The airlines have become adept at stonewalling customers hoping they will go away. You sound like just the kind of guy to teach them this strategy does not always yield the result they want.
It is almost invariably the case that international travel is better with non-US based carriers. The huge US market is grossly uncompetitive, as it has evolved into a series of regional monopolies who dominate fortress hubs. This marginalises the normal competitive effect and as a result US based airlines no longer see customer satisfaction as a critical factor in their success. Lobbying, Chapter 11 protection, mergers and buyouts of competitors yields much greater returns. Until this is addressed, there is little point in flying with US based carriers. 20 years ago, the US carriers featured in the top echelon of carriers for customer services and amenities. Today they have NO representation in the top flight of carriers (see Skytrax for details) and virtually none even in the second tier.
Keep us posted... AA deserve to lose, and I hope you will keep us posted so we can all celebrate when they do.
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