New Here? Start With This.
A quick orientation to AAmericanBrad — who’s writing it, why American Airlines is the center of gravity, and where to find what you actually came for.
AAmericanBrad is a working travel publication, not a hobby blog that happens to mention flights. It’s written from the seat, the gate, the lounge, and the rental counter by someone who’s actually there on a normal Tuesday, not chasing a story. The site exists because after enough trips, you notice patterns other travelers would find useful — which connections are worth the risk, which upgrades actually change the trip, and which premium products are marketing versus substance.
If you’re new, this page is a shortcut. Eight stops, no wall of text, and you’ll know exactly what this site is for and where to go next.
Who Brad Is
Brad is a business owner and executive in his early 50s who travels frequently for work — not for leisure, and not as a professional travel writer. Everything here comes from firsthand trips, not secondhand research.
Why He Travels This Way
The travel is a byproduct of running businesses, not the point of them. That changes the lens: reliability, time, and predictability matter more than novelty, and a trip only “counts” as good if it actually protected the workday.
Why American Airlines Is the Center of This
Brad concentrates the large majority of his flying with one carrier on purpose, and that concentration is what makes the observations here worth reading — depth beats a scattershot sample of every airline. There’s a longer case for that choice in the site’s Perspective coverage, if you want the full argument.
What Two-Step Travel Means
Two-Step Travel is the site’s signature comparison: starting at a convenient regional airport and connecting through an American hub, versus driving farther to a bigger airport for a nonstop. Neither answer wins by default — it depends on the day. See the Two-Step Travel page for how the comparison actually works.
How Brad Evaluates Premium Travel
The recurring question across cabins, lounges, hotels, cards, and status is simple: was it actually worth it? Not whether something is marketed as premium, but whether it measurably improved the trip. That standard gets applied the same way whether the topic is a seat upgrade or a hotel room upgrade.
Where to Find Things
The site is organized by what you’re actually trying to decide. Start with Flights and Lounges for the in-air and Admirals Club side, Airports for the ground game, and Hotels, Rental Cars, and Cards for everything around the flight itself.
What AA By the Numbers Is
AA By the Numbers is where the anecdotes get backed up with data — routes, aircraft, upgrade patterns, delays, and the shape of a year of business travel. It’s illustrative rather than a verified personal record, but it’s built to show real trends over time. Take a look at the AA By the Numbers page.
Follow Along
Most of what doesn’t make it into a full article — a boarding pass, a lounge line, a delay board at 6 a.m. — shows up on Instagram under #aamericanbrad. It’s the fastest way to see the in-between moments between posts.
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