I hope they implement this properly. When I worked at a major hotel, their empowerment policy required a bunch of paperwork to be completed to justify the action. Then one had to find a (usually very busy) manager to get a signature, etc. Most associates didn't want the hastle and thus never took advantage of this policy.

Edited to add: Based on what A Flygirl posted, with AC's initiative, it seems that the CSR would have to seek out a manager before taking advantage of the policy. That would make it quite restrictive if, say, a flight has been cancelled and you are calling and trying to rebook all the pax from the affected flight(s) due to time constraints.

[This message has been edited by cedric (edited 11-26-2002).]