I am one that prefers the seats on AS to AA. I like that they are leather - it seems cleaner and easier to care for, and I do not have them uncomfortable at all. AA's F seats always seem broken down to me and the cloth makes them look/feel grungy to me.

I agree with others that AS FAs tend to be friendlier than other domestic carriers on domestic routes (I base my comparison on Delta and AA) although I think they all are about the same in terms of attentiveness.

The board room has already been mentioned as a perk. I would def. have something there before you get on though, especially if you are used to AA. That is one area where AS falls short of AA is food - at least in terms of quantity and especially on a mid-con like SEA-MSP. AA F experience has I would say about twice the amount of food on even shorter routes (thinking routes like MIA-RDU or JFK-ORD where I honestly was shocked at how much food AA was serving). I think the quality of AS food is better, there just is not as much - especially if you are used to AA. I have thought more than once that perhaps the reason that AA FA can be kind of surly is they expect them to do way too much in too short of a flight. I have been on a 1:50 flight where they did two in-flight drink services and then served a full dinner with just 1 FA working. The poor FA was literally running to do the service... I would be annoyed if I were her too.

Anyway - the pre-departure drink thing is not that big of deal to me. I usually drink water anyway - and you will get that (or usually will anyway).