[AADFW]

Allowing foreign competition would generally be a step in the right direction but would only be a short-term fix. U.S. airline consumers tend to want the lowest price above all else, and foreign carriers competing in the U.S. would simply respond to that reality eventually. What makes foreign carriers better is regulation that results in competition based on service differentiation rather than price.

In this respect, what we really need is common sense U.S. regulation -- but not in terms of limiting the number of carriers per route or fare per route but by regulating service standards. What we need is a comprehensive passenger bill of rights (including a provision for US-only call centers as you've mentioned). This would put all U.S. carriers on even keel and, while it would raise airfares in general, it would not disallow free and open competition. Paradoxically, at the same time that we need to institute common-sense regulation in favor of CONSUMERS, we need to mitigate the overly powerful unions that protect airline EMPLOYEES who routinely abuse their passengers. It makes sense to do both.