I'd love more detail.

The days when airlines routinely had blocks of free rooms at the nearest 4-star are over anyway. Your being proactive and having a standard plan for your most likely airport to be stranded at is commendable. But I have to ask: You were stranded by mechanical, not weather, and you could not get reimbursed by AA after the fact? The few times I've tried to collect on Citi they demanded a copy of a rejection from AA before proceeding.

Beyond that, as noted above by someone else: Direct is direct and connect bust risk is connect bust risk. Even if spreading your flights around dilutes what you can earn on loyalty points.

Mix of weather and mechanical. Biggest issue is rolling delays - makes it hard to advocate for an alternate routing/flight until it is too late. I had an issue with a trip in vain (Best Way to Get Refund for Trip in Vain - FlyerTalk Forums). I eventually gave up in that situation after spending many hours (5+) arguing with AA for a $350 ticket. I probably could have gotten reimbursed from AA after the fact (for mechanical delays) if I kept pushing and pushing and pushing but usually the amount I am asking for is not worth the time or hassle. The Hyatt Place Charlotte Airport is a category 1 hyatt property and usually rates are fairly reasonable. I don't believe Chase has asked me for a rejection letter from AA but I could be mistaken. Chase is at least easier to work with in terms of the process. I usually send every piece of paperwork I have relating to the situation.

The grass is about the same color anywhere, although it might be a slightly different species of grass. It's best to figure out what works best for your needs from your locations (keeping in mind that 'free agent' is one of those options)

Agreed. AA makes that situation much more difficult than they need to imho,

Still? This is a major problem when I was regularly flying AA 10-15 years ago. Abysmal that they haven't sorted it yet.

Also extremely annoying is when the rolling delays are so incremental (and they are adamant they are going to leave soon) you feel like you can’t even go back to the lounge… and end up spending a significant amount of time at the gate just waiting.

Exactly. There is no loyalty program that makes flying PIT-CLT-EWR over PIT-EWR make sense IMO.

Something that should be food for thought for you is that there is some version of the thread you just created in just about every airline forum on FT, particularly the US based majors. Just as you've created this thread there will be someone in the DL forum creating a thread wondering if they should move to AA (or UA).

At the end of the day I think you just have to size up what the least bad solution is for your most common use cases. And I also think you can't let one or two bad experiences color your decision making process, because again, if you frequent the UA and DL forums on FT, over time you begin to see plenty of threads where folks had horrible experiences as well (e.g. getting stranded, not good experience during IRROPs, etc.)

If you don't regularly follow the UA and DL forums on FT I'd encourage you do so for awhile before making any decisions. If you do that, at some point, you'll realize you sometimes forget which forum you are reading because at the end of the day, its mostly people complaining and threatening to switch to another program.

Good luck whatever you choose.

Regards

Priority number one for me is number of non-stop flights, with a distant second being anything related to FF program and partner airlines. I just don't think there's enough differentiation between the major US carriers to warrant adding a connection and the associated misconnect risk to every flight. If a flight gets delayed or canceled, either (a) I'll get there or (b) I'll end up back in the comfort of my own home. Quite happy with either outcome.

So while I generally haven't had issues with AA, if I was at a different carrier's hub location they'd probably be getting the majority of my business. It's what I prioritize.

I will say though, that I'll probably end up on more international Star Alliance flights for at least this coming year. LH and UA give me some better schedule options to Europe. I kinda feel like they have better codeshare options than OneWorld (maybe I'm wrong?), I like the "saver" award rate tickets among partners, and that you can apply miles from your primary airline to upgrade a ticket on a partner.

No, you aren’t wrong- the issue with AA and oneworld to Europe is that much of the time, the only convenient option is to connect through LHR.

DL does this too, as I posted before on this thread (rolling 5 and 12 hour delays at DTW on two separate occasions).

These grass-is-greener threads exist on every airline's forum, there's always someone thinking about switching for some reason.

Not a fan to LHR (or BA for that matter), but do like the lounges in Terminal 3!