If you dislike waiting in airport lobbies or near remote gates, it would behoove you to do a little detective work when confronted with delay (or potential delay) situations. While AA's lack of transparency can be frustrating, we're not completely helpless. For example, tracking the inbound flight is easy (i.e. if you're at an outstation and your airplane is 5 hours away, don't go to the airport). And, you can also try calling the airport with the goal of speaking with someone who might be better informed than whatever AA reports on its website/app.

I usually go to gates very early and wait. It is not rare that I've been the first person at a gate. In a delay situation I like to cut the original time finer than I would have done, but to be at the gate to leave on time should it happen. It never has for me. Once a plane I'm getting on is delayed, they always seem to slip to become even more delayed.

Yeah, it's all about the inbound aircraft in my experience. I'm not sure I'd trust or bother to rely on lounge agents, etc. when I can just watch my favorite flight app and see right when the plane arrives. Sure, there's a last-minute equipment swap but those are pretty much non-existent on my airline (Alaska) unless there's a major delay/breakdown.

We've discussed last minute equipment swaps (and flights becoming undelayed or less delayed as a result) here in the past, but that's such a rare occurrence, at least IME, these days that i don't even think about it anymore (i.e. they are not going to pull an identical 737 off of their ATL flight just so I can get to DCA faster, even if the DCA flight is more heavily subscribed).

I had this very thing (plane pulled from one route and put on another) happen to me on UA within the last couple of months.

Was it a sudden change or did you get an ample heads up about it?

this definitely assumes that we Pax would be notified about the plane swap.
I too learned the dangers of not proactively watching the delay monitors at the gate. Once in 2014 we barely got on the flight and our 3 seats on UA were there without overhead space grrr
in 2019 I was sitting in the wrong AA gate and only due to hearing the GA remind us about the OTHER flight was I able to get on the correct flight in the adjacent gate. I had to phone my wife and tell her to rush to the gate and to just leave the Peet’s Frappuccino as it wasn’t yet ready. Phew.

This is the scenario that causes me the most headache about whether to stay around the gate, or go back to the lounge. Plane is sitting at the gate, but some boarding delay (due to maintenance, waiting for crew, etc.) of unknown length, or a predicted length that gets postponed repeatedly.

AS & UA (and maybe others that I haven’t noticed) at least have boarding notifications through app and/or email.

So you would trust flightaware and sit back or just wait at the gate?

At an outstation, yes.

At a hub, usually yes, but there might be other factors to consider (e.g. important v unimportant flight, last flight of day, comfort level of the gate area, is the a/c type easy to sub?).

Boarding usually lasts more than 15 minutes (maybe some regional flights have narrower boarding timeframe). I guess I have never gotten the urge to board early, even when I can. I don't usually show up at the gate area until late in the boarding process, as some airports can get physically jammed during boarding process...no thanks.

I don't usually arrive at the airport until around boarding time anyway, and by association, I am not a lounge goer. I usually just chill at somewhere quite if there is a delay, or just show up at the airport even later if I can be reasonable assured inbound aircraft is late.

Utilize airline apps, flight status websites - they can give you a lot of info, and help you make informed decisions.

+1. I also want to add that the only place that is always even less pleasant to wait than a crowded gate area is a crowded jetway, though airplane cabins themselves occasionally steal this trophy.

That having been said, since I don't like planes to leave without me, I usually make an effort to be in the general vacinity of the gate (i.e. close enough to hear the announcements or have a clear line of sight) in cases when the gate agents hold all of the cards. This might entail ordering some food that I don't really care for or a vastly overpriced beer in exchange for a comfortable place to sit.

Last time I had a really serious delay (4-ish hours), I left the airport and went home for a few hours instead of hanging around in a boring lounge. Was very certain they wouldn't move the departure time forward, as we were waiting for the aircraft to arrive from Tokyo first.

For "normal" delays of +30 minutes, it depends on whether I've checked a bag or not. If bag has been checked, I'll arrive at the gate at the revised boarding time and will not constantly check departure boards. If no bag checked, will monitor departure boards continually.

It will also depend on which airport I'm in; if it's a large airport and there's loads of walking to negotiate (e.g. FRA), I'll be conservative. If it's at a small airport, not so much as the waiting areas are right next to the gates (e.g. any Greek island).

It's only happened once that a gate agent (in Germany) tried to chew me out because I was, in her opinion, late. I pointed to the departure board which still indicated a departure time some 30 minutes into the future, and suggested that me being on time depended on her updating the departure board - you uphold your end of the bargain, and I'll uphold mine. You fail to uphold your end, that's on you and not me.

That depends on your perspective. I don't remember the precise times, but we had around a 3 hour delay, and then they pulled an aircraft from another flight that was scheduled to leave around the same time we were. Once they did the aircraft swap, our delay was down to around 30 minutes. The swap happened around when boarding was scheduled to start for our original departure time. The flight they swapped the aircraft with did show the same delay we originally had. So was it ample heads up? If you were at the airport paying attention, yes. If you chose to stay at home a while because of the original multi-hour delay? Not so much.

My routine is to go to the gate so i know where it is, and then estimate what I can do if there is spare time - a walk back to the shops? These days there is t'Internet with lots on there to keep you amused.... and you can even do some 'work' on it. You can read a book, or do some paperwork if a flight is delayed. Or have a snooze. Planes drive at around 900 kilometres per hour - no-one is really in a hurry.