Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
International F first class is decreasing. Nowadays many airlines/routes/aircraft do not have F.
This - i believe the only AS partners with F are American, BA, Cathay, Emirates, JAL, Korean (F not bookable with AS miles), and Singapore (not bookable at all). Most of those only have F on a handful of planes on specific routes - Emirates and BA probably have the most F seats, but neither are great redemption options.
For domestic travel, as you mentioned paid tickets are often a better deal than mileage redemptions, and overall AS naturally offers more opportunities and better prices on its own planes than on AA, which is more interested in charging higher rates to its own members than making cheap seats available to partners like AS.