9 Things American Airlines Does Well, From AAdvantage, To Oneworld

In the spirit of positive reinforcement, in this post I’d like to share the things that I think American Airlines does well. In separate posts, I’m taking a look at the things that Delta Air Lines and United Airlines do well, as well as my least favorite things about the “big three” US carriers.

American is the US airline that I fly most, given that I live in Miami. I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes give American a hard time, though that doesn’t mean I think the airline is terrible. While there are a lot of areas where American can improve, there are also areas where the airline does well.

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As you’ll see, most of the positives center around the loyalty program, the value of miles, lounge access policies, etc., so I hope American takes note of that (in terms of not worsening the things that we really like, while trying to improve elsewhere). In no particular order, below is what I like about American…

AAdvantage Loyalty Points system

Nowadays American AAdvantage elite status is based on the Loyalty Points concept. As I’ve explained, this program is absolutely brilliant, even if it doesn’t work great for me. You can earn elite status entirely through credit card spending, if you’d like, and can also qualify for Loyalty Point Rewards that way.

While I think there’s less value to having elite status than in the past (given how tough upgrades are to come by), I’d argue that among the “big three” US carriers, AAdvantage status is the combination of easiest to earn and most valuable.

Valuable mileage currency with great uses

Among the “big three” US airlines, American AAdvantage is the only program that offers some industry-leading partner award redemption values. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that all AAdvantage awards are an amazing value, but American has some real sweet spots.

For example, I value American AAdvantage miles at 1.5 cents each, while I value Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus miles at 1.1 cents each. So it’s nice to earn a more rewarding points currency for your travels. What makes AAdvantage miles more valuable?

For one, American actually releases a fair amount of good value award space on its own flights, including in premium cabins. This is true on everything ranging from short haul domestic to long haul international flights. This is honestly one of the things that keeps me most engaged in the AAdvantage ecosystem.

Furthermore, AAdvantage has excellent award redemption values for travel on partner airlines, like Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways. Admittedly these airlines don’t make all of their award space available to AAdvantage members, but if you can find availability, you’re in for quite a treat. Meanwhile to compare that to other programs:

• Delta SkyMiles really offers little value for partner redemptions when originating in the United States, not to mention partner award availability is limited
• While United MileagePlus has some okay partner award redemption values, you’ll almost always get a better deal through Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca Lifemiles

Premium international lounge access

American Airlines offers solid Flagship Lounges in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia, along with the Greenwich Lounge New York (the same concept, but a joint venture with British Airways). These are the best easily accessible international airline lounges offered by any US airline.

In line with oneworld lounge access policies, these lounges can be accessed by oneworld Sapphire and Emerald members traveling internationally, as well as all oneworld first and business class passengers. As a point of comparison:

• Delta One Lounges are truly industry leading, but have much stricter access requirements, and the only elite travelers who get access to these are invitation only Delta 360 members
• United Polaris Lounges are superior to Flagship Lounges, but are only accessible by international business class passengers, and no elite status will get you into those lounges

So there’s something to be said for American having solid lounges that are also easily accessible.

oneworld Emerald status perks

It’s not that American deserves full credit for this, since it’s more about the alliance than American. However, oneworld Emerald status is my favorite alliance status that exists, and I love the lounges it gets me access to. From the Cathay Pacific First Lounge Hong Kong, to the Japan Airlines First Lounge Tokyo, to the Qantas First Lounge Los Angeles, I pinch myself every time I get to use one of these lounges when not flying first class.

Other alliances don’t have an elite tier that can compete. While Star Alliance Gold status is useful as well, it’s not nearly as valuable.

Flagship First Dining facilities

American offers amazing Flagship First Dining facilities in Dallas and Miami, along with the Chelsea Lounge New York (which is the same concept, but a joint venture with British Airways). These are private, gorgeous spaces with a la carte dining. The food and service are generally quite good, but more than anything, I just appreciate how tranquil these facilities are. These are among the best lounge spaces you’ll find in the United States.

Flagship First Dining is open to “premium” first class customers, traveling either on Boeing 777-300ERs or Airbus A321Ts. Now, it’s anyone’s guess what the future holds for these facilities, given that American is expected to eliminate international first class within the next year or so.

