrade or flight looks to be using United points to book on ANA or BA points to book on JAL. 150k points to book business on a United partner and BA points is distance dependent. Never flown business before, and never flown a long-haul overseas flight, so this should be interesting.

I'm top tier status on american right now, and second from the top on delta.

I've yet to ever have a truly bad experience with Delta, they seem to actually make an effort to make the passengers not feel like cattle. Only qualm with them is more the demographic for the average delta flyer is an obese american couple wearing shorts that are 5 sizes too small, act like they never have flown on a plane before, and manage to fuck up the lines in security/boarding/ putting their bag in the overhead. Same goes for connecting in CLT/DFW on AA.
The one year I was top top tier on delta, they basically suck your dick it was so nice, I even got a porsche to pick me up at the gate once. And they seem to be good operationally.

AA, Is decent in first for domestic flights, but half the flight attendants seem to not know what the hell they are doing/make it obvious they don't want to be there. Their ground staff post-merger is either fantastic and make magic happen for me, or just useless. I've yet to fly coach on them this year despite buying cheap as hell tickets.

United I only flew heavily for a year, it was pretty good, despite being a mess post-merger, but upgrades are a bitch to come by, and for a while they charged for alcohol on tatl flights in economy.

If you don't have status, and don't need to check a bag, fly delta, jetblue or southwest. Anything intl I'd just fly a european airline, Swiss in particular impressed me recently.


>>1141652
pick the routing that doesn't have any small regional jets. Look at the seat map and if you see 3 seats on each side of the plane or 2 & 3, then it's a mainline plane

>>1142540
>Anything intl I'd just fly a european airline, Swiss in particular impressed me recently.

I usually end up on KLM when flying international but booked through Delta.

I'd love to try out a euro airline sometime but I get d3 American buddy passes from a relative so the discount is worth the inferior quality. But sometimes it can be very inferior. They charge 600 to put you on a 757 (no VOD) to Dublin when Delta puts you on a much more modern aircraft for $300.

They all suck for a variety of reasons, especially with fewer carriers. Right now it's United as the convenience of the closest/largest hub.

All of them charge for extra leg room, checked bags, priority boarding, and other shit. All of them have mediocre service. All of them have good mobile apps and mobile boarding passes now. All of them have up-and-down experiences. Here's my take as a frequent flier.

>American
I haven't flown them much since the US Airways merger (I switched to United before they formally merged). The pre-merger US air fleet does not have extra legroom seats but bullshit "choice" seats. The number of executive platinums makes getting Firstclass upgrades nigh impossible unless you are one (and the e500 upgrade system is fucking useless). I hate how the newer 737s have overhead TVs playing NBC shit nonstop. Wifi is super overpriced. If you're in coach and don't have priority boarding you're better off being towards the back of the plane if you need overhead space and don't want a gate check as they board rear to front.

>United
Getting better with service, the coffee finally switched to illy instead of shit, and free snacks even domestically (small but token). The app is good. Rebooking policies are meh. Certain airports have a boner for really enforcing the baggage sizer for carry on bags. They tend to sell upgrades out from under elites for cheaper to non-elite members (I've seen FC upgrades on domestic routes get offered to me with status at $100 and non-status at $29 which is horseshit). Boarding is WiLMA (Window middle aisle) so if you don't have status and don't want to gate check your bag then you should get a window seat. Unless you wait without a seat assignment you won't get an extra legroom seat for free.

>Delta
Decent ops, atlanta is a good airport, some of their non-extra legroom seats are beyond punishing, they're not convenient for me so I don't fly them way too much

>>1140364
>>1140414
>Not that guy, but it's always status
Hehehe, nah. United at least holds back upgrades to be sold on day of departure before giving up and giving them to elites. They'll generally hold up to half the first class cabin for upgrades sold within 7 days and on day of departure. They give up an hour or so before scheduled departure. On Flyertalk they're called "TOD upgrades" as a joke against CPU (Complimentary premier upgrade) or GPU (Global Premier Upgrade) or RPU (regional premier upgrade), with the TOD standing for "Tens of dollars".

IT's rare to get bumped without paying or having status, but with airline consolidation there are a lot of elites and a lot of efforts to monetize.

>But my experience with domestic first is negligible; most carriers have few three-cabin flights domestically these days. It's more often just coach/some kind of economy plus/the big seats--sometimes called first, sometimes called business, near-always more like business than real three-cabin first.
Domestic first class is more like a slightly nicer seat except on certain long haul coast to coast routes in the US, as far as international first that's a dying breed globally, but business gets the lie flat seats with direct aisle access so it's still much nicer than domestic first.

>>1140372
>Mainly, the entertainment systems for United are crap in my limited experience.
It depends on the aircraft, the continental merger left shit fucked up.
737s with DirecTV are paid domestically but it actually works fairly well. It's cheaper to buy in advance. They're stuck on these with a contract.

Most Airbus aircraft domestically have wifi entertainment where you connect to United Wifi for free on a phone/tablet/laptop and then open the United app (or portal on a computer), the selection is good and it works fairly well (larger united express aircraft, the GoGo entertainment is OK). Some of the boeings have this. The larger problem is many of these aircraft lack in-seat power, so you need charged devices.

Internationally most wide bodies have good seatback IFE for free

It's definitely worth checking on Seatguru and the united app what kind of entertainment is on United flights. Domestically with the number of A319/A320 aircraft, they're all wifi equipped with personal device entertainment now, so the situation is much better.

>>1140789
>I think for the most part, planes have a fuller load factor. It could be logistics and computer algorithms have simply perfected that all flights are full all the time. Certainly, there are a ton more frequent fliers/business class with status taking up every last seat up front, thanks to hubs and lower airfares both.
Economy is better and there are WAAYYYYY fewer airlines now than ten years ago (Northwest, Continental, and US Airways are all gone, meaning they can fly fewer flights fuller).