Paulchili, saying an anecdote 50 times does not make it true. If you had searched all of AA's most heavily traveled routes (domestic and international) and posted the results here, I'd graciously accept your claims as true. But you search a few routes and then make sweeping, negative generalizations about, for example, how AA has become DL. No one on this forum except me has taken the time to determine availability on domestic and international routes and posted those results on Flyertalk. Repeatedly. And each time, the "sky is falling" theory has been disproven. Real data trumps anecdote every time.

Maybe you should stop expecting to get award flights right before and after cruises. And accept the fact that the "award seats are released 330 days out" procedure has long since been abandoned.