paul kgyy wrote:
I took an AA flight from SAN to ORD Tuesday that looped up through
Utah and Wyoming, maybe to catch strong upper winds. But I got to
wondering how airline flight plans get planned. Does the pilot do
this, or the airline?

I'm not an airline person, and there will be others with more
knowledgeable responses, but this being usenet, I'll chime in anyway.
There is a dispatcher who files the flight plan as a proxy for the
pilot. Here's the Airline Dispatchers Federation web site:
http://www.dispatcher.org/

I presume that ATC overrides theirs as they do mine from time to time,
though the airlines probably have a better idea of what's likely to be
approved.

If you want to see the route, you can find it on Flightaware, AA1484,
Feb 20.

That flight looks to be pretty close to a great circle route to my eye.

Dvae