Originally Posted by fholt

Hi, OP here, and while I freely admit this thread is a rant, my frustration with AA is real. I have been in the AAdvantage program since 1996 I believe, with ~750K lifetime miles. As others have noted, I do NOT fly enough to maintain status, at least not consistently, and the idea that I'd go spend a couple grand on mileage runs in order to get "marginally" better service as a Gold on the several trips I get each year is just crazy. I don't expect fancy treatment, group 1, or whatever when I'm not elite, but the new idea of blocking all the aisle seats unless I want to pay out of pocket on my business travel is a new twist I haven't seen before. I never flew SW before a cruise a year or so ago, and while I was hesitant, I DO know how to check in 24 hours ahead to get first group boarding. With AA I was asked to pay an extra $70 if I wanted aisle seating on this trip. My company thinks poorly of "additional airline expenses".

So, I'm not so sure when the pilot welcomes us to "sit back and enjoy the flight", that I will. Maybe I'll get lucky. I will do my damnedest to spend my 300K miles on a nice J award overseas somewhere, and then be done with it and feel no more allegiance, nor reason to accumulate AA miles. I have found better service in Y as a peon on DL, and as I mentioned, I'd be just as well on SWA for this trip. I used to just default to AA as this was where I tried to earn my miles, so even while I had no status, I figured we didn't get treated worse than anywhere else. That's in the past. Hakuna Matata.