Originally Posted by trojanman

Thanks for your contribution. I should point out that AA is not considered an "elite" carrier by anyone's standards. It's well understood that, while it is the best USA-based legacy carrier, AA does not compete in the same universe with the Skytrax 5-star carriers.

Sorry to get off on a slight tangent here, but:

I think we USA-based frequent travelers who fly both domestic and international routes really only have 3 choices: DL, UA, and AA.

DL has never offered a true 3-class product since I started flying and has one of the most diluted FF programs in the world (AKA SkyPesos).

UA offers a more comparable hard and soft product, but has a slightly more restrictive upgrade policy and substantially more restrictive partner award booking policy.

AA's hard product is known to be average to slightly below average when compared to other 3-class airlines, but AAdvantage is the industry gold-standard for FF programs and upgrades are fair and easy for the best frequent flyers. Furthermore, once AA launches the new 787 (presumably with a NEW Flagship product), and assuming they don't dilute AAdvantage in the process, I think AA will be poised to be the best USA-based carrier by any standard.