Your memory does not serve you at all. Try to find a new one.

SPG Amex has for ages allowed earning 1 SPG point/$ on its card, and then transferring 1:1 (and for bigger transfers at an even higher ratio) to AA.

Diners Club US (Club Rewards program) used to transfer to AA 1:1 also, but discontinued that after the sale of DC US from Citi to BOM. (Discontinued for personal DC US cards; still available for corporate DC US card holders.)

And various other hotel programs also have card where you can earn the hotel points and transfer to AA, though none of them at the same ratio as SPG (or as Diners used to have). The best of the no-fee cards (and in fact the best of the MC/Visa non-Citi cards, fee or not) is the WyndhamRewards card from Juniper/Barclays, which effectively earns 0.8 AA miles/$.