I've been a 1K through fall of 2006 until January 31, 2015.

I earned (not a challenge) EXP status for the first time in 2014 on EQPs, flying long haul business class. It was just the third time I earned elite status on AA; gold in 2013, and in the 1980s I think had some sort of elite status because AA sent me 4 500-mile stickers once, which I never used because a job change cut my travel back dramatically.

The bad of EXP vs 1K:

• AA.com and the smart phone app are quite primitive compared to united.com and the UA app. (In fairness though, UA is far and away the leader in empowering customers to do business with the airline website and app.) I've used TY, DL, US, CX, AF, BA, MH, QR, ... and they are all pretty bad. Examples:
  • One can't apply for SWUs (like GPUs) online, whereas on united.com this works pretty reliably.
  • The upgrade list is available just four hours before departure, and even then only on the app.
  • Awards with an international origin and destination cannot be searched online.
• PDBs are inconsistent. This is inconsistent with my comments on a recent thread, but I've have a lot of segments on AA this month, and now have more data points.
• Meal orders don't appear to be consistently prioritized by status. So some FAs take orders back to front or front to back, and so the last EXP in row 1 or the back row loses. I didn't get my choice on one segment this week as I was in bulkhead due to an irrops.
• No regional upgrade instruments. EXPs get 8 SWUs, 1Ks start at 6 GPUs and 4 RPUs.
• Just one destination (DFW) from COS on AA, whereas UA has LAX, ORD, DEN, IAH. However, UA is shedding destinations (SFO, IAD, SAT are gone), and I can envision a point when it will be just LAX and DEN.

The neutral of EXP vs 1K

• While EXP has a truly dedicated EXP line, unlike the 1K line where you can get a premier silver agent or a GS agent depending on the roll of the dice. However, the competence of the EXP agents varies. Some are as good as GS agents, some are simply stupid or stupidly simple.
• While AA new C is better than UA new J, there is still lots of AA old C in the system. But AA old C > sUA old C (the seat is much more comfortable for sleeping) and one of the last straws for me on UA, was that despite there just being 1 or 2 birds with old C left, UA refuses to convert them, and it seemed like a last minute equipment substitution burned me a lot.
• Can't use SWUs on non-AA metal. However, UA has fully gutted the GPU on LH benefit to the point that I consider it useless.
• In explicably, the new A319s like UA's old A319s, have just 8 F seats. As compared to the CR9s that AA uses which have 9 F seats. I do fear for my domestic upgrade rate as the A319s replaces the MD80s.

The good of EXP vs 1K

• Any fare aa.com publishes on AA metal can be upgraded with an SWU.
• It is very easy to find flights with SWU-able inventory compared to UA (where I always had to google for Lucky's blog post on how to do this arcane activity). When an EXP logs in, and searches for flights, the website simply displays with segments that can be confirmed with an SWU. Of course it is possible that between the time the flights are purchased and the SWU applied, the flight loses SWU inventory. But there is a subtle work around which I think is superior to the united.com process of purchase, wait to ticket, try to upgrade, fail, repeat cycle. Next item:
• AA.com lets one book and hold. Moreover, AA lets one call the EXP desk to apply an SWU to a held itin BEFORE ticketing, and the SWU will stay applied. Moreover the SWU count is not decremented until ticketed.
• SWU upgrade inventory to Asia is plentiful unlike GPU inventory. Other than HKG, I found lots of availability to NRT and China. I travel to Bangalore India 3-4 times a year, and have already leveraged this. Shanghai is the nearest AA metal gets one to BLR. I easily found upgradable flights to Shanghai, and booked tickets on CX to get me to BLR. Which leads me too:
• AA has a powerful misconnect policy. If a pax has a connection but the flights are on two different tickets, if one ticket is AA and the other is oneworld, AA will own the problem of rebooking the pax without fees. Whereas I recall a nightmare of a 1K where I work, where the M+ lied to him and said that Aegean was not a *A partner, so he booked 4 business class tix SFO/FRA, and four revenue tix FRA/ATH. Naturally, Aegean was impacted by one of Greece's infamous labor actions, and they were going to misconnect in FRA, and lose their business class awards. UA insisted there were no business class awards for the next day, despite 4 revenue seats available. It took several threats, DYKWIAs, etc. and UA relented. On AA this won't be a problem. So as I noted above, I cheerfully booked separate CX tickets for a connection on the outbound and return through Shanghai. And this week I have SJC/DFW/COS today, and COS/DFW/DOH/BLR tomorrow. Speaking of flights to DOH ...
• AA is in oneworld, and one of the gulf airlines is a full oneworld partner, unlike *A. This is very powerful, as the gulf airlines tend to have very low business class fares to India. *A and Sky reject the gulf airlines as parasites, whereas AA, due to its inferior international network, has to embrace one of them. I wish it was Emirates and not QR, but I'll take it.
• EXPs have first class lounge privileges when flying long haul from the USA, and when flying anywhere else in the world. And reviews of the oneworld F lounges are good. I haven't had the opportunity yet, but will in March.
• My EXP domestic upgrade rate thus far is exemplary. Just one upgrade missed in 2015, my second segment, DFW/SFO, on a Sunday night. I was number 2 on the upgrade list. Except for that, I've always been number 1, and I don't book high revenue fares. I will avoid SFO as a destination, as I am 3 for 3, DFW<->SJC.
• Upgrades clear after irrops causes a rebooking. I was scheduled to fly DFW/LAX/SJC, and DFW/LAX went MX. I got off the plane, rebooked on the non-stop to SJC, and was number 1 on the upgrade list. I cleared ten minutes after I arrived at the gate.
• AA flies LAX/SJC; UA dropped it.
• AA uses planes with first class cabins between DFW and COS. UA will often provide 50 seaters between COS and ORD/IAH/LAX. Don't care about whether COS/DEN has F class.
• WiFi is very plentiful.
• Status expires the end of February. This reduces angst waiting for credentials for the new year. Whereas my gold M+ credentials had not arrived at the beginning of the week. Are they waiting for me?

Thus far, I am pleased with the experience. I do have to fly a long time to get to California, as I refuse to fly out of DEN due to unpredictable winter conditions. But that time is spent in F cabins.