I largely do and wasn't kidding. Now I had a sample size of two on EK. ORD-DXB and DXB-SIN - The first flight had a crew that by any standard was worse than the middle aged non-caring AA FAs - while they might not care, when "summoned" they at least do something towards addressing the problem. They might not be terribly.polite and enthusiastic - but at minimum they would try to reboot a seat, not give me breakfast I didn't want etc. EK's flight has amazing IFE and pretty looking but non functional interior. The AA seat is a lot more functional. Never mind not having some silly middle seat. and they are properly flat. Food on AA has been surprisingly good lately. The DXB lounge staff was a mixed bag - from incompetent (not knowing where the showers are but still sending you somewhere to rude - to nice and helpful. Obviously the actual lounge in DXB is much nicer than any AA lounge I have been to - including FFD. But the partner lounge in ORD is probably amongst the worst in the world. EK amenity kit was nice - but didn't contain air plugs and getting some was a pain too. I think AA has ear plugs in the PE kit - certainly in J or F.

The crew on the 2nd flight was a LOT better - so of course hard for me to tell which of the two flights is an anomaly - but in any case the seats are cramped, you see everyone's monitor - as nice as they are - which is very distracting. So yes, if given a choice - and for what matters to me - I'd rather do it on AA

I am not saying AA would be my first choice - the flight back was on JAL (instead of the planned QR - was actually my first JAL long haul - KUL-NRT-JFK) - which had very little to complain about. Would take that over AA immediately and if talking ME airlines - I really like QR (even had a good IRROPS experience which I hear is rare).