Not that anyone is doubting ijgordon, but I can confirm that in the mid to late 90's:
1. AA international business class was nothing to write home about. It was much closer to domestic first than CO BF.
2. Virgin Atlantic two cabin business class was very close to CO BF in hard product but had a better soft product - especially with the massages.
3. CO BF food was better than CO BF in the late 00's and certainly much better than current CO BF-lite food to Hawaii.
4. AA international first class seats were recliners and not flat suites back then but the soft product was pretty darned good with the (good) champagne (ok) caviar and (decent) medium-rare center cut beef tenderloin carved seat-side Chateaubriand-style.

My company back then paid for J to europe so we tried to get into Virgin Atlantic J or CO J over AA J every time. It was quite a differentiator and I suspect that this behavior repeated over the entire business community forced AA J to match VS and CO.