As a customer that lives in the outstation CMH, I very frequently have to connect through the AA hubs to get to my final destination. My only real issue during IROPS of any kind is that there are limited premium seats available, mostly due to upgrades many hours prior to departure. It makes quite an issue once I've arrived LATE at a hub an look to maintain my business/first seat an a later fligth. If we could hold a few seats back, I believe it would make quite the difference to connecting passengers. For example, hold upgrades back until you're ready for a gate departure and do that right before boarding...from one who always buys premium when flying American, this policy would make sense. ^

As far as treatment of elites, I have had the opposite experience.

I'm a Platinum Pro member, and I've had both gate agents and Admirals Club agents bend over backwards for me to get my flight choices managed (multiple Admirals Club agents at different hubs have even accompanied me to the departure gate). ^

It's kind of a mixed bag of issues at the moment...