On AA domestic award tickets you can have a stopover of any length in any connecting city, in addition to your roundtrip ticket, at no charge. The stopover has to be arranged over the phone, but even that service charge can be avoided by originally holding your roundtrip itinerary online and then immediately calling in to make the necessary changes to include the stopover. Then it stays an online generated reservation that can be changed during the hold period over the phone but is completed online for just the online booking fee. And of course u can change dates and times on any segment after it is ticketed without any charge.
United, on the other hand, does not allow free stopovers on domestic award tickets, giving AA a competitive advantage that in my case makes it my first choice airline.

Sadly AA doesn't fly to 90% of Asia.

Welcom to Flyer Talk walkdmx!

What an interesting early post. Basis your information, I agree that AA has an advantage in this area and I am disappointed that UA apparently does not "match" as I usually travel with them and hence my award tics are most frequently UA. I still have about 40M air mile credits on AA and will use your info when I book an AA award
Happy travels
747LWW

Interesting point.

Hadn't given it any thought before, but will keep it in mind for my family holidays next spring.

Delta also allows stopovers. Just booked a trip From SFO to MIA with 4 day stopover in MEM. Plus booking can be made online.

Welcome to FT! ^

I guess it depends on who you ask... For me, that is no advantage at all. I never redeem awards for domestic flights, so I really don't care either way.

AA offers open-jaw with stop-over unlike UA which offers one not both.

BTW, I'm referring to Hawaii and other overseas awards...

AA certainly doesn't fly to a lot of places overseas; it is, IMHO, a possible upside for AA. The airline has a strong domestic network, which could easily feed an expansion overseas.

Oneworld works.

While AA does not serve a lot of Asian destinations, CX and JL do.

CX tends to treat AA elites better than AA does ^ , so long as you are willing to connect on CX/JL to go to most places with full benefits.

With UA you only earn a status bonus on UA and US flights; not star alliance wide.

With AA the status bonus is also alliance wide.

Yes, there are some hiccups, like the BA/AA transatlantic restrictions stemming from antitrust concerns, but in general, Oneworld works!

(AA has by far the most usable award restrictions in my experience; and these rules apply to partner awards too).

What you might not realize is that, with DL at least, this stopover provision is also allowed on international itineraries. You may stop either in the US or internationally en route to your final destination (stop only in one direction or have an open jaw, but not both). It can be a great benefit, as can redeeming awards for domestic travel. Think last-minute emergency travel, travel from remote airports (often much more expensive because of little or no competition), and travel to places like Alaska from much of the lower 48. As you said, it depends on who you ask.

I flew to Salvador Brazil on United with a stop over in Rio at no charge on a award ticket? not sure what your talking about?

What he's talking about is that you can have a stopover and open-jaw on AA.

Last year I flew BOS-LAX (stopover)-NRT/KIX-DFW-BOS. That itinerary had both a 2-day stopover in LAX and an open-jaw (into NRT, out of KIX).

I don't think that any other domestic carrier allows that.

There are two AA advantages:

On A DOMESTIC 25K award: You can stop-over anywhere (does not have to be a logical connection city) and open jaw if you want.

For example, I have used: SNA-ORD-YYZ destination, YYZ-DFW-DEN stopover, DEN-DFW-SNA.
Or an example with both stopover and open-jaw:
ORD-SNA stopover SNA-SFO-YVR destination YVR-DFW-ORD-CID return open jaw

On an INTERNATIONAL itinerary, AA also allows both a stopover and open-jaw, whereas certain other ailrines offer one or the other and restrict the routing more than AA does.

This is an advantage. It is certainly not a killer advantage. I have nice balances with both programs, and I won't neglect my Mileage Plus balance in recognition of the ability to do a stopover on a domestic award with American.

And this certainly shouldn't influence which carrier you fly and earn status with...!