Things AA competitors do better that AA could implement
 

The United Airline App gives you real time boarding count information on the app. You can see boarding count change and the seat capacity in real time for the entire aircraft.

UA also shows the upgrade list and how many pax have checked in prior to flight in first. In contrast AA just shows you the upgrade list.

I would like to see when flights start boarding. This is mainly because of how they handle their rolling delays. If I am wanting to track my inbound aircraft, I would like to know when boarding begins. It doesn't necessarily mean that will take off within the normal time for that aircraft, but if it hasn't started boarding yet, then I can know for certain the earliest possible departure time.

I flew United last year DEN-DFW and was able to pair my Bluetooth headphones with the seat back entertainment system.

I'm in DFW and rarely fly other carriers so I don't know what I'm missing.

I like the IFE on United much better than AA, but AA lounge access and lounges in general are better than United. AA also has the best mileage redemption program out of the airlines in the U.S. FAs on Delta are also much friendlier than what I have experienced on AA. American customer service and staff are generally not friendly or customer focused comapred to other airlines I have flown.

Hot food at the new and renovated United Clubs puts the Admiral's Clubs to shame.

Flying to Seoul, Beijing, Frankfurt, Zurich, Houston, Denver, and Salt Lake City from at least one New York airport.

It’s kind of crazy because they made a big deal about improving the food a couple years ago when they increased the fees for the admirals club, and then subsequently I feel like the quality of the food has since declined.

You can pair your headphones on domestic AA flights. You just have to bring your own IFE.

Adding on to the OP: The UA app is really good in general. They've invested in it, and it shows. Self-service (both during regular ops and IRROPS) almost always works well through the app, which saves having to see / call an agent (win-win for the customer and UA). I'm not saying AA doesn't have any of this, but UA is the leader in this space and I'd like to see AA (and every airline) get up to that level.

What I'd definitely like to see AA improve is the long-haul J seats, particularly replacement of the dreadful Safran/formerly Zodiac Concept D seats. I have no issue that some seats are backwards, but the anchoring causing you to feel every movement of the person in the seat behind/in front of you is a just unacceptably poor product that has caused me to book away for years. Since you can't know which whether or not you will get a plane with Concept D, I just avoid booking the fleets that have them.

The new 789 seats certainly look nice, but some retrofitting of the poor seats on the existing fleet would be good. (There was talk of the 772s getting a retrofit, at least before the oil price spike)

Cold brew onboard, especially given that they rank last among major carriers for clean onboard water supply.

Delta equipping their domestic fleet with seatback entertainment. In the last ten years, I cannot recall a flight not being able to watch a movie from gate to gate.

Last summer, flying DFW-ORD on B787, the FAs didn’t pass out earphones.

the AA app provides this currently. As soon as the first BP is scanned, you should get a push notification that your flight is boarding.

The rolling delays is a separate, and extremely annoying problem; one of the vestiges of LAA. AA has stated that they are going to improve this (finally!), but I will believe it when I see it.

It's a feature, not a bug :D

Agree. The investment in self service is smart - when customers can handle their needs quickly, it makes them less upset and also ties up less staff.

AA definitely doesn't have any of this. Save for BA, they're dead last in terms of IT, IMO.

At the first sign of IROPS, the app breaks. Had an IROPS booking on the outbound? Good luck doing anything to the remaining flights without a lengthy phone call. I book one ways almost exclusively now as a result.

Stop this "Flight Credit" and "Trip Credit" nonsense and put canceled trip funds into a wallet like Alaska has, good for 5 years.

Isn’t this basically the same thing? You can use up to 8 credits to buy 1 ticket.

Alaska has a similar policy.

Unlike checked-bag fee increases, they didn't all rush to standardize this policy... Wonder what AA (and UA and WN) is waiting for?