Yesterday I described my experience with the process of moving frequent flier miles from American Express to Continental Airlines. Paul Shanek, who is vp of sales & marketing at Leapstone Systems, Inc. in Somerset, New Jersey wrote to say he had seen the same message — saying it would take five days to transfer the points. "It actually took about 5 seconds to get the info into my OnePass account". "It was amazing". "I guess the marketing guys need to know what the techies are doing!". Good point. Another example is that when American Airlines reservation agents send you an email confirmation, they say it will take "up to twenty-four hours". And then there is the post card telling you that your rebate information has been received and will take "8-12 weeks to process" (there may be other reasons why this actually happens). In an On Demand world people are going to increasingly ask "Why?".

• Weekends On Demand