I’m trying something different for the trip home from Honolulu.
United Airlines and I are still in a very healthy relationship, but sometimes you need to see what else is out there in order to appreciate your first love.
Actually, it’s not that complicated. First Class was virtually sold out on all United flights, so I had two choices: pay top dollar to fly on a United 737 or 757 without lie-flat seats or look elsewhere.
I just wanted to try something new. Not necessarily brand new, just something different that would make an interesting review for the blog and at the same be enjoyable for my uncle and myself.
My first thought was Hawaiian – I enjoyed the recent trip reports from both Tiffany and Ben and would also like to experience Hawaiian’s new A330 Business Class. On the other hand, the only flight to LA with the new seating was the 8am flight. The afternoon and redeyes had the old recliner seat.
I didn’t fancy getting up at 5am to catch an 8am flight, but I noticed there was saver award space available. But then I looked online at the menu…it was a Japanse-style breakfast in business class, which sounded horrible. While that may be a terrible reason not to take a flight, I didn’t feel like Tamago Furikake (Hawaiian Airlines does not offer a choice of meals in business on breakfast flights). So I crossed Hawaiian off. No seaweed. Please.
Miraculously, I was able to secure a seat on Delta’s noon departure to LA, a Boeing 767-300 with lie-flat beds. The flight will allow me to see how United and Delta compare and give me a chance to fly Delta for the first time in four years on a widebody jet.
CONCLUSION
So stay tuned for some diversity on the blog! Next up is a flight on Delta.
image: Aero Icarus / Wikimedia Commons
You’re going to enjoy DL. It will be miles better than any UA flight out there. I am a die-hard UA fan boy, but over the past few years DL has won me over – and continues to win me over. UA still has not recovered from March 3, 2012.
Agree with Bobby 100%.
DAL is the best! Live near both a Delta and United hub, and made the decision years ago to stay with Delta. Even have the Delta Amex. They are not always the cheapest, but great service, great on time record, and nice planes make up for it. I have even bought stock in DAL because I have been so pleased with them!! You will not be disappointed.
You booked away from an airline because of a little furikake garnish that you could easily wipe off with a fork? Good thing you don’t hate parsley!
That and the 8am departure.
Based on numerous flights, in the pointy end and in misery class on both Delta and United over the past two years (albeit aboard narrow-body aircraft for shorter flights), or reports from my globe-trotting partner who also flies transcons every 6-8 weeks in either Comfort+ (Delta) or Economy+ (United) on their widebodies (and now insists on Delta only after two flights aboard United’s “densified” 777s including a brand new -300 which he hated even in E+ over the summer), I’ll “third” Bobby’s comments.
In fact, despite my criticisms aplenty of United, I so very much want to root for them, and want to be a fanboy of theirs…it’s just that more often than not, especially before the Dr. Dao incident earlier this year, when a few days later I actually experienced the airline at its very best (which but for the appalling row pitch on that 737-700 which was still 31” instead of the 30” increasingly found throughout that airline’s narrow-body fleet was actually exceptionally good…) they so often disappoint, that even the occasional moments when one encounters good inflight service from a team that clearly likes what they do instead of the ogres and other bitter ones commonly encountered, one finds themselves having no choice but to think twice about taking a chance on United with its desperately inconsistent (and more likely to be bad) service, plus its increasingly “vintage” style fleet of streaming to ones’ device IFE featuring next to nothing anyone really wants to watch instead of LiveTV or a well curated selection of seatback IFE like Delta does.
Heck, even Southwest, long king of spartan inflight service aboard 737s lacking everything except a single class of bare backed seats to stare at and a reputation for a bag of peanuts or pretzels, has far batter inflight entertainment than United.
So, when considering the rapidly disappearing LiveTV on United’s 737s (long a personal favorite in our home giving us reason to consider United), the truly awful streaming service we found so bad it smacked of desperation (NONE, and I mean NONE, of the “real” shows promised on its web site were available on either of the 737s we took earlier this year, and streaming entertainment to a personal device on the ten-abreast “densified” 777-200s for a six hour flight just doesn’t cut it and was the other reason why my partner put United on his no-fly list, even in E+, for his somewhat frequent trips to/from SFO), plus the extreme seat shrinkage on 777s and/or 30” pitch rows on narrow-bodies that even my partner at 5’ 4” finds offensive (for our personal travel) United just makes it harder and harder to be a fanboy…even when we really wish we could be…
So, for sure, it will be interesting to hear if Matthew’s experience with Delta matches ours!!!
Of course, that’s “better”, NOT “batter” in the preceding post…
With apologies for the typo…