For us anyway AA FF work and work well overall. It depends on where you live, connections, options for airports, etc. We have quite a few options to choose from, so that helps a whole lot. So there is no one plan that works for everybody. If there was, then there would not be any other options.

For us anyway, CapOne is more expensive than our current AA FF miles program. But that is our situation only, so it works for us beneficially but may not work for others. We fly AA the majority of the time as we can get non stop out of MIA, ALL others mean a change. We can get FF seats at this point, most of the time anyway. Maybe not the exact dates, but always options that we can live with and many times the exact dates that we want. But then again, we are not tied into a specific week each year either, so for some I can see where it does not work.

Also I am always making sure that I sign up/register for the various bonus miles that are offered. Even if I do not have any plans on that particular puchase. Many times it has been things that we do routinely, others not, but sign up regardless. Generally those for us anyway, at triple miles and a cap of course, but it adds up fast.

And for us AA FF has the best policies regarding FF tickets. So that is a huge advantage for us anyway, since we are flying on AA the vast majority of the time.