I recently flew AA from ORD to SJC and just feel like griping
As a disclaimer, I frequently fly United to the west coast and WN on shorter trips
1) MD-80s should be made illegal for flights over 3 hours. Feels cramped and uncomfortable - even though I was in an exit row. (Which happened to be the only seat available when I booked - odd.)
2) Entertainment - Other than the noise and vibrations of the plane, there was not anything to be found. And the noise made it difficult to concentrate on anything else. At least United has audio and video.
3) Food. Pretzels. yippie. On the way out that was it. On the way back a cheese stick buy on board. Yeah. Now that's something. Even Southwest offers a little more substantative snack on their medium hauls.
4) Terminal. I've never liked AAs ORD terminal. It always seems to require a lot more walking then UAs (even when in the outer reaches of terminal C at UA) It is also further from the train. It is also a longer walk from the train - and AA there is not an arrow pointing to the train when exiting the terminal (ok - really nitpicking there.) The construction at ORD makes things seem worse.
5) It seems that AA is always after extracting every penny from their poor customers. The $75 charge for award tickets not booked far enough in advance is irksome. And then reading fine print about a free companion ticket ('can not be booked online. This will cause additional fees.')
My general conclusion: unless I have elite status and can fly in 1st, American sits somewhere down below Southwest for domestic travel. (The 777s from ORD-DFW notwithstanding)