FORT WORTH, Texas, May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Airlines today unveiled plans to offer customers a new, faster and easier way to purchase travel on its award-winning Web site, AA.com(R), that will provide a more customer-centric online travel booking experience. In addition, American Airlines Vacations, a division of American Airlines, revealed it is making enhancements to AAVacations.com. Customers will begin seeing changes this summer, with additional enhancements coming in following months.

The enhancements to AA.com, which has, on average, more than 1.2 million unique visitors per day, were developed using extensive customer input and include user-friendly features that provide expanded options to plan and purchase travel. Currently, customers can search either by price or by schedule. These new features will take their travel purchase experience to a new level by soon offering a third option: to see flight choices in a convenient display which shows price and schedule combinations.

A demonstration of the new AA.com booking tool feature is available online at http://www.aa.com/book.

"With American Airlines and American Eagle offering more than 4,000 flights each day, we are always working to enhance our customer's travel purchase experience and the services we offer to them," said Bella Goren, American's Senior Vice President -- Customer Relationship Marketing & Reservations. "Expanding and enhancing AA.com is an ongoing effort -- knowing that we reach over a million customers daily, we value and seek their input on how to refine their travel planning and purchase experience."

The new shopping and ticket purchase functionality on AA.com will empower customers to evaluate their flight options by providing a convenient display of schedule, price and levels of service combinations. When customers search for flights, a new results display will return a range of schedule and price possibilities for the departure and return portions of a roundtrip, which can be checked independently. This new display will enable customers to see how their trip choices impact the price, and will offer customers more control to customize their travel plans according to individual priorities.

"The combined price and schedule display will make booking travel on AA.com even easier, smoother and more streamlined. We are committed to helping our customers get the most from their travel with American, and that begins with a simplified and convenient purchase process on AA.com," added Goren.

The new display will allow travelers to sort results by expanded criteria including price, number of stops and departure and arrival times, and will provide easy access to flight detail information. A simple click will enlarge a selection and provide additional flight details including travel time, seat maps, AAdvantage(R) miles, aircraft type and meal availability.

Serving a worldwide customer base, the advancements of AA.com are far reaching. The major enhancement to the purchasing process on AA.com follows two other major changes made to the Web site earlier this year. In January, American introduced AA.com/espanol, a Spanish-language portal that gives users in 17 different Spanish-speaking countries the ability to book travel on American Airlines in their native language.

In February, American implemented industry-leading changes to its online award booking process. The new AAdvantage booking tool on AA.com provides easier planning and award booking capabilities including a calendar view of redeemable award travel for a time period two weeks before and after a selected date.

This summer, American Airlines Vacations will unveil its new AAVacations.com Web site. The new site will use technology that enhances the shopping experience by allowing customers to easily choose among individual vacation elements to design unique, customized trips that fit their needs and budgets. Booking a vacation getaway with AAVacations will now be more convenient and flexible.

These changes represent American's strategic investment in services and products that make solid business sense while improving the overall customer experience. Enhancements to AA.com, American's largest distribution channel, underscore the company's commitment to lower costs to compete, building a financial foundation for the future and giving customers what they value -- key tenets of American's Turnaround Plan.

About AA.com

As American's largest distribution channel, AA.com is a valuable resource for the airline and travelers alike and is the best place to do business online with American. AA.com provides numerous ways to conveniently search for and book low fares and award travel, select seats, make hotel, rental car and cruise reservations, get flight arrival/departure information, sign up for flight status notification, and even check in and print boarding passes. Customers who purchase tickets on AA.com earn AAdvantage bonus miles with each ticket purchased, get a lowest-fare guarantee (see http://www.aa.com/guarantee), and don't pay an online booking fee. Additionally, customers who log in with an AAdvantage number and password can manage their AAdvantage account online and also receive personalized news and specials. AA.com has twice received the World Travel Award for World's Leading Airline Internet Site and has also received multiple Web site awards from various organizations.

About American Airlines

American Airlines is the world's largest airline. American, American Eagle and the AmericanConnection(R) airlines serve 250 cities in over 40 countries with more than 4,000 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 1,000 aircraft. American's award-winning Web site, AA.com, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld(R) Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together, its members serve nearly 700 destinations in over 140 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. AmericanAirlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AA.com and AAdvantage are registered trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. .

AmericanAirlines(R) We know why you fly(R) Current AMR Corp. releases can be accessed on the Internet The address is http://www.aa.com/

CONTACT: Billy Sanez, Corporate Communications of American Airlines,
+1-817-967-1577, corp.comm@aa.com

Web site: http://www.aa.com/