I have a tour to USA & Canada from 11 Jun to 25 Jun 2002, and United is the only airline to be taken for the trip (since I join a tour from travel agency & not on our own.)

I had a trip from NRT to LAX on 11 Jun, and the experience was quite good. I was sitting on E seat of B747, and a flight attendant on the right aisle saw I was hungry for dinner, so she gave me a dinner for me, even the seat I take should be served by flight attendants on the left side (the flight attendant on right side served meal faster than the left one).

I then travelled from LAX to YYZ (Toronto) via ORD (Chicago) on 16 Sun. The trip from LAX to ORD on the last row of A319 was a pure suffer, as the last row of seats are NOT reclinable at all! Fortunately the bagel served on the morning flight was hot & fresh.

I got seat of 6F on the next trip to Toronto, which was an Economy Plus class seat of 36" seat pitch instead of 31" seat pitch. Some tour members just got Economy class seats of 31" seat pitch on the back of B737-500. The trip was much more comfortable than the former one, but I think this is not fair for the passengers as all of us pay the same fare for travel but get seats of such different comfort.

The B737-500 does not have lifejackets for passengers, and passengers have to take the bottom cushion of the seat for floatation. This is very strange, and is the 1st aircraft I took ever to have such design (I have taken Dragonair A320, A321, A330, Cathay Pacific B747, EVA Air B747, China Southern B737 before.)

So it is concluded that United does not offer consistent service for its customers, with some Economy class passengers having comfortable seats but others get uncomfortable ones.

Thus I think United should correct the situation by cancelling Economy Plus class, and have all Economy Class passengers seated on seats of 33-34" seat pitch. What's more important is that the last row of seats for single aisle aircrafts should be reclinable like that of Dragonair A320 / A321.

I went from Toronto to Hong Kong with transits at Chicago ORD & Tokyo Narita NRT from 24 Jun (Mon) to 25 Jun (Tue).

On the trip from ORD to NRT I saw a United flight attendant helping the passengers sitting at right block of seat row 44 in B747 to take photo. The flight attendant even smiled after the taking of photo.

The other attendants also behaved friendly towards the passengers.

So it is concluded that United has friendly attendants, and fits its slogan of 'Fly the friendly skies'. United would be the best USA intercontinental airline if its Economy Class seats are changed to 33-34" seat pitch, and personal TV are installed for all passengers like that of 767 & 777.