you guys really #### about anything huh?
Nothing without just cause.
The front face of a corporation is no longer just the store-front, but includes a multitude of interfaces, telephone and now, the web. It is how a customer judges the product, a trip from A to B. It is the advertisement, a first impression, if you will, that sets the tone for a contract (purchased ticket).
A shoddy website, just like a shoddy looking storefront, conveys the impression of cheap as a process and not "low cost". It degrades any further attempts at professionalism.
I am not talking about the employee website, which certainly has its own problems, but the website (storefront) that potential customers see. Like a phone (res) system that requires a potential customer wait for an agent, so does a shoddy website that loses work and requires a customer wait, the customer will go elsewhere, if they can. If they cannot, they will bring that episode as a bias, that will find the light of day, sometime, to the further degradation of US.
Make it "lean", not cheap. Whatever the customer wants to do, make it quick and timely, not ponderous and wasteful. Make the reservation process accurate, quick and well thought out. One can always add features when the basics are first taken care of.
