Ignition Override and Wino; I want to pick up on just one of your points - buying back stock.
You make it sound like a bad idea.
In general, it's not - it's a smart (i.e. tax-efficient) way of paying a return to shareholders (you may not care much for them, but you DO need them - or rather their money).
Buying back stock is only a bad idea if the company does not have sufficient cash or is overburdened with debt already. I think at that time the cash and debt position was OK.
[Anticipating a possible reply that Carty just increased AA debt to pay out cash for stock purchases - debt is not necessarily bad either. Debt payments (interest...) are tax-efficient (i.e. save money). There is an optimum proportion between debt and equity (trouble is, no-one really knows what it is). Arguably, AA had the best cash position and debt rating in the industry (of the majors) on 9/11, so probably had managed its capital relatively well.]