Things I Miss That AAdvantage Used to Do
 

1. Being able to "pay the difference" to upgrade an award ticket. Flying to LAX to JFK in the 747, overnight flight. Award was always counted as a "Y" fare. The "Fn" fare was only $25 more. So I paid the $25 and flew in First Class.
2. "Last seat" availability for award travel. Order my certificate for a domestic round trip to anywhere (I think it was 20,000 miles?). Walk into LAX 2 hours before the flight to JFK and say "I want to fly to JFK in 2 hours and return on Thursday" and hand them the certificate and they handed me back the ticket.
3. Block the seat next to me, in coach (the block went away at the gate, but it almost always held up).
4. Lifetime miles that were guaranteed to work off the same award chart for life. (It was in a letter from Mike Gunn that I kept in my file.) They broke that promise about 15 years later, and it is one of the few times that I felt that AA cheated me.
5. Channel 11 for air to ground communication throughout the flight.
6. Anna Jefferson (LAX) greeting me a few times a week and giving me a first class seat without any upgrade instruments, before I was a Platinum, because she (and others) had the authority to make decisions.
7. Going to the Aadmiral's Club whenever I was at the airport, not limited to flying AA (after having paid for 38 years of membership I probably should have bought lifetime).
8. I thought I would miss "hard" tickets. I was wrong.
9. Talking to my seat mate (it was common to talk for an hour or two going trans-con - now I make trans-con flights without saying "hi" to the person next to me).
10 Taking 2 carryons (garment bag and LARGE briefcase) plus a personal item (computer case) and hanging my garment bag in the front closet. (Well, as I get older and less interested in carrying 70 pounds I may not miss it too much.)
11. Full meals served in coach. I agree it was almost never amazing food. But why has it become accepted that people want to sit in a seat, for 3-6 hours, without a meal.
12. Hot meals served in First Class. I won't eat a "wrap" even if I am hungry.

I am probably forgetting some others.

Great post. Gets at, I think, the core of the two competing loyalty ideologies in the industry today:

1. Loyalty programs should be designed on the premise that consumers on balance skew irrational and can be kept loyal through a combination of hub dominance ("the network is the product") + some discounts at starbucks;
   vs.
2. Loyalty programs should be designed on the premise that consumers on balance skew rational and should be designed to offer aspirational experiences which would otherwise be unattainable to incentivize loyalty.

Aadvantage has moved away from 2 and toward 1, although I suppose the Loyalty Points revamp can arguably be cast as a small step back toward 2. Skymiles is 1 epitomized. MileagePlus leans 1, but preserves a few aspects of 2. Industry trend generally seems to be (sadly) toward 1 at the expense of 2, but notably Aeroplan has bucked that trend and is pretty clearly banking on theory 2. Interesting times.

I miss having better food/snack options as an EXP flying in coach. That cheese and fruit plate was really helpful at times. Multiple transcon flights now have had only a pretzel or cookie.
And multiple system wide upgrades that came with EXP.

How long ago was this a thing?

I certainly remember channel 9 (and on certain older equipment channel 4) on UA but I never remember ATC on AA.

What years are the original list from?

I only started working a decade ago, so AA hasn't changed that much in my time.

The past few years are the only time I've been elite on the same airline more than two years in a row. But regarding item #4, while I have no idea how AA did it, in the late 1990's UA created an old mile/new mile dichotomy, where "old" miles could be redeemed on the old award chart for a period of a few years.

AA did the same. And maybe around the same time as UA?

Good question. I would say that some parts of the list go back 20+ year, maybe 25+ years on the oldest (they were in effect 35 years ago, but I don't remember when they stopped).

Specifically regarding AA, I think I was told that they stopped it around the time of one of their major crashes.

I mostly miss the award rules.

1. OW90C oneworld explorer award
2. Guaranteed space around 365 days out
3. Fun promotions at 20th/25th anniversary
4. Award stopovers even on canada-us tickets
5. Free car rental with first awards (only did once)
6. AAnytime price put a floor on the value of my miles
7. TATL business was not nearly as good but at least I could get it
8. I remember it was easy to cheaply change my flight the day before even without status

While live ATC was never as prevalent on AA as UA, there was a brief period (I want to say late 1970's) when we had both ATC and a camera in the cockpit that was turned on for TO and landings. It went away when a crew member croked on camera.

