Before reading TFA, I'd like to bet $50 that if the article includes the rankings, Delta will be at the very top and American Airlines will be at the very bottom
Yes, it's night and day. From purchase to lounge to flight and even airport terminal, it's a completely different experience. American Airlines is not only bad overall but it's so f dirty everywhere.
And also every time there's a report, they rank this way
I always take my suitcase and my backpack to the airplane and then I check my suitcase at the gate. Three reasons. First, there are no baggage fees at the gate. Second, I can roll backpack on my suitcase. Third, I get to board early for "helping out". Why wouldn't you do this?
I do only check it if someone else in my party is already checking bags but that turns out to be most of the time for me.
Note: I'm actually replying to a reply that's too deep.
Normally gate checking is the better option, but you can't do it when flying with stuff that can't go into a carryon: bottles of wine, firearms, and so on.
The advantage of American, anecdotally, is most of their planes in the routes I've been flying have the sideway bag bins that don't fill up, so I don't have to play the standing-in-line and boarding group game.
Gotcha, good to keep in mind. I can't /stand/ dirty fart tubes (though, recently I used Delta and it was fine), but otherwise haven't flown much in the past 5 years.
If you want to go the extra mile (no pun intended), when flying out of an airport that is a major airline hub, avoid that airline at all costs i.e. don't fly United out of EWR, American out of MIA, etc. They tend to be ridiculously busy and crowded.
