Pre-bankruptcy AA was so good. Exec plats were treated super well and their fleet was massive— even if a plane had an issue they could almost always hot-swap it out for another one.

Despite the website feeling dated now it used to be one of the only airlines where the website accurately reflected the backend system (even phone agents couldn’t touch your booking if you had it open on the site) and their lounges were solid too.

These days I agree they’re towards the bottom of the stack sadly… everyone else caught up and they stayed still.

I mostly fly Delta now almost entirely for the on-time performance.