Last year we flew to DC on USAirways before the merger with AA was completed, and the seats (we have free first-class tickets) were comfortable, the food good, and the can crew excellent. Recently we flew to NYC in the same manner, but now on AA--and the food was mediocre, the cabin crew efficient but not as pleasant (older, perhaps?), and the seat backs uncomfortable. The seats on the SMF/PHX route didn't recline more than an inch and were very hard. We may have to reconsider our FF affiliation.

We flew USAirways to DC every Thanksgiving for the past 5 or so years; I can't say I was as impressed with their planes or crews as you were, Underhill. They were OK for a relatively short flight.

This year, we'll be on AA, of course. I'll post about how it goes...

We always had horrible experiences with on USAir and feared they'd bring their culture to American. How about a US Air flight attendant on the airplane telling me beligerantly saying they do not make special arrangements for handicapped travelers? I could go on and on about the worst airline I ever dealt with, good riddens to US Air.

Same story over and over. UA loyalists think CO management ruined their airline; CO loyalists hate UA name and service; NW loyalists think DL ruined and dismantled what they had. Seems like only DL loyalists don't have much to complain, probably since NW was much smaller and weaker than DL when that merger was done.

In short, people generally just don't like changes.

Probably true. Or we hope to find a pattern so that we may choose good airlines and avoid bad ones. Too bad that they are all both good and bad, depending on the day.

In general I prefer AA to the old USAir. But seats mostly depend on the equipment. That one specific flight to DC may have been fine -- but you could have flown somewhere else on a different model USAir plane and it could have been dreadful.

Same w/ the AA flight to NY -- different route/equipment and it could have been marvelous.

I once had a bad experience on USAirways - I will never fly them again.

Does anyone else remember that prior to several mergers and acquisitions, USAir started as the old Allegheny Airlines - AKA Agony Airlines.

Yes, Gail, and I remember flying the awesome F580s, too.
They started the downhill trend a few years later with than new-fangled DC9 which bounced around on the PIT-PHL-BDL-PHL-PIT route a couple times a day.

Don't forget though that US Airways acquired AA. All the US management is still in place. AA management is gone. What you're flying is US Airways, just doing business under the name of American Airlines.

..and America West, which was a startup airline in the 1980's, acquired US airlines taking taking their name. So when you fly American Airlines today, you're really flying America West...an airline I really enjoyed and when flying NYC to LAX, I found lower fares on HP and was willing to put up with a connection in Phoenix. All the drinks, even booze, were free on the original America West. Those were the days, my friends, we thought they'd never end...

Now that the merger is totally completed I can actually fly NS from Fort Lauderdale to Washington and not have to change in Charlotte,

Seat comfort depends on the equipment. And no seat is "free" believe me you paid for it some way somehow.

Flew AA nonstop to DC as we do every year, saw no difference from the US Airways flights of the past 5 years. Same worn out planes, no worse, no better.