Very true, but the differences come from how they handle things when things go awry. My own personal experiences with AA have been so awful that I eliminate them every time I do a search for flights when flying anywhere domestically or internationally. I can't speak for others, but they've never, ever have tried to work things out with me one time. Albeit, United has it's share of problems but the one time they inconvenienced us they saw to it that our needs were met and for that I gained renewed trust with them. We were leaving SFO for a connecting flight through Chicago (ORD) when a minor mechanical issue caused a one-half hour delay in our take-off. The pilots couldn't make up the time, and when we finally landed in Chicago we missed our connecting flight (which was at a gate a 'mile' away). When I went to customer service window for United they apologized, gave us each $30 food vouchers for the day we were stranded in the airport, and promptly booked us on the next flight out that evening (which was some 8 hours later). They did, in my estimation, everything they could do. Delta did the same by us the following year when we were stranded at JFK coming back from SXM. They all have issues, but to me it's how they handle things when things go wrong that makes the all the difference.