1st 5 years you pay a small fee for a seat in back (cockpit jumpseat is free), yes it's stupid.. but it isn't that much really anyway, $7-15 for coach usually, depending on distance. It's easily avoidable anyway, just jumpseat on everyone else for free, that's what I did my first 5 years, that or try and get the agent to list you for the cockpit to avoid the fee. After 5 yrs domestic coach is free for you and your family or travel partner.

The upside is we probably have the best mainline travel agreement of any regional. Priority is based on check in time, so we can go ahead of mainline AA on their own planes if we check in first for everything but the cockpit jumpseat.

And we, along with our spouse, kids or travel partner each get 4 D1 passes a year for use on AA or Eagle. This pass basically trumps everyone and puts your priority at the top of the standby list, for use if you really need to get somewhere. It won't put you above revenue pax or AMR business travel, but it will put you above all the other standbys which really comes in handy sometimes, especially international, if you are looking at getting stranded due to a crazy long standby list.