The Chelsea Lounge is presumably here to stay, since it’s also used by British Airways. Meanwhile American is building a new Flagship Lounge in Miami, and it’s unlikely to have Flagship First Dining. So we’ll see what the future holds for this, but as of now, it’s still available.

Solid international business class seats

While not particularly flashy, I’d say that on balance, American offers the highest base standard of international business class seats among the “big three” US airlines. American’s wide body fleet consists exclusively of Boeing 777s and Boeing 787s, and all of those planes have fully flat beds with direct aisle access. American even has its brand new long haul business class, which is excellent, though is currently only available on a very limited number of routes.

To compare this to Delta and United:

• Delta’s most common wide body aircraft is the Boeing 767, and those have a not-great business class product (especially the 767-300ERs), with extremely narrow seats and many with outdated interiors
• United deserves points for consistency, as it has completed its Polaris business class retrofit project, so you’ll find Polaris seats on all 787s and 767s, and on most 777s; however, the airline also flies 757s on long haul flights, and some 777s don’t have Polaris seats (though they’re used primarily for domestic flights)

So while most of American’s business class seats might not be too flashy, I do think the airline has the highest “base” standard for business class seats offered on long haul international flights.

Reliable, high speed Wi-Fi

American has a great overall Wi-Fi offering in terms of quality, but not in terms of price. The airline has Viasat Wi-Fi on a vast majority of its narrow body aircraft, which is among the best you’ll find in the industry. Meanwhile the airline has upgraded Panasonic Wi-Fi on many international flights, and I’ve found speeds to be quite good there as well. Starting in January 2026, American even plans to offer free Wi-Fi on narrow body planes, which is exciting.

Now, American’s Wi-Fi situation isn’t quite the competitive advantage it used to be. At this point, Delta offers free Wi-Fi for all SkyMiles members on most routes. So why isn’t that objectively better? Well, Delta is still in a transitionary phase with Wi-Fi, and there are some major gaps in connectivity on long haul flights, due to what regions offer Viasat Wi-Fi connectivity.

When it comes to United, the airline is all over the place. While United is starting to roll out Starlink Wi-Fi, it’s going to be a couple of years before that’s consistently available, so you can’t give the airline too much credit for that just yet.

So if you value being able to stay productive and appreciate solid Wi-Fi speeds (even at a cost), I think American remains the best with inflight Wi-Fi.

Useful partnership with Alaska Airlines

American and Alaska both belong to oneworld, but beyond that, the two airlines have a partnership that offers all kinds of reciprocal perks, ranging from upgrades to priority services.

The reason I think this is worth calling out is because American is the only major US airline that has close to metal neutrality with another US airline in terms of the passenger experience. Admittedly this may largely reflect American’s weakness on the West Coast, but it’s nice to be able to fly another US airline and be treated similarly to how you’re treated on American (well… hopefully better, actually).

United is launching the “Blue Sky” partnership with JetBlue, which is a similar concept. However, I wouldn’t expect the integration to be quite as close, and for that matter, JetBlue doesn’t yet have a true premium cabin on most planes.

Citi AAdvantage Executive Card

The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Legend Mastercard® (review) is my favorite airline co-brand credit card. Unfortunately this card isn’t as generous as it used to be, but there’s still a lot of value to having it. The card has a $695 annual fee, and offers all kinds of great perks.

For one, the card comes with an Admirals Club membership for the primary cardmember. On top of that, you can add up to three authorized users to the card for a total of $175, and they each receive Admirals Club access as well. In other words, you can get authorized users Admirals Club access for an average of under $60 each. If you fly American frequently, I find that this is quite easy to justify.

Bottom line

American Airlines is no doubt the weakest of the “big three” US carriers, so it takes a bit of effort to come up with the things the airline does a really good job with.

If you ask me, American’s strengths involve its loyalty program (both in terms of earning status and the value of miles), plus its more generous policies when it comes to lounge access. American is trying to improve right now and become more premium, and as it does that, I hope the airline doesn’t do that at the expense of what people love.

I’m curious to hear what OMAAT readers think — what do you think American Airlines does well?