Are you familiar with the new loyalty program at AA? Flying paid F will certainly help, but if you're coming from zero status it will take some money (not miles flown) to get to 200,000 points/EXP status.. It sounds like you travel a good bit, so you'd be wise to put your travel spend on an AA credit card and you'll rack up the points much quicker.

If you're buying all F/J, especially international, you could be invited to Concierge Key (like UA Global Service). The magic spend number varies from one person to the next, but generally something over $50K of AA premium fares helps.