It is refreshing to read accurate and insightful reporting instead of reporting that plays off of people's fears and emotions.

Indeed it is.

But do let's take note, while we're chatting about this, that the particular Patrick Smith article being talked about only "scored" between one half and one quarter of a random selection of recent articles by the same writer.

Need a better illustration of why reporting "plays [on] people's fears and emotions"?

Because that's what we "tell" editors that we want.

My $43.95 flat rate phone bill costs $76 with 'taxes and fees'. Even the airline ticket as booked didn't include $45 in surcharges and other bullshit fees. Your cable bill has a 50% off teaser rate for the first 6 months. That $29.99 oil change you got doesn't include a $6 EPA 'disposal fee'.

I fail to see how this is different from a 'talk out your ass to customers' perspective. It's what happens now; everyone lies.

Now does it mess with service? Of course it does. It's called offloading your customer service problems onto the customers themselves. The unwashed bovines trudge downstairs to the carousel hoping their bag(s) haven't been lost, crushed, pissed or or opened and if they are they line up at the lost baggage counter to bored angry clerk who's first response is to call the cops if you yell at them.

Again, I fail to see how this is better or worse than it is now. At least they're admitting that you're a piece of shit and this is hell.

They have to be careful though since $45 is very close to what UPS will charge you. If push comes to shove, stick your case in a box and slap a label on it and mail it.

a rule that requires the medicating, muzzling or sequestering of all children under 4 years old -- below deck would be nice, or out on the wing.

I know you were probably joking, but that is a horrible thing to say. One of the most annoying things when flying is not the screaming kids, but it is the annoying adults who have no patience with kids.

Oh yeah?

On one particular flight I was on I had a 5-year old in back of me old kicking my seat the whole damn flight from Denver to Chicago. I looked back and glared at the father several times to no avail. When we got up to leave, I said "You might think about keeping your kid from kicking the seat of the next person in front of him." The father's response: "That's what you get when you lean your seat back."

Now hey, if some 6'6" guy behind me asks me not to put my seat back, I'll probably comply even if the person in front of ME is squeezing me in. But a 5-year old who can't reach the floor, just the back of my seat? No, way.

So patience cuts both ways, eh?

On a recent flight, the incessantly yappy small dog beneath a first class passenger's seat was WAAAAAY more annoying than the infant in back who cried a bit during climbout and descent. Well monitored kids can be just fine, and better to sit next to than someone who is, shall we say, large - you get more elbow room, if nothing else.

I don't see the problem with $15 per bag. I think, more than anything, it draws people's attention to their personal load factor and serves as a disincentive to check that SECOND bag.

And maybe some budding entrepreneur will start producing enormous, one-piece, travel luggage to circumvent the $45 (and accessorize nicely with our over-sized SUVs and over-sized waistbands). Oh, America.

Its funny too because ticket prices are changing all the time! In the larger scheme of things, $15 is small potatoes when you consider how volatile ticket prices really are depending on what day you book, how far in advance etc.

I like your column. I really do. But until someone figures out how to hatch fully grown adults, kids are part of life. We can debate parenting skills all day, and there will always be some sanctimonious a-hole willing to point fingers at any being under 18 and yell "THOSE DAMN KIDS!" However, it makes about the same amount of sense as a white American yelling "THOSE DAMN IMMIGRANTS!" We are (almost) all immigrants, at one time or another. We were all kids at one time or another.

I hope your cloning skills are up to snuff, because without them, your complaints don't hold water.

Jeesh.

Mr. Smith: When you wrote that you thought it would be a great idea for airlines to require "the medicating, muzzling or sequestering of all children under 4 years old -- below deck would be nice, or out on the wing" did you intend to offend and disgust parents? I've flown many times with my cheerful, well-behaved son since he was an infant -- I can assure you that the other passengers on every flight my son's ever been on suffered more from air traffic delays, poorly designed airports, inept airline bureaucracy, and incompetent, arrogant, ignorant airline crews than they ever have from anything my child -- or anyone else's kid -- ever did. If you dislike children so much, you pompous eunuch, consider retroactively not having been born. You want to bloviate self-importantly about airline topics, fine, but don't joke about medicating, muzzling or exposing to the elements someone else's child, you useless, frequently laid-off pseudo-pilot.

I actually would rather pay more for my ticket than fly American these days and yes, the bag policy is the last straw. I fly Southwest (I agree with all that you report on them) and Midwest (which is now raising its fees and rearranging its seating, sadly, but I will pay the difference, as it is pleasant to fly them and I get there at the end of the day). I dread flying abroad these days, for reasons that have nothing to do with the crowding, etc. What is really upsetting to me is the fact that the last three times I have come home from Europe or further, through Europe, I have arrived 24 hours after the time I was supposed to! The flights have been cancelled or postponed because of mechanical or other difficulties. This is unacceptable. I hate flying because of this.