From what I understand, and I could be wrong as I didn't read much, it was a corporate retreat. Most large companies have them every year and they are planned and paid for anywhere from a year to six months in advance.

The other things I've been reading lately cause me to wonder exactly how many people really knew the state of AIG's financial mess. Apparently, the really high-ups were hiding things even from their auditors, etc. While these execs were fairly high-ranking, it's possible that very few of them knew that things were as bad as they were.

That being said, yes, they did show very poor judgment in actually going forward. They should have just taken the financial loss and not gone, it would have looked so much better and people like you and I would feel better that they at least attempted to do the right thing, even if it was too little too late.