What I Like Least About American, Delta, And United

There’s no denying that the “big three” US carriers aren’t always popular with consumers. I’ve written posts dedicated to the things that I like about American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. After all, there’s no perfect airline, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

On a slightly less positive note, in this post I’d like to share what I like least about each of the “big three” US carriers. Most of my points are intended to be more big picture, though in a couple of cases I’ll share specific shortcomings of the experience offered by each airline. I’ll provide my take, and then I’m curious to hear what OMAAT readers think.

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What I like least about American Airlines

There are two things I like least about American — the lack of a consistent strategy, and the carrier’s international route network. First and foremost, American lacks a strategy. Or at least the airline can’t keep a strategy long enough to actually have any sort of an identity.

Remember a decade ago, when American was trying to become more premium, and was installing seat back TVs on domestic planes? And then remember several years ago, the airline started ripping seat back TVs out of these same planes, arguing that the carrier’s product is its schedule, and nothing more? And that bring us to today, where American is once again trying to become more premium, realizing that it’s lagging competitors.

How often can you shift your strategy without any sort of full overhaul of the management team? American has spent the past several years essentially trying to compete with ultra low cost carriers more than competing with Delta and United. All of that is great, except for the fact that the airline has high labor costs and tens of billions of dollars in debt.

Obviously this lack of a strategy also isn’t good for employee morale, as people don’t actually know what kind of a product they’re supposed to be delivering. What’s the mission that American employees are supposed to get behind? I think this is a huge issue, and it’s one of the reasons service at the airline is so inconsistent.

Second of all, up until recently, American was the largest airline in the world by some metrics, yet almost unarguably has the blandest international route network of the “big three” US carriers.

It’s borderline depressing to compare the route networks of American and United. While United flies to places ranging from Bangkok, to Cape Town, to Singapore, to Tahiti, American seems content just being a massive domestic airline, with a limited long haul international network.

Fortunately Vasu Raja is no longer at American, but do you remember how excited that guy got about El Paso? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m more with United’s Patrick Quayle, who gets excited by Nuuk and Ulaanbaatar.

What I like least about Delta Air Lines

There are three things that I like least about Delta — hubris, the SkyMiles program, and Boeing 767s.

First of all, let’s talk about hubris. I think Delta is better than American and United in terms of customer service. Most Delta employees genuinely seem to like their jobs, and they know how to take care of customers. They’re also invested in the success of the company, thanks to the size of profit sharing payouts.

However, I can’t help but feel like the company lacks humility. Delta is slightly better than the competition. Delta management not only knows that, but in my opinion management thinks they’re better by a bigger margin than they actually are.

Now, funny enough, in my post about things Delta does well, I talked about how the airline has a clear vision of being premium, and I pointed out how Delta so strongly marketing itself as premium is probably a good thing for the company’s bottom line. But still, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a bit off-putting for the airline to be so full of itself.

Next up is Delta SkyMiles. While American AAdvantage is far from perfect, it’s in a completely different league than Delta SkyMiles in terms of how rewarding it is. While I can appreciate the simplicity of SkyMiles, and that Delta has basically turned its miles into a currency worth a cent each, the lack of aspirational redemption opportunities makes me have almost no interest in the program.

Hey, I’m not saying the reality of Delta SkyMiles is necessarily bad for the carrier’s bottom line, but as a consumer, I sure don’t love it, and struggle to get excited. Fortunately plenty of other people are happy to stay on the hamster wheel.

Lastly, Delta’s Boeing 767 fleet is a major disadvantage. For the most part, Delta has older planes than American, but maintains them well. The exception is Boeing 767s. Delta has a big fleet of these, and in my opinion, they offer the worst wide body business class experience that you’ll find on any of the “big three” US carriers.

Now, admittedly not all planes are created equal. Delta’s 767-300ERs are much worse than the 767-400ERs, but even the 767-400 seats are really narrow. I think just about anyone reasonable would agree that there’s a night and day difference between the business class product on Delta’s 767s and United’s 767s.

It’s just such a contrasting experience to enjoy the incredible Delta One Lounge JFK, and then get onboard, and see the state of Delta’s 767-300 business class.

What I like least about United Airlines

There are two things that I like least about United — that service could be better, and the MileagePlus program.

Let’s start with service. United is the US airline most trending in the right direction. The airline has an amazing route network, and is investing in its onboard experience and in premium capacity. In many ways I’d argue that United is a more compelling airline nowadays than Delta, with one major catch — service.

If you ask me, United is in the same league as American when it comes to service, and not in the same league as Delta. Following the Dr. Dao incident, former United CEO Oscar Munoz spent a lot of his time talking about how United had some customer service renaissance under his leadership.

While it’s true that people aren’t being dragged off United flights, United’s alleged radical customer service transformation simply doesn’t match my experience. To be clear, I’m not saying that service at United is consistently bad, or anything. There are lots of great employees. I am saying, however, that service is quite inconsistent, much like at American.

Whether right or wrong, if I’m flying Delta, I generally expect good service, and am disappointed if I don’t get it. Meanwhile if I’m flying American or United, I don’t expect much, and I’m delighted if I do get excellent service.

All of this shouldn’t come as a surprise. I mean, United’s flight attendants have been in a heated contract dispute for a long time, while Delta flight attendants aren’t unionized and get big profit sharing checks (to be clear, I’m not saying the lack of unionization is good or bad, but it reflects that they’re happy enough with the company).

If United could get on Delta’s level when it comes to customer service, that would be a game changer. But it’s also not easy to change a company’s culture in that way.

Second, I’ve gotta say, the general devaluation of MileagePlus miles over the years is quite disappointing to see, and puts United more in Delta’s league than American’s league when it comes to the value of miles. Ultimately I guess people put up with it in order to fly United (just as is the case with Delta), but still, the good uses of MileagePlus miles are so much more limited than in the past.

The primary issue is that if you’re a value maximizer, you’ll almost never get a better value through MileagePlus than through Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca Lifemiles, for example. It’s such a shame, because I’d otherwise consider United’s Star Alliance membership to be a major asset.

Bottom line

After writing posts about all of the good things about the “big three” US carriers, I figure it’s only fair to share my major criticisms of the airlines as well. I’m not saying any of the above are the single biggest problems at the airlines, though when I think of the negatives of the above three airlines, those are the first things that come to mind, in terms of my perception as a consumer.

I’m curious to hear how OMAAT readers feel — do you disagree with any of my takes? What do you like least about each of the “big three” US carriers?