About a week ago I flew as a passenger from
IAD to
LAX. It was my first ever flight on United and I must say that it was a very nice flight. We left on time (to the minute) on a clean 747-400. We arrived early.
During the flight I listened in on ch 9 on the headphones. I was surprised at the relatively low level of chatter on the frequency. Sometimes in Europe it is virtually impossible to break into the new frequency when we are handed over to a new sector. London and Milan are particularly bad in that regard. Even on the departure from
IAD it was not that busy and I expected a very busy departure time.
I have never flown IFR in the US so I have no idea what the frequencies are like. How is it around the major cities? Do they tend to be busy or do they have enough sectors and frequencies and controllers that it stays manageable?
FWIW, I enjoyed the flight on
UA. The flight attendants were basically friendly and the captain gave a very good briefing of the flight conditions and the routing during the taxiing to the runway. My experience on US airlines has occasionally been one of surly flight attendants and pilot announcements that were essentially unintelligable, even for me as an American.
Anyway, good job United. Hope you make it.