There is no need to keep replying to a same post just want to prove your point on AA miles, which seems to be of the very minority in FT community that AA miles are worthless.

The WSJ article harping on AA's issues has nothing new to AA flyers. All airlines in this country have problems, including the well-run Southwest, with the high fuel cost and sagging economy. AA has a further burden of its high cost structure.

A large part of AA's high cost is its labor cost.

I remember AA's CEO was saying this on CNBC in the dark days of Post 911 that the airline had only 3 days of Working Capital Cash in its bank account but it hoped to be able to pull it off with some infusion of capital and avoid filing bankruptcy like other airlines had done so.

AA should have filed bankruptcy like all other US legacy airlines have done so during the post 911 difficult time so it would be able to shed its obligation to the employees like UA, CO and DL have done so - those other airlines employees have seen their pension plans reduced to a tiny fraction than it was before the bankruptcies. AA did the right thing not to do this to its employees and now eating crows because of the high labor costs have preventing them to replace their MD-80 to more fuel-efficient models, among other things.

Still, the airline is not going away anytime soon. Problems or not, its miles still are the easiest to use and has the biggest value.

I challenge you to find me something similar on DL to fly this itinerary in business class:

MIA-LAX-AKL-SYD-SIN-KUL-HKG-TPE-ICN-KIX-CTS-NRT-SFO with stopover at every city for only 150K miles.

Or something much simpler:

CDG-MIA-LAX-LIH in coach for 20K miles

HNL-LAX-MIA-LIM coach for 15K miles

Both are starting at OffPeak awards but actually travel in peak season with the seasonality impacted segments.

I am 100% certain it would be mission impossible with SkyPesos.

For an eye-opener, you may be shocked that there are many people putting their money in BankDirect accounts to earn AA miles so much so BD has now put a cap on the annual earning amount limited to 200K at the current rate of 100 miles per $1000 deposit per month, and only 1/2 of the rate above the cap. It also limits only one miles-earning checking account per household if you have not opened 2 before the new rule came into effect. There are folks have far more than FDIC insured amount put at BD to earn AA miles.

These folks must be losing their mind since AA miles are worthless and AA is in trouble!

Meanwhile since you are content to pay 1.5 times more using DL, that you can simply stay with DL or find ways to achieve DL elite status so you have access to lower tier awards instead of paying the ransom DL charges to the Kettles.