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Welcome

Friends,

It is easy to be hard on airlines, and they often deserve it. In this post I want to share why I love flying American Airlines, which is not (always) a popular opinion.

To be sure, air travel is like life—complicated and often better with champagne. When it comes to American, I believe there is far more good than bad.

But attitude is everything, to be sure—that and consciously avoiding their Charlotte hub.

836 words today.

Let’s get going.

Links

United is increasing the cost of lounge access and their co-branded credit cards. While these changes are negative overall, there is still great value to be had if you frequently fly United.

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Story

I hit one million miles on American Airlines in the summer of 2022 while crossing the Atlantic on an otherwise ordinary flight from London to Dallas. While it was a little different than the scene in Up in the Air when George Clooney’s character hit ten million miles, the crew made the journey (and celebration) really memorable.

I will never forget that flight.

Today, I feel like I know American’s brand and product like the back of my hand—maybe even better than United’s (and I worked as a flight attendant for United).

You take the good with the bad, but I find many reasons to love American. Here are my top four, in no particular order:

1. Lounges—American’s Admirals Clubs are plentiful and supremely easy to access with a membership, OneWorld status or the Citi Executive card (the latter two being the best deal). American’s Flagship Lounges are on balance not as nice as United’s Polaris Lounges or the new Delta One Lounges, but they offer much broader access for a still high quality offering. Flagship First Dining was in a league of its own (in the USA, at least); while that is no longer the case it remains very solid.

2. Business class—coupled with the lounges, which are de-facto a business class product, American has a remarkably good but (with respect) very poorly marketed business class product. Their food is consistently better than what you eat on United (I would know), and their seats are consistently consistent—which is more than you can say for Delta and the massively dated 767 fleet (bless their hearts) that denominates their Atlantic operation.

3. OneWorld partners—this strength may also be a weakness, but American to their own admission relies heavily on partners. So, for instance, they carry unbelievable volume across the Atlantic into major markets (ahem London-Heathrow) in conjunction with joint-venture partners, but you’d be in a strange dream if you saw one of their aircraft in Lagos. Bottom line: their partners are generally good for mileage redemptions, and they have worked out super solid frequent flier recognition across carriers.

4. AAdvantage—this should probably be first on the list, as it is truly American’s best. For all the places the carrier lags peers, from aircraft interiors to service standards to reliability, their frequent flier program is shockingly redemptive. This probably deserves its own series of post—but plainly I am floored by how much you can get out of AAdvantage in 2025. Bottom tier elites get upgrades, last minute flights are reasonably priced on miles, and aspirational premium cabin redemptions can still be found.

I believe that if American could reinvent their brand’s experience (which is, admittedly, a very tall order) they could build the most profitable airline in the USA. But that is another topic.

American delivers outsized value to their frequent fliers, both AAdvantage and OneWorld members alike. And it is often easy to miss that—because while their brand does a lot to reward loyalty, it does very little systematically to engender (recognize) loyalty. That loss of emotional connection is what makes my favorable opinion towards American generally unpopular (in some circles, at least).

I have done a lot of it—and I still love flying American Airlines.

Big Picture: American maybe just another major US airline with a lot of room to improve, but they are underrated, too. From the AAdvantage mileage program to their business class product, I think American Airlines is due more credit than they are given.

Happy flying.

Would you like a post on four ways I think American could improve? Reply to let me know!

Remember, this life you are living has meaning. Thank you for reading. I am grateful you are here and would love to hear from you. If you'd like to write me a note, simply reply to this email. Otherwise I'll see you in the next one.

Be well today. -Tommy

P.S. If I can ever help you plan your next travel adventure (slash help make your points go farther), I’d be delighted. You can schedule time together here.