| 1960s |
American Airlines® develops SABRE, the
first totally automated computer reservations system, allowing American
to match a seat sold on one of its flights to an individual customer.
|
| 1970s |
SABRE enables American to develop highly segmented
lists of its customers. American gains access to up-to-date home addresses
by having a marketing firm match frequent traveler names and phone numbers
on these lists with home addresses.
|
| 1981 |
American launches the industry's first frequent
flyer program, AAdvantage® Travel Awards, allowing the airline to recognize
and reward its best customers for their loyalty to the airline. American
is able to pre-enroll 283,000 of its travelers because it had created an
extensive customer database.
|
| 1982 |
AAdvantage Gold® is created for customers
who travel 25,000 qualifying miles during the calendar year.
|
| 1988 |
Membership in the AAdvantage program expands
to 7 million customers.
|
| 1992 |
AAdvantage Platinum® is created for customers
who travel 50,000 miles during the calendar year.
|
| 1994 |
American introduces the AAdvantage dining program.
|
| 1995 |
American experiments with cable TV to broadcast
flight arrival and departure times, gate information and destination weather,
and broadcasts CableSAAver fares for weekend travel to 70,000 consumers.
This information comes directly from SABRE and is broadcast through a cable
channel.
|
| 1995 |
The first American Airlines Web site is launched,
providing corporate, AAdvantage and passenger information.
|
| 1996 |
In March, American introduced Net SAAver Fares®,
the first email service of its kind.
By spring, the site offers online fare quotes and flight and gate information.
In June, a redesigned Web site is launched. Also during June, the online
reservations tool is added. Before the end of the year, customers can check
their AAdvantage account status and mileage levels using the Web site. In
addition, American begins advertising on the Internet.
|
| 1997 |
American introduces College SAAver Fares on
its Web site. Through College SAAvers, the airline offers fare specials
and contests for the rapidly growing college travel market.
|
| 1998 |
AAdvantage Travel Awards program grows to more
than 31 million members worldwide. By the end of May, American's Web site
had registered more than 650,000 customers—over 6 million page views
per week and more than 6,000 unique logins daily.
The Net SAAvers email list reaches 1.6 million subscribers, making the
program the largest email service of its kind on the Internet.
AAdvantage customers who book travel online are able to earn AAdvantage
bonus miles.
AAdvantage Executive Platinum® is created for customers who travel
100,000 miles during the calendar year.
American simplifies its Web site address to www.aa.com.
In June, American unveils an all-new AA.com, a completely redesigned Web
site that draws on AAdvantage customer information and an extensive content
base to offer personalized messaging. Now, the site instantaneously displays
information that is personalized according to customers' preferred airports,
destinations and interests. The site also offers a faster, simpler reservation
tool, streamlined navigation and a completely new visual appearance. AA.com
represents the largest customer affinity program on the Web.
|
| 1999 |
AAdvantage Travel Awards program membership grows to 38 million.
Monthly site visits reach nearly five million.
AA.com U.S receives more than 350,000 visits on peak days.
Nearly 56% of all top-tier (Gold, Platinum, and Executive Platinum) AAdvantage
members have logged on to AA.com since the mid-1998 launch of the redesigned
site. Nearly 70% of Platinum and Executive Platinum AAdvantage members have
logged on to AA.com since that time.
|
| 2000 |
AA.com launches eSummary, an electronic form
of the monthly AAdvantage newsletter. The eSummary provides AAdvantage account
information, news and special offers to members directly to their inboxes.
AA.com U.S receives more than 450,000 visits on peak days.
|
| 2001 |
AA.com U.S offers proactive flight status notification
to customers via a variety of wired and wireless devices.
AA.com revamps Net SAAver Fares—the newly expanded Net SAAver & Special
Offers section features Net SAAver DestinationsSM,
Net SAAver Weekend GetawaysSM
and AAdvantage Bonus Offers, as well as special promotions and sweepstakes.
AA.com launches an award-booking capability, allowing AAdvantage members
to book the 25,000-mile PlanAAhead Award for air travel in the 48 contiguous
states, Alaska and Canada.
