Well, they are in bankruptcy, of course. I don't know the timing on that, I wouldn't worry so much at the beginning of bankruptcy as the end, and I'm not sure if a year is the time limit or how that works. They filed last Fall.

All of those airlines you name suck big time IMO.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/american-airlines-parent-amr-tells-bankruptcy-court-that-it-lost-619-million-in-february/2012/03/30/gIQAZEgMlS_story.html

Look, just because an airline filed for bankruptcy doesn't mean you are going to get stranded. LOTS of airlines have filed for bankruptcy and are still flying. USAirways filed two different times.

As to whether or not they "suck" well...that's about as subjective as it gets and IMO totally useless information.

You might look at the more DETAILED ratings at airlineequality.com

AA is not risky now. They are going through some belt tightening (labor & pensions), as well as Executive Mgmt reductions.

At the same time they're upgrading their seats and adding new planes. AA's introducing their version of economy plus on their long haul airplanes. AA currently flies the 777 and the 763 as their primary aircraft. The 763 is long in the tooth, but is much less of a cattle car in coach than the 777.

Go to www.aa.com and look under 'About Us' to see details on restructuring and other pertinent news.

AA Million Miler

I can't comment on the risky part and I also noticed the better deals on those airlines this fall--also when we travel.

What I can comment on is that we took the lower priced flight on AA to Paris last Sept. and regretted it. We flew direct from Chicago to CDG, an 8 hr. flight. Did we get there with no mishaps? Yes, but it was the most uncomfortable 8 hrs. we have ever spent in the air. Unfortunately, we didn't check the type of aircraft. Probably because in our many years of flying to Europe we always had newer aircraft with individual TV screens with a large variety of movies, games, etc. to choose from. This particular AA flight was on a very old plane that seemed to have more seats crammed in, so less room, and also the seats seemed to be particularly thin and hard. Many of the passengers commented on this.

Add to that, a few(very few) drop down TV's in the middle section or the seats that you could hardly see with 1 movie. On the good side of that, I did read 200 pages of a good book, but I have to say that this was the longest 8 hr. flight I have ever taken.

Lessen learned, for us anyway. I was lured by the lower price, but I will never assume that they use the newer planes on the international flights again. Air France, Continental, Delta, even Aer Lingus have much more up-to-date and comfortable equipment.

When I looked at the fall '12 flights on BA and Iberia, many of them were run by AA, so watch that. Then I saw this post and it didn't sound like Iberia was for us.
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/iberia-airlines-seat-assignment.cfm

I'll be checking back on this post to see if anyone has some positive comments on the subject. I'd like to keep an open mind and also save a few bucks if I can. I realize I'm making a judgement on only 1 round trip flight to Europe and could be wrong in general.