I have you all beat.
I miss being able to go into the cockpit as a kid. Not before or after the flight but DURING the flight. I miss showing an interest in aviation as a young kid and being able to sit in the cockpit jumpseat for the whole flight. I have one more that could be added to this list, but FARs...

edit: I know this is an aadvantage thing, but I always flew USair back in the day, so close enough...

I only got to fly jumpseat once, on a company plane flying from Massachusetts to Wisconsin. It was pretty cool though.

One of my regrets is about 20 years ago(?) when an AA captain offered me the jump seat for a transcon in the DC-10 (still had flight engineer). I passed, thinking that I wanted to enjoy my first class seat. Big mistake since you can't do it any more.

Wow the good ol days, I guess that's the natural order of things; old biz degrades, new ones (im not taking about new company, just new THING) take its place.

Just curious for a younger person what good thing do we have now that we will regret later (anything)?

8 SWUs issued when you reach EXP with decent availability to use them. I spent a few years late 00s/early 10s flying to Asia a lot. AA didn't have the coverage in Asia that UA/CO and DL/NW had (AA served NRT only for a while), but the easiest upgrade instruments made up for that.

Then there was the brief MRTC experiment, which is probably what roped me into AA in the first place. And Bistro flights.

I miss when EXP was based on BIS .. I could get there by April most years..
I miss the old AA logos on the planes..
I miss the FA's on AA that actually like their jobs.. and made traveling fun

I miss not being able to remember what else I am not remembering

I miss the days of the AC being relatively quite,

It must have been longer than 20 years because:
1.) 9/11/01 was more than 20 years ago, which really locked down a lot of security protocols and introduced new ones.
2.) Even before 9/11/01, cockpit visits in flight/flying jumpsuit for non airline pilots was still strictly prohibited on US airlines. Maybe someone can chime in as to when US Airlines *may* have been doing this but I can't imagine it happening back to the 80's. I was fortunate to get a cockpit visit on an AF 747-200 in 1999 upon request. We were up over Greenland enroute from CDG-EWR and it was an amazing view. European airlines were known for allowing this at Captain's discretion. I've heard stories of passengers being given the amazing opportunity to visit the Concorde in flight. Super cool experience for sure.

I vividly remember the camera/ATC being on during an aborted landing in Boston. You could actually see a plane on the runway in front of us before the captain pulled up. I then heard the tower asking why he pulled up and the captain told them that there was a plane on the runway. I'd guess this was 1987 or so.

I seriously miss upgrade priority based on time of upgrade request with connecting pax having priority over originating pax. As a network consultant who knew my schedule weeks/months in advance I'd fly 50 weeks a year, 4 flights a week, with a 99% upgrade rate

I'm sure it was against the rules, but it certainly happened. I was a frequent flier some years as a kid, but for me Im sure it was more because I was a kid interested in aviation. These would have been domestic flights in the very end of the 80s, early 90s. I dont remember ever being denied a midflight visit to the cockpit. Do the math in your head for what the airspeed was in mach and they might let you sit in the right hand seat in flight. Or so it read in a book... ;)

I had really nice cockpit visits on European Airlines - including some take offs and landings. I was seated in 2A once and the captain invited me to the cockpit for takeoff. We ended up chatting for almost 2 hours on a TATL flight so when the meal service started, I went to my seat. The guy in the next seat had all his stuff in 2A. Told him "Really sorry, but 2A is my seat". "Where did you come from?" - "Oh, I just got on"

or the other time where I was in the cockpit over greenland I was taking pictures. I jokingly said "could you bank the plane a little for a better picture" - and we flew an S turn in a 767...

The first time I was in the cockpit I was told about "sterile cockpit" - which essentially means "shut up if things look problematic". The captain explained that I am expected to be quiet if things look like trouble, but "when we start screaming, you can scream too. It won't be long then"

My average round-trip flight, including North American international in 2022 is 1/738 my gross income and I fly in F about 80% of the time (mostly free upgrades).

