[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

According to the San Francisco Examiner United Air spent at least part of this amount on fighting passenger rights legislation and legislation allowing long distance flights to and from Washington Regan Airport ("DCA")

See...

http://www.sfexaminer.com/economy/ap/54539232.html

Remember, United Air is bleeding red ink and is furloughing thousands. Yet they find in excess of half a million dollars to spend so they can, legally, abuse their customers.

Meanwhile, in the face of the Continental tarmac stranding earlier this month (and, probably, the strandings of this past weekend) the Air Transport Association ("ATA") continues to say, with a straight face, that tarmac strandings happen only "once in a blue moon." This, according to their PR dept. The statistical probability of being caught in a tarmac stranding may, indeed, be low. On the other hand, to try to dismiss the fact that thousands have, just within the past year, been held hostage, as the ATA is trying to do, is inexcusable.