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EmbAArrassed

April 24, 2006

So American Airlines got a little careless and made its employee-only Web site accessible to the world. And for a few hours, anyone with a Web browser could read everything from its dress-code manual to a tutorial on how to use chopsticks.

It’s hardly the first airline to make a similar mistake. A few years ago, archrival Southwest Airlines inadvertently opened a back door to its intranet.

American promptly plugged the leak before any of the documents could be publicly disseminated. But not before several customers posted a discussion about the material on the American AAdvantage forum at Flyertalk.

“AA may not have specifically intended to make these documents public,” one of the participants wrote. “But by putting them on a web server with no password, that’s a natural and predictable result.”

And here’s where the story takes an unfortunate turn. Instead of removing posts that contained proprietary information (I’ve re-read the cached page and there appear to no trade secrets or confidential information in them) someone at Flyertalk hit the panic button and deleted the entire string.

I don’t know why. Maybe an American Airlines attorney called Flyertalk publisher Randy Petersen and demanded the removal of the string. Then again, maybe the decision happened at a lower level, initiated perhaps by an overly cautious moderator.

Either way, the move seriously undermines Flyertalk’s reputation as a place where ideas about travel can be freely discussed, without fear of censorship. Since all of the links to the pages within in the string are now password-protected, Flyertalk should restore the pages and allow the discussion to continue.

Update: Randy Petersen responded to this post on July 12, 2006. He said the removal of the string in question was made at the request of forum participants — not because of an overly cautious moderator or a call from an American Airlines attorney.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

2 comments

  • bing

    The problem at FT are the moderators, who try to control everything you say or do. I guess they are just trying to keep their (stupid) jobs. What d***a*****!!!

  • Jerry

    Let’s face it. Humans work at the airlines and sometimes humans make mistakes. A few years ago I was a reservation agent for a legacy carrier working the graveyard shift when another agent discovered a computer pricing error which was quoting fares from the US to Manila for about $35.00. Word spread through the center like wild fire and employess began calling family and friends to spread the news. Within a few hours all the seats were sold. When management found out about it they began systematically cancelling all the reservations which had been made but not yet paid for or any reservation made in the name of an employee. Reservations which had been made and paid for by credit card at the time of the booking had to be honored but the employee responsible for booking the reservation was reprimanded.

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