not to be a shill for AA, but LAX is their west coast hub.

they offer lots of flights from there to various destinations in the Western US and HI. there's a fair number of AA flights to Japan, and bigger East Coast cities (JFK, BOS, MIA). of course there are lots of flights to AA's other hubs, especially DFW and ORD.

HTH,
benzguy80

PS: rumor has it upgrading is much easier on AA, suggest you ask about this on relevant forum