considering flying returns is managed by a south african company with clients like this
www.loyaltyplus.aero/content/our-clients , please think again about land of IT geniuses, it is more the land of least quotations
Have you ever had an issue with the Flying Returns IT? My miles usually credit within 24 hours.
I don't see the problem with AI going with the lowest cost vendor if the service is provided reliably.
AI's website issues (including the glitches related to booking award tickets and the one mentioned in the OP) are the responsibility of
SITA, an extremely large and reputed company in the aviation field, which has many clients which you have heard of. But that doesn't seem to fix the bugs, does it?
At the end of the day, it's the product received (and its cost) which matters, not whether the vendor has "good clients"