Sticks to .Com for Mobile Site — American Airlines

Airline chooses .com over .mobi.

The world’s largest airline has launched its mobile web site and opted to use .com instead of .mobi.

The fresh mobile web site for American Airlines (NYSE: AMR) lets clients check in for flights via their mobile phones, buy upgrades, change flight times, buy upgrades and check frequent flyer balances.

The firm likely stuck to .com for a couple reasons:

1. People know it. I think most people would still be confused if they were advertised a site with a .mobi ending. Here’s a test: ask 3 friends who use the internet but aren’t in the domain industry what ‘.mobi’ is.

2. The firm has a killer .com domain: AA.com. Why make someone type AmericanAirlines.mobi when you can simply type aa.com? Every keystroke on a cell phone is a pain.

In a further blow to .mobi, the firm right now doesn’t forward its AmericanAirlines.mobi domain to AA.com. Ouch.

Above: American Airlines chooses .com over .mobi for mobile site.