Thank you for all that have responded. I guess I should have been more clear on my traveling habits so you guys could better advise.

I cover the West so I fly out of SNA (Santa Ana, CA). I fly to Oklahoma city, Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle, Oakland or San Jose, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Salt Lake, Las Vegas, Honolulu.

I usually book 2-3 weeks in advance. I only booked those weird hours and days because I have to select the lowest fare through my company and American is lowest only 40% of the time unless I fly "weird". Lowest fare always seems to be CO or NOrthwest.

Are you saying that if I call in ahead of time to request an upgrade I am likely to get get it (rather than just showing up at the airport)?

For the person considering switching to American: AMerican is OK, the service is probably about the same as CO. You probably earn the same amount of miles through their promotions as CO. The main reason I want to switch to CO is the frequency of upgrades. You get 4 electronic coupons for every 10k miles you fly (actual miles). Its 2 tickets for a flight to Dallas and 3 to ORD. So I spend the majority of time in coach, even though I am platinum. It seems like you gold people mostly ride in First Class.

The people at the paltinum center for American are incedibly average. I get the best customer service from the Admiral's Club and not the Platinum desk. I hear the Executive Platinum Desk (comparable to your Gold) is another story and that they are incredible but you need 100k miles for EXP.

Its really about the upgrades for me since I fly so much. This is the main reason I am doing this. It sounds like from your responses that I will be happy with CO in this aspect.

In case anyone is wondering about the food on 1st in American, you get heated nuts and drinks at first, a salad, a nice fish, chicken or beef entree. The thing that may set them apart is their Ice Cream Sundae bar with after dinner drinks.