What was the other option? Go it alone and get out-competed by DL at SEA? The problem is AA's management is terrible with no vision or even a semi-coherent plan for growth. It's not just SEA, look at what they did at AUS. They grew it almost to the level of a mini-hub and then it all came crashing down the past couple weeks. Before that look at JFK and LAX. Ultimately, my opinion is that AA management were a lot of holdovers from US and they really never let their past go. For example, look at their emphasis on former US hubs instead of the more international connected hubs with better amenities (i.e PHX over LAX and PHL over JFK). They know they cannot compete based on service, so they don't. They put those exact words into press releases when canceling routes. They pull flights from hubs (LAX) or shift to other hubs with no/lesser competition (PHL and CLT). And, let's be honest, SEA-BLR was a pipe dream and BA out of SEA is going to be better than AA most days of the week.