IMO AA is definitely not the worst, but im not sure how close they are to the best. I have flown all of the legacy's domestically and UAL, Delta, JAL, Asiana, Thai, and a few others internationally. In terms of food AA is just as good as the rest...that said maybe food is a constant that doesnt change much from carrier to carrier. Where I think we may fall short is in the service dept. Depending on what crew you are flying with service can vary from excellent to "i shoud have stayed home." This is where I believe the Asian carriers may have us beat. For arguments sake being an AA non-rev i have experienced our product much more than any other carrier, thus its possible others have the same service variations that we have. Theorectically im not sure how one would measure this service w/o many overlapping samples