u/CellistMundane9372

On a recent coast-to-coast flight connecting in DFW, AA changed our arrival and departure gates at DFW twice each during the course of my inbound flight. I realize that last-minute operational issues arise, but in my experience, AA changes gates much more frequently, and closer to departure, than UA or DL.

If that's AA's approach, then why announce a gate -- at least at a hub -- more than a couple hours in advance? If passengers (especially those with paper boarding passes) don't check for updates, they may rely on stale info.

European carriers often don't announce gates until just over an hour before departure, so it's feasible.

EDIT: I should add the third and final change of my connecting gate in the four hours before departure was from C to A, announced on the app 71 minutes before departure.

I would be more willing to trust AA's distinct approach if its ops were vastly better than UA's and DL's.

I have made several hotel bookings through AA's hotel-booking platform, AAdvantageHotels.com, because I want the loyalty points. In the majority of cases, it has eventually succeeded in booking a hotel. But in a large minority of cases, it fails.

Case in point: I have twice tried to book a room at a particular hotel. First, AAdvantage Hotels makes it hard to know what room I am booking because it offers the same room under a variety of labels. A Garden View room is listed as a Garden View Room, a GARDEN VIEW ROOM, a ROOM - STANDARD, and SINGLE OR DOUBLE, GARDEN VIEW.

I realize the platform is probably pulling from multiple sources, but other platforms don't have this problem. And yet the platform lacks relevant information about the room, like size, that other platforms have.

But the much bigger problem is actually completing a booking. Often, I'll select a room, get a "Success!" notice, and then get a "sorry, not available" notice. Then, it will return to the search results, where the same room is now listed for a little more or a little less and with more or fewer miles earned. Eventually, on the second or fourth try, it will actually go to checkout.

But twice in one week, after hitting "Purchase" on a nonrefundable booking, I've gotten stuck on a spinning wheel with the text "Finalizing Your Details." After ten minutes of waiting, I give up, close out, and log back in to see if, in fact, I have a hotel booked. I don't.

AA doesn't operate the Platform. Rocket Travel by Agoda does. But AA puts its brand on it. If Agoda (whose own website almost always works for me) can't be bothered to run the website properly for American, why is AA still marketing this platform to customers?

(And, for those wondering, I have not had these problems on Delta's Stays website.)