Wondering what others would do. I booked a JFK to LAX in Delta One. With the shutdown I booked a comparably flight in flagship first with AA. I vary much had wanted to try Delta One lounge at JFK, I have experienced LAX previously and loved the whole experience. I’ve flown AA this way a number of times but all pre lounge changes. Loved the Fist Dining.

Originally I booked AA as an alternative in case of issues with my Delta flight. But now with the special security with Delta One gone I’m beginning to think maybe I want to try AA again and the Chelsea lounge. I wonder if the arrival and check in will be easier as I think T8 isn’t as much of a construction mess as T4

the added benefit is it’s costing me double the miles on Delta.

what would others do and why?

Not sure how much info you're going to get from a DL forum on JFK T8 AA and their lounge...

Go with whatever makes more sense for you. Sounds like the AA flight is significantly less miles so perhaps thats the best choice, especially if you don't need the MQDs on DL.

Amid everything going on right now in air travel, this is silly. I’d be happy to get where I’m going in any seat on any airline. If AA’s cheaper, why not go with that?

I have been flying a lot more aa recently because dl pricing has been so out of whack, I would say the d 1 lounge is marginally nicer than Chelsea but not enough to matter, I hate the 767 300, check in has been easy but I fly early or late, jfk just is an ever evolving mess but 8 tends not to be horrible

i would fly aa based on cheaper and my hate of the 767 300

Double the price for less than double the benefits.
Go with AA.

Plus OP has EXP status with AA but only PM with DL. It might thus be reasonable to expect marginally better IROPs handling from AA. OTOH, I would expect both airlines to prioritize a JFK-LAX nonstop.

I would choose one of the flights and cancel the other, because it's against the regulations to book two flights with the intention of using only one reservation.

I have zero concern about 'regulations' ahd having a backup flight on another carrier especially in light of the current FAA situation with a lot of delays and cancelations.

Also - what 'regulation' is this exactly that says you haven't have flights booked on more than one carrier and cancel one of them?

The CEO of Frontier told people to book two tickets on two different airlines if you want to get where you are going this week.

However, when people do this, it further cuts availability for people who need to travel and can lead to planes leaving with empty seats that could have been sold but for the double bookings.

To the original question, to me the overriding decision point is that AA TCON F is going away soon, so fly it now while you can. Sure the hard product is past its prime, and the in flight menu is indistinguishable from J, but the D1 lounge will still be there long after AA TCON F has disappeared. (The Chelsea lounge will presumably still be there as well, just harder or more expensive to get into.)

This makes no sense. DL isn't cutting JFK-LAX. Hell, AA isn't cutting flights on this route. Why are we acting like the sky is falling? It's 10% of flights, almost all of which are regional flights and off peak hours. Main trunk routes are fine...