Bought the AW3 LTE for my birthday last month, just added the AirPods too. After some very frustrating days of connectivity and stumbling upon this post I too can confirm it's Bluetooth refusing to connect with WiFi when heading out of range.🙁
I'm also using a Ubiquiti Access Point in my apartment due to the crazy load bearing walls (not even Thor's Hammer could penetrate) so the when I'm roaming around the AW and AirPods take about 10-15secs to handoff to the next access point. My iPhone appears to have zero handoff which I'm guessing is down to the strength of the WiFi antenna.
I sure hope Apple can resolve this, it will be a shame if it's nature of the handoff between device and WiFi/Bluetooth.
Edit: My only option at home will be to turn off Bluetooth - at the expense of battery life though :|