Sorry, but I think we have to agree to disagree here. I truly don't think that there was any chance of 'recovering' the deposit so giving it to charity was moot. I stand by my rationale of why it made sense to me and will add these considerations.
Consider the individual attendees. If I was scheduled for this 8 day event, I would have already bought airline tickets, had replacement coverage for my office duties and set other things to be done in my absence knowing I wasn't going to be using my car or other personal items.
Now I get a sudden call to cancel all of this and then I am to do what? It is one thing if the company is being liquidated, then everything is gone, I get my belongings out of the office and look for other employment. In AIG's case, they are still working there, they will logically submit expenses for the lost airline ticket and ALL ASSOCIATED Expenses since they were CAUSED by the COMPANY. Have you ever tried to get a refund for a current airline ticket - so sorry!
As for Public Relations efforts, I have no doubt that they are ongoing but as I said in my previous reply, given the election and media biases, I am thinking that no explanations or justifications were given any credence.
I understand your point, I’m involved with conference planners, and I’ve had a club reserved for outings for companies I’ve worked at. Still and all, bottom line, I frickin’ hate AIG. They screwed my father over, caused him to lose the will to live, and it bothers me not one whit to see their @$$es on fire over this.
There were plenty of things they could do to mitigate this. Again, I admit, they might have thought a morale-booster was just the thing, but it looks bad, really bad, not least because now it’s Taxpayer money.
A simple statement from PR saying that in these economic times AIG recognizes that a resort vacation is inappropriate. All efforts to use the paid event for various charities will be explored.(Ronald MacDonald houses,Gilda’s Place, etc)
So how does AIG look now as opposed to how the MSMs would have reported the different outcome?
You’re thinking like an event planner.The people who have lost vast amounts in their 401K’s and retirement funds aren’t.