[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

MR. DELANY:

With all due respect, Sir, you DON’T sound like a well-worn “road warrior,” but rather, an occasional air traveler. In addition to my comments below, you may find the comments on one of my “Profiles” of interest. The link, to said profile, is, also, below:


http://groups.google.com/groups/prof...o7PylW0wCVGllQ

Finally, I noted the “copy” to Senator McCain in your original post. I wouldn’t expect him to be of much help right now. Hopefully, by December, he will have a LOT of time on his hands!



GROMIT:

You know what, Gromit, if Mother Theresa were re-incarnated, and worked at the customer service desk of a US-based airline—people would be cursing at HER!! WHY?? Because US airline managements have devised an endless systems of rules, surcharges, contracts, discretionary powers, and various other forms of contrivance, which are so complex it makes the US Tax Code look like a Dr. Seuss book! Indeed, like the Tax Code, the spider web of deceit, er, “rules,” which the airlines have, involve, literally, dozens, of points at which an “error,” or oversight, can result in a “penalty,” otherwise known as an “additional collection,” running into hundreds of dollars. And, if you “wince” while the airlines, verbally, spit in your face, and/or steal your money, you’ll get to meet their new “customer service” agents—the police!

As an example of abusive airline rules: I’m sure many who view these posts have read of cases, or have, themselves, directly, experienced a situation where you have a customer who is, not drunk, not assaultive, and arrived at the gate prior to close-out time. And, because a gate agent, or flight attendant had a “bad hair day,” or had a major problem with Arabs speaking Arabic (I am NOT an Arab), they were escorted off the aircraft, and/or out of the gate area, by jack-booted storm troopers. At American Air, for example, a “bad hair day” is all it takes to find yourself off the aircraft, and standing on the curb in front of the airport! The “Acceptance of Passengers” section, of American Air’s contract of carriage, (SEE LINK BELOW) is written so vaguely one could, literally, have the Pope kicked-off the plane. Fortunately, for His Holiness, he and Alitalia seem to have a good working relationship. Such vagaries would be enforceable in few, if any, State courts. That the airlines are able to “hide” their contracts of carriage behind Federal regulation allows such travesties to be perpetrated upon the consumer.


http://www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_U...jsp#AcceptPass


Thus the tangled web of, Federally supported, deceit, by US-based airlines, results in many families and grandmothers being placed in the position of submitting to robbery, or forgoing a long-planned vacation, or visit. Those fortunate enough to escape the previous offenses can run the risk of encountering the borderline sociopathic personalities of some US-based airline employees and their jack-booted police “enforcers.”

With respect to that last point: I have NEVER had the experience of, even, being the target of a threat from an airline employee. As a loyal Democrat, I find it a national outrage that airline employees have, somehow, been given the authority to suspend the US Constitution in the air and on airport property. Airline employees should be as concerned, as anyone else, about this attack on our liberties. Until then, the “enemies of the State” are NOT those law-abiding, albeit naïve and gullable, domestic air travelers, but rather, airline managements; their enablers who work for them; and many TSA Officers.