Introduction
This is my comparison of United and American Airlines‘ Business Class offerings, and who wins in which areas. These two airlines (in my view) are good to compare, as they both utilise the same long-haul aircraft and have very similar offerings.
United’s Business Class offering is called Polaris, which offers 1-2-1 configuration, fully flat seat, spacious storage, side console, etc.
American’s offering is called Flagship Business, which also offers 1-2-1 configuration, fully flat seat, area to work and so forth.
In both of theses cases, the seat (or ‘suite’) does not have closing doors, compared to BA’s Club Suite, or Qatar Airways’ Q-Suite.
Lounge Offering
United Airlines
American Airlines
I have visited both the United Club (in Washington) and the Polaris Lounge (in Heathrow). The United Clubs in my view are very dated, have a basic food offering, and a chargeable bar. The Polaris Lounge (also known as the United Club in LHR), is by far better with excellent food, a great bar, really nice styling, end so forth.
American Airlines’ comparable lounge to the United Club (domestically) would be their Admirals Club, which charges for ‘premium’ drinks and food. Again, this is sort of subjective – but a fair comparison to United’s Washington United Club, would be American’s Charlotte Admirals Club. Equivalent to the Polaris Lounge, would be Greenwich Lounge in JFK – American to also offer the Soho and Chelsea Lounges, which extremely good – but feels a little unfair to compare.
Verdict
In the interests of fairness (as close to apples to apples as I can get), I would say that between a United Club and an Admirals Club, the Admirals Club wins. Between a Polaris lounge and a Flagship lounge, would say that (based on my only Polaris experience being in Heathrow); Polaris lounges win.
WINNER: United Airlines.
Planes
United Airlines
American Airlines
United Airlines operate the Boeing 777-200, 777-300, 787-8, 787-9 and 787-10 – they are HUGE Boeing users and use them across their hubs heading to either Europe or Asia.
American Airlines have a more simplistic fleet. They operate the 777-200, 777-300, 787-8, 787-9, but not the 787-10.
Verdict
I don’t think there is really a ‘winner’ here, as both airlines offer the same planes, and in very similar 1-2-1 Business Class configurations. The only small win on configuration may be American Airlines, as they have a nice galley to help yourself to food during the flight – where as United simply have a trolley.
WINNER: American Airlines.
The Seats
United Airlines
American Airlines
For this comparison I have chosen the Polaris on the Boeing 777-200, unfortunately, for some reason I only have one full image of this! You can read my seat-specific review of the Polaris seat here.
On American’s side, I have chosen the Flagship Business on the Boeing 777-200. You can read myfull seat-specific review of the Flagship Business seat here.
Verdict
In many respects these seats comparatively are the same. The big differences for me are (1) that the Flagship Business seats all are angled towards the window, where as Polaris can angle out into the aisle; (2) the table is a lot bigger in Flagship Business; (3) the seat controls in Flagship Business are better, and some have the memory; and (4) Flagship has more charging points. Both Polaris and Flagship have their privacy issues, however.
WINNER: American Airlines
Food and Drink
United Airlines
American Airlines
Perhaps the first noticeable thing is that United hand out a single-sided cardboard menu, only with food on it. I also may be wrong, but United only offer pre-ordering of food on some of their flights, and this is from 5 days before departure.
American Airlines offer a much nicer and very nicely printed menu, with not only food, but drinks too. American Airlines (in my experience) offer pre-ordering of food for virtually any flight, and it is offered 30 days before departure.
United’s drinks service, in my experience, was less finesse. When I asked what wine choices they had, the answer was “red or white”. The one thing I did enjoy was the beer, they serve Stella, which I was very happy about!
American Airlines offers a good choice of wines, beers and soft drinks. I’ve always had good wine from them (with 2 or more different choices of each), and I’ve generally had good beer too.
The main meal served on United I found to be a little ‘basic’, the image below was a chicken curry that I had on board. This was served as a single-course meal, and even the salad was ‘basic’, not that there is anything wrong with basic!
I found American’s offering for a main much more hearty. American’s offering also goes beyond the basics, for example United pre-dress their salads with dressing, where as American leave it up to you with little bottles.
For desert, United offer deserts on a rickety old trolley which comes down the aisle. Of course, the headline desert is the ice cream sundae. Seemingly, United’s marketing of the ice cream sundae is by far better than the result!
