The Angry Jew

The rantings of an Angry Jew in The Pacific Northwest

Maybe it is being in a new and healthy relationship, maybe it is getting adjusted to working a graveyard shift, but lately, I have just been very angry lately, much to my friends disgust.  I can be pretty schmaltzy when I am happy, which Bacon Betty has made me in the extreme these last few months.

With that in mind, a piece in this afternoons (morning’s) paper had me spitting coffee across the table.

Effective Thursday, a new law goes into effect that frees that enslaved class of Americans, the flying public.

The new regulations are a result of an incident that occurred in December of 2006, when passengers were held on board an American Airlines flight that was en route to Dallas and was diverted to Austin.  Passengers were held on board the aircraft for 11 HOURS!

The new regulations will impose a fine of $27500 per passenger on any airline that holds passengers hostage for more then 3 hours.  Another example of government reacting to a real problem for a change, score a victory for the little guy, right?

Well, not according to David Castleveter of the Airline Transportation Association of America, an industry lobbying group.

According to David the new regulations will only cause more cancellations, more missed connections, more mishandled bags and more passengers who will not get where they want to go.

DA’Fuck?

How fucking hard is it to pull an air stair up to a cabin door and let people get off the aircraft to stretch their legs and take a leak, David?

How deeply would it cut into corporate profits to have a facility located inside the secure area of the airport equipped with restrooms, coffee, a few vending machines and maybe a phone or two, and maybe (gasp) a smoking area, so that the passengers YOU strand could maybe feel a bit human.

You would only need one such facility per airport, I am sure all these big airlines can learn to play together, a few bus’s to transport the passengers, and maybe a TSA officer or two to keep passengers from wandering off.

Come on now David, it’s not like that facility is NEVER going to get used or anything.

I find it interesting that instead of embracing these changes and vowing to better serve the customers that pay your freaking bills, the airline trade associations instead decide to issue threats.  Pretty telling, don’t you think?

I don’t fly very much these days and, knock wood, I have never had to endure being stranded on the tarmac for hours on end, but considering the fact that they are charging a fee for everything but breathing, opps, wait a minute, strike that, I don’t want to give the airlines any ideas, you would think that the airlines would be just a bit more concerned for their customers.

I guess I just have to be a little more realistic, it isn’t as if sheeple are going to stop lining up to be abused in the name of profits, right?