I'm sure the "Creating Controversy..." writer has some reasonable points. Perhaps Dustin Curtis really is only fourteen years old and is a frightful bounder wh

I'm sure the "Creating Controversy..." writer has some reasonable points. Perhaps Dustin Curtis really is only fourteen years old and is a frightful bounder who drops his aitches and has cocoa and bloaters for supper.* But really, Dustin Curtis makes some good points. The reason sites like AA's are so much worse than they could be is precisely because of bloated and poorly-organized infrastructure and competing interests. That excuse isn't going to stop customers from going to better, more easily-navigable sites if they have a choice. I have bought plane tickets more than once from airline B instead of airline A just because I couldn't get what I needed on airline A's site. About a year ago USAirways.com charged me eight times for the same flight and never sent an e-ticket. I don't buy from them any more. If I can't find and buy the best flight from airline A because their web site doesn't work well it's the same result to me as if they don't have that flight. Look at how much more market value has been created by companies like Kayak.com who have used a lot less resources to create a much more effective buying experience than the most of the big lumbering airlines. Their gain has come about because the airlines have not been able to overcome their organizational problems. Also, what Mister X* wrote was quite tactful. While it acknowledged some internal problems at AA (which certainly are obvious anyway) it did so in a very graceful way and provide a pretty good counter-argument. It was about the best statement American Airlines could have hoped anyone would have put out in response to Dustin Curtis' piece. You might argue that they were justified in firing him. You might be right (and you might not) but they were also very clearly very stupid to fire him. Had they merely given him a mild rebuke and then promoted him then they could have maintained control over what has turned into a small scandal for AA. Instead, he's no longer bound to watch his words so carefully. I hope he'll have more to say. So if Dustin Curtis really does chew broken bottles and turn into a werewolf at the time of the full moon* that's too bad. All I know about him is that he seems like a pretty decent designer who has strong opinions and isn't afraid to voice them but who probably hasn't read Frederick Brooks. Maybe if someone upstairs at AA had an attitude like Dustin Curtis and Mister X I wouldn't be putting them on my list of "companies to avoid doing business with whenever there's a reasonable alternative." * P.G Wodehouse "Service With a Smile" * Why does this name make me think of "For British Eyes Only..." * Another P.G. Wodehouse reference I can't place.