We knew that American Airlines was the largest airline in the world, serving 250 cites in over 40 countries. We knew that American and American Eagle flew almost 4000 flights per day. We didn't know that American grew out of the Robertson Aircraft Corporation of Missouri -- the second aviation company to hold a U.S. airmail contract. The company and scores of other little air concerns were joined to form American. Why do we think that this fact is noteworthy? The chairman of Robertson was Charles Lindbergh, he of the trans-Atlantic flight. It's fitting that this American pioneer was involved in the founding of one of the greatest American companies, isn't it?

American Airlines was the pioneer of advance purchase fares, with the Super Saver system. This revenue management concept was designed to put upstart rival People's Express out of business, and it worked. The idea was to have airline tickets cost more or less depending on when you bought your ticket. Business travelers tended to buy close in, or nearer to the time of departure, and their tickets were priced higher. Leisure travelers purchased farther out, and so their tickets were less. Within weeks of the launch of this service, Peoples Express was out of commission, and American was again the leader of the skies.

American Airlines was also the leader in retention marketing for airline travelers. You might not know it, but all the travel programs that allow you to earn miles for travel or staying come directly from the AADVANTAGE travel awards program. So you know that American Airlines is an innovator in marketing. But it's also a leader in technology. The SABRE GDS was built by American to house it's constantly changing inventory and fare information. It was so successful it was spun out to the public in 1996. By the way, it was also one of the first airlines to launch on the Internet. In 1995, American announced its World Wide Web site.

The site has been up for a long time. But how does it rate? American Airlines does a pretty good job of creating an environment that consumers can use to book travel, view frequent flier information, and even find other ancillary information. The navigation is top rate. The top of the site allows the consumer to access flight, hotel and car (provided by Expedia's WWTE) and vacations. The left hand margin of the site breaks down the other reasons you might visit the site into easily accessable chunks. You are still able to access reservations from this area, and you have one click access to travel tnformation, corporate information about American Airlines for shareholders, and of course you can get your AADVANTAGE mileage info, too. The main area of the homepage is designed to engage the user in buying a ticket -- exactly what they built the website for in the first place.

The Travelsites editors think that it's one of the best airlines sites out there.

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