Originally Posted by
sukn
Customer Relations determines the compensation for delayed flights (within AA's control) and all passengers on such flight then receive the same compensation.
Originally Posted by
swag
For multi-hour, non-weather delays, AA sometimes will give everyone on board a few thousand "customer service bonus" miles as an apology, unsolicited.
AFAIK AA does NOT send compensation to everyone on the plane in these situations. And as far as I can tell, the passengers who receive said compensation are chosen on a somewhat random basis.
I can recall a number of times when a lower fare and/or lower status pax received an unsolicited letter of apology and compensation, while his higher status and/or higher fare companion did NOT. As always, YMMV.