Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

I just spotted this article on WSJ/Yahoo, talking about how airlines (mostly US ones) will be charging for baggage.  This is simply outrageous.  Tickets are already outrageously pricey, airport/gas cost is inflating airline cost and airport security itself is an unnecessary inconvenience.  Now, airlines won't even let you fly with your bags.

Obviously, this is an impossibility when you fly international.  So it seems that domestic flights in America are becoming worthless to anyone who isn't a celebrity (who probably can afford their own plane) or a business person.

I've already sworn this if I ever travel within the US again, I'll never fly.  The airline quality for domestic flights is like going to a state penitentiary.  They stuff you in small lines, shove you into tiny crowded spaces, starve you on the plane and your subject to tons of rude people and their whiny brats for several hours. 

The good thing is that the only place I really travel to domestically from LA is Las Vegas.  But I suppose if I wanted to go to some other state, I'd just as well take the road.  I think it'd be much more interesting, scenic and you can really see the country.

As far as America's airlines' finances going south, I have absolutely no pity. They've brought this onto themselves with awful service and that horrible bureaucratic Homeland (In)security department as well as the Total Shit Admistration (TSA).  None of these companies have even attempted to be proactively customer friendly, which is why the demand for tickets keep lowering.  At least the service for companies like JAL  and ANA out here in Japan are quite good so it's actually worth paying for the price of a ticket in those companies.  But if suddenly all the US airlines went bankrupt simultaneously and all the jobs were lost, I wouldn't shed a tear.  Treat your customers with respect and maybe they might actually start flying again.  Until then, take a bus or drive your car.