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To: James Clarke who wrote (4857)	8/29/1998 3:02:00 AM
From: Stewart Whitman	Respond to of 78594

> When major airline A told me Y2K is going to cost $250 million, and > a week later major airline B told me it will cost $30 million, I > sold B immediately. Of course, A's systems could be 10 years old and need to be completely redone. B's up-to-date systems could need smaller changes. In the end, unless you want to dig deeper - e.g. ask what the approach is, what changes are needed, compare what has been spent on IT over the past 10 years, etc. - you probably just have to trust the company. It does not seem realistic to judge by a quoted cost alone. There's probably a lot of "scapegoating" going on when accounting for Y2K costs. Y2K write offs are probably going to be the tax bonanza of 1999. Regards, Stew

To: James Clarke who wrote (4857)	8/29/1998 5:38:00 AM
From: Gator II	Respond to of 78594

James, a line in your Y2K post re airline's lowballing costs for correcting the problem caught my eye. You wrote: >>Consider the most conservative estimate (i.e. the highest) the most realistic, and also assume that that number is too low.<< Two weeks ago, I received a voucher from a major airline (DAL) for a "free" round trip ticket normally available for one year after receiving it (volunteered to be bumped on an over sold flight) and was told it would be good for TWO years rather than one because of the Y2K problem. Kinda indicated to me the customer service people have been told by the higher ups that they don't have a clue as to how big the problem is and it is looming BIG on the horizon. Could also indicate that they don't have any confidence it will be corrected on a timely basis, either. Gator II

To: James Clarke who wrote (4857)	8/29/1998 11:18:00 PM
From: Bob Rudd	Respond to of 78594

Jim: Good post on Y2k. To illustrate the slipperiness of the problem, even Microsoft had to post some fixes to recent software after assuring customers they were in the no problem zone. Lot's of these companies are looking not only at legacy software, but at chips with 2 digit code hardwired in. Beyond remediation costs, companies are going to face some hairy litigation over the problems that slip by. If remediation costs are difficult to get a handle on, litigation could go way beyond that. Some companies have sought legislative protection and there probably are some insurance products, but it's still a crap shoot. Regards, Bob