I know it is an unpopular position on FT, but I find AA to be quite good as an airline much of the time and about half the time I pick AA instead of BA for trans-Atlantic travel -- because I want to, and not because I am coerced. AA planes are generally in superior mechanical condition, their pilots are better than average, in fact much of the "invisible" part of the airline is far better than average. And sometimes I care about that more than the wine served (though these days AA is a match for BA in food and wine quality trans-Atlantic). Service out of LAX tends to be markedly better than out of JFK, for example.