In 2012, my average round-trip flight covering the same region, was 1/683 my gross income and I flew in F about 4% of the time (paid upgrades).

In 2002, my average was 1/468 my gross income and I never flew in F.

In 1992, my average was 1/281 my gross income and I didn't even know F existed.

I'm pretty happy with the service I get from the airlines because it is cheaper today to fly in F than it was to fly in 1992.

I can't blame the airlines too much though. The market has changed.

Back in the day when they gave you special treatment, they relied upon such special treatment to keep corporate travel accounts, etc. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. The special treatment went away when the airlines went bankrupt. These days, the benefits went away because the market has changed. These days, there's almost no end in sight for travel demand, so there's little incentive to offer more than the meager benefits that they do today.

1000X this! Between business travelers loudly talking into their phones or vacationers partying it up or mom and dad corralling kids... the AC is not a quiet place. It's quieter than the terminals, but I count myself extremely luck when I enter an AC and find it nearly empty and blissfully quiet.

These are amazing stories. How I would have loved to do this just once!

Those were a crazy deal - my last was an OW80C BOS-LHR, LHR-BCN, BCN-PRG (ticketed as such but Malev went out of business in the meantime; ended up routed via MAD), CDG-BOS. All in business class for 80,000.. crazy!!

Redeeming award points for travel. 9 years ago I bought a first class mileage ticket for 40K to Paris France- middle of the summer.
oh, the good old days!

There were interesting lessons too. I always thought that "deicing" is a binary thing. You get deiced or you don't. I was in the cockpit of an A320 during winter once - and the captain pulled out a laptop with an Airbus spreadsheet - they entered stuff like how empty/full the wing tanks were, the expected flight duration at certain temperatures - and based on that they ordered a specific deicing mix - and he agreed to a 50 Euro (as far as I remember) to have someone wipe the cockpit windows with a broom rather than just spray them.

I also enjoy it when the AC is quite quiet.

I was lucky enough to get into the Concorde cockpit inflight (before 9/11) - and at certain times of the year had the relatively unique experience of seeing the sun rise from the west!

Wow! Anna Jefferson, Super AAngel! Thanks so much for mentioning her...that brought back a lot of great memories! My wife and I moved to LA from the East Coast in 1991, and I did quite a bit of flying on American from LAX during the 90s. I wasn't a super flyer by any stretch, but it didn't take Ms. Jefferson very long to begin addressing me by name when I walked into the Admirals Club. Super nice lady who really tried hard to accommodate whatever your request was.

I really miss those days of air travel...

I was hoping that someone else would recognize her name. It was a pretty long time ago, but she was special. Somehow it seems that you met more people back then.

I loved the Oneworld Explorer awards. In about 2004, I flew ABQ-LAX-AKL//SYD-HKG-FRA-DFW-ABQ in J, with stopovers everywhere except DFW and LAX, for something like 100K miles. Just a great deal. Ironically, when AA deleted them, they stated that the reason was because "they are very unpopular". Yeah right.

saunders111

Another thing I really liked about the old AA was the MD-80! Comfortable wide seats in first and especially coach. Seat 21F was my go-to seat: lots of legroom, full recline, often empty middle seat adjacent. The A-B seats were great when travelling with a partner. So much to like!

saunders111

I loved how the F seats on the MD-80 were so quiet, with the engines being in the back of the plane. At cruising speed you'd get some noise from wind resistance but right at takeoff and before landing it was eerily quiet.

Awesome. I had a single Concord flight in my life. I was star struck as is - but the view from the flight deck must have been amazing

Sounds like you were on a flight with Captain Clarence Oveur.

It was a non native English Airline - he actually said those things in a different language. He was also advised that there were still bags on the tarmac when the plane pushed back. He asked if any of them had employee tags - when the ground crew said no - He said "then we are good to go"

I miss the triple miles that were offered in the 80s after there was a strike. I was traveling to LAX from the eastern Great Lakes regularly and they added up quickly.

Ah Rodger that, Roger. What's your vector, Victor?