As American Airlines Turns 100, Here Are 8 Ways It Can Compete Again

American Airlines turns 100 this week, and there’s lots of fanfare around the airline’s storied history.

Despite all the excitement, the carrier has been in the news lately, often for the wrong reasons. To survive the next 100 years, here are some major areas where AA needs to improve its game.

1. Bring Back Inflight Screens

The debate over seatback screens is one that frequent travelers know well. Some people prefer using their own devices — a stance American Airlines has leaned into — while others value the ease and more premium experience these built-in screens provide.

In fact, American is the only one of the big 3 domestic carriers that does not offer screens on domestically configured aircraft.

By stark contrast, both United and Delta have made it a point to install these screens and keep them installed on planes even into the future.

While costly to install and carry, both United and Delta have touted that these screens offer a premium product worth paying for and have explored offering tailored, personalized service. If American is going to truly be a premium carrier, it’ll have no choice but to add screens back to most of its planes.

2. Faster Wi-Fi

United Airlines recently announced a partnership with Starlink, with plans to roll out Starlink Wi-Fi across its fleet over the next few years. I had the chance to experience it firsthand on a media flight in Los Angeles, and it’s truly unlike anything else currently offered in the sky. It feels like you’re using Wi-Fi in your own living room: fast, seamless, and reliable.

In contrast, American has (very) slow Panasonic Wi-Fi on wide-body aircraft and Viasat on narrowbody aircraft. Starlink is faster and provides a much more stable connection. On the other hand, Delta has decided to install Amazon-related Wi-Fi onboard, a relatively new product to improve connection speeds.

3. Updated Same-Day Change Policies

Some of American’s policies feel outdated and not in line with competitors. Namely, American will only allow a same-day flight change with the exact same origin and destination airports.

For example, let’s say you’re traveling from Seattle (SEA) to New York (JFK), via Dallas (DFW), and you want to move to an earlier flight that routes through Chicago (ORD) instead. Under American’s current policy, a same-day change wouldn’t be permitted if it alters the connection point — even if the new itinerary departs the same day and has plenty of open seats.

The same goes if you’re flying to another airport in the same metro area, such as Washington-Dulles (IAD) to Washington-Reagan (DCA). You wouldn’t be able to change your destination, even though these 2 airports serve the same city.

By contrast, United allows same-day changes within 24 hours of the original departure and even permits changes to the routing, both of which American explicitly does not allow.

4. Improved Lounges

American has started to refresh a few of its lounges, but most of American’s Admirals Clubs offer a subpar experience at best, from the design to the food.

As it stands, American’s lounge food is among the weakest of any major U.S. airline and doesn’t come close to the more substantial, full-meal offerings Delta provides in its lounges.

5. Better Planes on More Routes

Among the “Big 3” U.S. airlines, American often lags in deploying larger, more comfortable aircraft on key routes. It’s not uncommon to see United and Delta operate widebody jets or planes with lie-flat seats on routes like Seattle (SEA), Honolulu (HNL), San Diego (SAN), and other transcontinental markets — offering a more comfortable experience and greater capacity.

Unfortunately, AA sticks to domestically configured aircraft, even on routes where travelers are willing to pay for lie-flat seats, such as Los Angeles to Honolulu. Even on major hub-to-hub routes, the product can feel underwhelming.

It’s no secret that travelers are willing to pay for a better experience, yet American has been slow to expand its premium aircraft offering across more routes.

6. New and Innovative Routes

American has a substantial domestic network, but it falls short significantly in its breadth of international flights.

Once dominant at both New York and Los Angeles, the airline has largely scaled back. In Los Angeles, its domestic network is relatively limited, and internationally, it falls well short of United and Delta, which offer far more extensive service.

If you want to fly to London, Barcelona, or Paris, you’ll find lots of options, but you won’t find many routes to smaller European cities, such as Porto or Reykjavík. United is perhaps the best U.S. airline to Europe, offering tons of new flights to both large and small destinations, while American continues to focus on transiting passengers through London to shuffle onto partner British Airways.

American also doesn’t serve anywhere in Africa, a far cry from the several routes that United and Delta fly. In the South Pacific, you’ll only really find service to Brisbane, Sydney, and Auckland, with no service to other cities or countries, something both Delta and United do well.

7. Enhance Upgrade Availability

Upgrades are hard to come by with American Airlines, whether complimentary or systemwide upgrades.

Frequent American flyers put a lot of effort into earning Loyalty Points and often choose systemwide upgrades as their annual perk, only to face limited opportunities to actually use them (or end up waitlisted after applying them).

While it’s reasonable that upgrades won’t be available on every flight, the lack of availability on key routes is telling.

For example, at the time of writing, there aren’t any upgrade seats available to Australia. Even routes that once had consistent upgrade space, like New York to London, now offer very little unless you’re booking last-minute. If American wants to retain its most loyal customers, it needs to deliver a more reliable and rewarding upgrade experience.

8. Keep Up Partnerships

If there’s one thing American has done well, it’s the focus on partnerships. As a founding member of the oneworld alliance, the airline delivers with its robust elite tier program, with access to first class lounges on eligible itineraries. 

American also partners with Alaska Airlines, a second oneworld carrier in the U.S., offering reciprocal elite benefits and complimentary upgrades. They complement each other well: American isn’t strong in the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska makes up for this shortfall.

That said, American has also struggled outside of oneworld. Its alliance with JetBlue ultimately collapsed following court rulings, and the airline lacks a strong Canadian partner — unlike United with Air Canada and Delta with WestJet.

American also once had a compelling partnership with Hyatt, featuring reciprocal earning, but that relationship has since shifted toward limited status-sharing and niche perks that offer far less value to travelers loyal to both brands.

Final Thoughts

If American is going to thrive into its next century, it has a long list of changes to make to get back on track. Most importantly, the airline needs to focus on delivering a genuinely premium product — not just marketing one. It should also strengthen its partnerships and recognize that sweeping changes may be necessary to drive meaningful progress.