MarkOK

Well, most of the public has no status. If you fly on AA without status, you not only get the bad on time performance, slow baggage claim, and often salty FAs that we all deal with, but you have high fees for checked bags, can't find seats on a plane that aren't upcharged unless you book way in advance (so many ridiculous 'green seats' and starred seats!), board in group 8 or 9 after all the overhead bin space is used up by group 5, get your bags even later (by design, if the place actually prioritizes the priority bags), have tight seating space in the back of the maxed-737, deal with often very tight gate seating at a lot of airports (is it just me, or does AA not like to choose gates with very little seating ?-- i.e. the AA gates at MSP, SEA, some of MIA) and, I have seen many times customers get yelled and directed to kiosk check-in who would rather wait in a line to have an agent check them in.

I think flying AA, with status, is decent enough. MCE, priority boarding and baggage ensures a level of comfort, but I can't see any advantage for someone without status choosing AA over a LCC or Southwest.