Originally Posted by Thunderroad

Wow, I know that I'm going to sound like a real AApologist, but AA has actually been looking better and better to me over the last couple of years. Before I go into why, I must emphasize what we all know, that we all have different travel patterns and priorities. My own patterns involve about 6-8 international business trips a year in either paid or upgraded J and booked well in advance; about 10 domestic trips a year (for both business and to see family and friends), mostly to the East Coast and almost always upgraded and also booked considerably in advance; and about two or three international vacations per year with my wife, using miles for F whenever possible. My priorities are upgrades, because I have a bad back and long legs and am a softy.

So that being said, my frame of reference is not AA in an absolute sense (though I really wouldn't complain much even then) but compared to DL (which I never fly because of the lousy FF program) and especially UA (which used to be my #1 domestic airline but is now #2, and sinking). I'm both AA EXP and UA 1K, but if I ever don't fly enough to drop one it definitely will be UA.

So without discounting the OP's or others' problems with AA, it is looking very good compared to UA in a number of respects. And check out the UA forum to see that I'm not alone in this regard. Here are some ways AA's better, not necessarily in priority order:

1. Because AA doesn't have a tier above EXP, if I book far enough in advance domestically I have an excellent chance of scoring an upgrade. In contrast, as an SFO-based 1K have a much lower chance because of the higher GS tier, so many UA elites in SFO, generally smaller UA F cabins and UA prioritizes ticket prices paid over date of ticketing in upgrade priorities.
2. For SWUs, AA has a lot more seats available at time of ticketing than UA does.
3. Usually good though not constant CX F award availability for our Asian vacations.
4. Access to OW F lounges as an EXP on international trips.
5. Admirals Clubs somewhat nicer than Red Carpet (or whatever they're now called by UA) Clubs.
6. AA personnel at the ACs and phone CSRs for the EXP line tend to be much more helpful, competent and empowered in terms of booking tickets, adjusting itineraries, etc. than their UA counterparts. (I've seen UA club personnel perhaps unfairly derided as dragons here in FT; here in the AA forum, we usually call such personnel angels.) I noted the OP wanting AA personnel to have more flexibility in doing their work, but believe me compared to UA they are masters of the universe. For folks who (like me) are fans of UA's Honolulu call center, the entire AA EXP phone desk is equally competent and has more flexibility.
7. AA fare codes that qualify for international upgrades are much lower than what UA requires.
8. As discussed in multiple threads at the UA forum, UA is taking a technological leap backward in the system its gate agents and other personnel will be using, by virtue of adopting the inferior CO system via the merger. The sky likely won't fall when the switch is made on 3/3, but it does seem that for a year or more (maybe permanently) UA ground personnel will be somewhat hampered in dealing with IRROPS.
9. I realize that many of these advantages could diminish or vanish as AA emerges from BK, but the leadership of UA has done nothing to inspire me to believe that the ongoing deterioration in its FF program won't continue.

I could go on regarding other AAdvantages, and could also provide a decent list of UA advantages if I had time. That list would include E+ and better J and F international seats (though AA will slowly start to move ahead of UA in this regard when it starts to get deliveries of new long-haul aircraft with better seats later this year). Plus UA flies to more international destinations, meaning that there are more routes to collect miles and use upgrades on (though as I've noted securing upgrades at time of ticketing can be very tough on UA).

But I don't have time to compile complete lists comparing the two airlines. My point is that whatever strengths or weaknesses AA has, it's actually looking increasingly good to me compared to its major domestic competitors.