Review of US Airways flight from San Francisco to Phoenix in Economy

Hello and welcome to this short one day turn from SFO-PHX.
US 574 SFO-PHX in Y - you are here.
US 686 PHX-SFO in Y - http://flight-report.com/fr/report-11403.html
Last year I had the intention of switching my frequent flyer program to BA's Executive Club but after I had the pleasure of connecting through LHR where I nearly missed my flight coupled with some enhancements that BA announced last year to their program, I decided to move to greener pastures. However, I was only short of 5 Tier points to qualify for Bronze by Oct. and couldn't bear the thought of missing elite status by so little so close. So I booked a quickie between SFO-PHX that surprising was cheaper than a SFO-LAX turn. The ticket was only about USD 112 total so why not.
US operates out of T1 in SFO while AA leaves out of T2, so for the time being they are still operating separately. However, once you pass security, these two terminals are connected through a hallway which makes things a bit more convenient. In addition, the DL Skyclub is now located past security at T1.
The counter was not very crowded and I printed my boarding pass from the kiosk. I was disappointed that it already had the American logo on it while I was hoping for the US one. As you all know, the US brand will disappear soon and I wanted to have a few lasting souvenirs of the old logo. I must confess that I have some sentimental value attached to US. This was the first airline that I achieved elite status during my early years as a frequent flyer and at that time being a Silver member which was a low tier elite member with their Dividend Miles program meant something. I used to receive 2 systemwide upgrades that could be applied to any Y fare anywhere they flew. My chances of upgrades were about 80-90% which were pretty high compared to today's average. It was a different world in the late 1990's.
I showed up at the gate ready to board and the two ladies working at the gate were really pleasant. I asked if I can have my boarding pass reprinted and one of them said It's $25 jokingly. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be true with the way that they are extracting every cent out of passengers these days. I was excited when she handed me two boarding passes with the US logo on them - collector's item for sure.

Sadly I didn't have status with AA anymore and my boarding group was 5, which is slightly better than employee class. Good thing that I did not have to worry about finding overheard space since I only had a small bag that could easily fit under the seat in front of me. As it turned out, I did not have a neighbor since the middle seat remained empty for my outbound and return trips. I guess I was upgraded to an European style J cabin.
Boarding was surprisingly quick and two FA's were at the door greeting passengers as they came in.
My row.

The contents inside the pocket, with the B.O.B. menu still saying US Airways.

One thing that I disliked was the presence of ads on the tray table when you folded it down.

We took off more or less on time and a beverage service was conducted after we leveled off. There were snacks for sale and I bought some vegetables chips with hummus for USD 4.

Cabin.

We landed early at 1338 and upon exiting I took some pics of the bulkhead which clearly had the US logo.

AA uses T4 at Sky Harbor Intl. which has 4 different gate concourses connected by a moving walkway. I had a little over 3 hrs. to kill so I did some spotting and familiarized myself with the gates.
Here is a link to the map.
https://skyharbor.com/pdf/Terminal_4_L3_Current.pdf
An old HP plane transitioning to AA.

Together at last.

AA looking good at PHX.

A few US planes.