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The problem with the airline industry in general is that the old axiom "Fast, Cheep, Good - pick any 2" doesn't hold up. Tickets are so cheep the airlines bleed money. The whole point of flying is the speed. As far as "good" goes they can't compromise on safety so it's an industry that sort of has to pick "all three". That is a challenging business model to say the least.


It strikes me that the flying airplanes side of the business has nothing to do with their web site.


This is a crazy thought but bear with me here.

What if the expenses could be cut by, oh, reducing layers of crufty bureaucracy in, say, web site interaction design? And hiring designers and developers who will make it happen, and then... trusting them?

If there are 15 committees that must be appeased, that's Very Very Bad.

And this is just the web site. The web site cannot cause planes to fall from the sky.

But it can cause customers to have heart attacks... Look at this stinking pile, I mean, testament to the power and usefulness of multiple stakeholders:

http://aa.com/women


Probably correct, but I bet you a nickel that the expenses of useless bureaucrats are a miniscule fraction of capex and opex.




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