AA.com U.S receives more than 683,000 visits on average days and more than 18.8
million site visits each month.
The AAdvantage Travel Awards program membership reaches 44 million.
|
| 2002 |
AA.com U.S receives more than 715,000 visits on
average days. The site also posts more than one million visitors on two
consecutive days in January, breaking the site's old record.
The AAdvantage Travel Awards program membership exceeds 46 million members.
American Airlines launches a redesigned AA.com U.S, featuring a sleek look,
improved navigation, greater personalization and helpful customer service
resources, including a search functionality.
|
| 2003 |
In 2003, launch of local American Airlines websites in the following countries: UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Brazil. The websites are available in a local language version and in an English version.
AAdvantage enhances Award Booking capabilities
allowing members to book over 60 different award options on AA.com.
AA.com launches Flight Check-In giving members the ability to check-in online
and print their own boarding pass.
|
| 2004 |
AA.com now receives 950,000 visits on an average
weekday.
AA.com enhances online booking capabilities by giving customers the ability
to search for tickets within a flexible date range, include airports within
90 miles in their search, view seating options before they book their ticket
and more.
AA.com enhances its home page to make it easier for customers to quickly
locate what they're looking for online. Content has been grouped more intuitively
on the left-hand fly-out menus, and "shopping" tabs have been
added to allow customers to search for Flights, Hotels, Cars, Vacations, and
Deals.
Flight Check-In at AA.com is enhanced - Customers can now check in up to 24 hours before their flight without even logging into the site by simply entering their first name, last name and record locator.
AA.com adds a new "Products and Gifts" section which includes Gift Certificates, Buy/Share/Gift Miles, Airline Gift Shop Items and online Admirals Club Enrollment. Admirals Club online enrollment gives customers the ability to join or renew their membership in Admirals Club on AA.com.
|
| 2005 |
Launch of AA.com Ireland.
Flight Check-In at AA.com U.S makes it easy for domestic e-ticket passengers with interline connections on eligible carriers to check in online up to 24 hours prior to departure and print boarding passes.
American Airlines offers customers the option to purchase Admirals Club one-day passes online.
|
| 2006 |
American Airlines introduces an enhancement to online Flight Check-In at AA.com that allows travelers who have return flights within 24 hours of departure to check in for both outbound and return flight segments at the same time.
October: launch of AA.com Japan.
|
| 2007 |
AA.com U.S launches a Spanish-language site on AA.com/español. This marks the first time Spanish-speakers are able to book American Airlines travel in their native language.
American introduces a completely redesigned AAdvantage award booking calendar on AA.com. The new tool displays a range of award availability and simplifies the overall user experience.
AA.com/women launches in the U.S, providing travel tips and information geared toward women travelers
New txtSAAverSM fare messages are now available for customers in the Dallas/ Fort Worth market, with plans to expand the product. Customers can sign up to receive a text message with fare sale information and special offers from American each week.
A new booking tool debuts on the different international websites in June, bringing greater convenience to travelers wishing to search for flight options by both price and schedule. The redesign also includes fares segmented into one-way trips for easier purchase of the preferred round-trip combination, lowest fare on a given day flagged for increased customer confidence in fare purchases and expanded search options.
The deferred payment option offers customers the opportunity to delay travel expenses with six months of no payments and no interest.
Enhancements to the new booking tool give users a seven-day window to search for the right combination of price and schedule. New features also allow travelers to sort flight results by price and navigate the process easier than ever before.
The DealFinder downloadable desktop tool alerts users instantly when available flights match pre-selected fare, destination and timing criteria.
American adds the option to change reservations online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
October: launch of AA.com India.
December: launch of AA.com China.
|
| 2008 |
The mobile version of AA.com launches, bringing streamlined design and faster downloads to users on Web-enabled mobile devices. The mobile site includes access to all of AA.com’s most popular features.
April 2008: Catalan version of AA.com Spain launched to coincide with inaugural of new direct service between Barcelona and New York JFK.
Oct 2008: launch of French and Flemish version of AA.com Belgium, and French version of AA.com Switzerland.
Nov 2008: launch of AA.com Australia and AA.com Netherlands.
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