[Joe Frampton]

Living in the US right now. Some recent US flight experiences:

- Almost NO checking of boarding passes onboard, very rare indeed
- Captain standing in the aisles during loading and help to load luggage in overhead bins
- Captain making flight data announcement standing at the PA at the front of the cabin, visible to all
- Captain sounded very excited and saying we were about to 'blast off' like the cabin announcements you used to get on Virgin Blue in their early days, that was a half empty flight from Orange County to San Francisco
- Have flown lots of Alaska sectors in brand new 737-900's - nice plane, and also some nice new United A319/320's.

I've been coming over here for 25 years now, and I have to say, compared to the old days, the domestic planes are looking a LOT LOT nicer... they used to look dirty and old compared to Australian fleets, but now I would say the reverse. Yes, the AA MD80's are not good, but they are fast becoming somewhat of an exception, well in the west/northwest anyway. And I don't think I've had a widebody sector over here in 2 years, compared to the old days of half empty sectors on DC-10's with Northwest Airlines in the 90's! I feel pretty safe now on US airlines on the whole.