I am not defending AA here, but I will say in the last 5 or so years, the hard product on much of the wide body fleet has vastly improved. Remember NGBC? Also, my wife and I have gladly welcomed the upgrades to ACs at some of the big hubs, and certainly the introduction of the Flagship Lounges and Flagship checkin. AA's five star service is a nice touch (although I think if you're flying int'l biz - maybe on select routes - not just F, this should be included.) I don't disagree that we have had more recent troubling experiences with delays and a glimpse in certain unfortunate circumstances at what can only be called depressing, if not toxic morale at the airline. We welcomed the AA app capabilities during IRROPs recently and were impressed at how quickly one can rebook themselves.

That said, I will say flying AA is not the same as it was even 2 years ago with regard to the "soft" product. In some instances, we're paying double for the same route in/on the same product in 2018/19 compared to fares in 2016, only to have had virtually nothing changed for the better and a degradation of on-board service (and really service across the entire customer experience chain from booking to collecting our bags). Unfortunately, this has not been route specific, rather across all routes for us. We recently had a flight where we pre-ordered our meal, only to find the flight was given only cookies and soft drinks on a 3+ hour domestic flight that was delayed due to over-fueling during a mealtime. Whether this was catering's fault or something else, FA's were nowhere to be found after that first round of cookies and soft drinks until doors opened at the gates after landing. There was no turbulence or bad weather of any kind.

We fly mostly international J and F, but when we step into the domestic experience, it's now more-often-than-not not an airline we are proud to be elites of.