It just might be more basic than that. AA had the first automatized reservation system (using punch cards) called the Reservisor in 1946, which progressed to the Magnetronic Reservisor, sporting a drum-based memory system, in 1952.



Presumably due to a random meeting onboard of C. R. Smith, CEO, and an IBM salesperson by the same last name, AA joined with IBM to develop a new system, the Semi-Automatic Business Environment, SABER (which was based on SAGE, the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment used by USAF / NORAD to track aircraft,) in 1957. (The SAGE A/N-FSQ7 was quite a device - a vacuum tube computer with ferrite core memory, huge and complicated.)


A/N FSQ-7


1960s SABRE

Since then, basically, layers have been added to that onion (renamed SABRE), and AA's IT system seems unwieldy and tricky (witness two years it took after announcing it that it took to show SWUs in our online accounts). AA has signed a contract with Hewlett Packard to develop an entirely new "next-generation Passenger Service System" named Jetstream <link>. It will be enhanced with availability features AA is buying from ITA Software, an old FT "friend" <link>.

Being first doesn't mean being best later. It's hard to say when Jetstream will become a reality, but the contract and project certainly didn't get initiated because Gerard Arpey is an accountant or a Luddite.