All customer service facing organizations (or at least those who stay in business) keep track of customer issues, both positive and negative.

Perpetual whiners find that on something really big where there is discretion, they don't get it. Booked a family of 4 on two separate tickets internationally and need to make changes and face $2K in change fees? Getting that waived or chopped down by 50% is the kind of thing on the table.

It's also clear that AA has upped its software to better track customer exchanges so that the next agent knows what the last agent told you. Helps on the front where the GA tells you that you are lying about what the phone agent said. Hurts for those who call back 3 times to try to get an answer.