the "contract" the passenger has is with AA, not RA. It is AA who has the responsibility of getting the passengers to the destination
Are you new around here?
Have you ever read the contract of carriage?
IIRC it has been pointed out many times that the airline has almost no obligations.
To the point of RA vs AA. If the employees are RA employees, then presumably AA can't take direct action against them. No one is saying that it absolves AA from a legal standpoint (though at a court of law I wouldn't be surprised if that position is taken), but it is just technically harder to address, as these aren't direct AA employees.