Amazon - I too ( for six plus years ) was a cog in that big wheel which became AE – and they were indeed some of the best years that I’ve ever had in the aviation business – and I too also have a ( ‘signed’ ) copy of the book 'It was nice to fly with friends'.
If one were to look where many of the people who worked at AE have now risen too, one can see that it was indeed staffed by some very talented people – albeit that they were people who were non the wiser as to the machinations and skulduggeries that were taking place at the board level of the controlling company - The International Leisure Group ( ILG ) - beig what caused the UK arm of AE to collapse.
Ps. Not that it matters much now, but it was actually little ole' me who came up with the AE Scheduled Service’s slogan of 'Now you have a real choice' - I put that phrase in the AE suggestions box whereupon some jumped-up basturd in the marketing department plagiarised it as his/her own - not that I'm bitter about it ( DA typed, 14 years down the road ).