American also offer ice cream sundaes (I am not sure who pioneered the idea). They have less choice of toppings, but do have a more generous amount of ice cream.
The ‘secondary meal’ on many airlines will be breakfast or a ‘light meal’ On my Polaris experience, this was a cheeseburger, with a muffin and some fruit.
American’s choices are, I would say, substantially the same. They often offer mini pies, with chocolate mousse, crisps and fruit. At other times it can be a sandwich.
United’s snack offering is to place a trolley in front of an emergency exit with some crisps, popcorn and chocolate on it.
American’s approach is by far more premium, and involves a bespoke-built galley to offer a series of good hearty snacks.
Verdict
I think there is a clear winner here. Making a like-for-like comparison, it is clear to me that the standards between United and American are night and day on the food and drinks – although I would really like it if American began serving Stella!
WINNER: American Airlines
Amenities Kit
United Airlines
American Airlines
United offer these brilliant hard cases as their Amenities Kits, which are absolutely fantastic! They have a decent bunch of things inside them, and I was super impressed when I found one at my seat.
American seem to offer two Amenity Kits, from Shinola, I am going to be nice and compare the ‘better’ one. These are nice kits, which more or less have the same as the United kits – the bags are of high quality too.
Verdict
In absolute fairness, the contents of both Amenities Kits is substantially the same. The main difference is the bag. Because I personally prefer the hard case, and its an unusual offering compared to 99% of the other airlines…. I think that has to be the clear winner.
WINNER: United Airlines
Wifi
United Airlines
American Airlines
My experience of United’s Wifi service was pretty flawless, and worked perfectly. There is an interesting concept of buying Wifi with points, rather than cash.
Generally, speaking I have always had good Wifi on American flights, and if I’ve not, I’ve been easily refunded without a fight.
Verdict
In both the cases of United and American I had very good Wifi experiences. Although I find American can be steep and rather variable on prices, it doesn’t seem to be a million miles off from United’s prices.
WINNER: None
Entertainment
United Airlines
American Airlines
Being totally honest, United and American offer substantially the same entertainment. A feature on United’s entertainment I liked was the ability to listen to ATC, which is something American doesn’t have.
Possibly the screen size in Flagship Business is slightly smaller than Polaris, but not by a lot. America have some great choices of entertainment, new films, TV, etc – as do United.
Although these may be the slightly different models, United offer the same style and quality of headphones to American.
If there is one HUGE difference between American and United’s approach; its that United don’t demand the headphones back 90 minutes before landing!
Verdict
In many respects, the offering from United and American is ‘same but different’. The options are probably the same (if not styled differently), there’s the usual moving map, the TV, films, etc. United have gone the extra step with their ATC listening abilities, so there is some nice innovation there. But really, the crucial difference has to be the fact United trust passengers not to steal the headphones before landing!
WINNER: United Airlines
Cabin Crew
United Airlines
American Airlines
Verdict
There seems to be a ‘thing’ about ‘legacy carriers’ and their Cabin Crew. For a start they certainly don’t look like they do in the (airline provided) pictures! Some wear uniforms with smartness and pride, others don’t. Some wear a smile, others don’t. Some care, others don’t. Some are grumpy, others are nice – neither come anywhere close to Etihad or Qatar Airways standards.
It’s been my experience both in Polaris and Flagship Business that the Cabin crew go on a scale of anywhere from nice/friendly to rude/abrupt – and often it doesn’t tend to make a difference which bases they are from. Certainly, in my experience, there is no clear winner on attitude – in fact, sadly, it could be argued both airlines are bad as each other, rather than as good as each other.
WINNER: None
Conclusion
In the case of comparing Polaris and Flagship Business I am not sure there is really a clear winner.
On the one hand, American’s planes, seats and food are undeniably better. On the other hand, United offer better Amenities Kits and Entertainment – as well as having a close to comparable seat product to American.
If it’s the seat or the service you go for, then I would argue that it’s basically the same across both airlines.
If food is important to you, you’re not going to get a 5-course Qatar Airways-style dinner out of either of them – however, the presentation and quality from American, I would say is easily the winner.
With that said, it’s also important to think about your Alliance. Tier Points, AA Advantage Points, Mileage Plus Points, etc, are important things for airline status – this could also be a deciding factor in which airline to pick – especially as these two airlines for the most part offer the same product.
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