When the airline execs arrive for the hearing, I would first make them wait through two or three arbitrary postponements of the starting time, telling them that "unexpected rain in Seattle" is "holding up delivery of needed equipment". Much later, I would have the session suddenly adjourn for the day. As the execs grumpily start making their way back to their hotels for the night, I would have armed guards force them to stay in the darkened hearing room, angrily reminding them that any complaining would be grounds for spending the night tied up with duct tape.

As I pass out bottled water and bags of stale chips, I would run each attendee's Amex Black for the required "convenience fee for overnight use of Congressional facilities." Before locking them in for the evening, I would make sure that several bigscreens were operating in the room, playing CNN Headline News at earsplitting volume.

By the time the bailout hearing actually commences the following midmorning, the airline folk will have spent an unprecedented 24 hours living a passenger's life. The hearing itself would consist of a scowling committee chair glaring down his nose at the supplicant airline representatives, intoning "We're sorry, but this is not a compensation issue..." With that, he would summarily send them home empty-handed. Touche!

The Pilot writes: "Contrary to popular belief, airlines were not "bailed out" following the terrorist attacks of 2001. This is something I hear all the time, and it simply isn't true.

Shortly after the attacks, the government gave the airlines about $5 billion. Each company's share was relative to its size, to be spent as it saw fit. In effect, this money was compensation for [1]the government-mandated shutdown of the airways for several days and [2]for the massive downturn in traffic, fueled by fears of terrorism, that lasted for weeks afterward. [3]It was also intended to help recoup operating costs related to new security requirements."

[1] Granted, a government forced shutdown probably does make it reasonable for the government to give some help. Unless (and I'm going to talk a bit over my own knowledge here) you want to ascribe at least partial blame for the shutdown on the airlines themselves for allowing the attacks to play out the way they did. Yeah, I know, nobody thought that hijackers would do what they then done did. But SOMEBODY thought of it. That much is obvious.

[3] Again, if you think the airlines should have been doing more beforehand, perhaps these cost should be on them. Which means us (the passengers), I realize. And perhaps that's how it should be. Or, taking a different argument, (one that perhaps you have made, Patrick) is that the airlines showed a complete lack of testicular fortitude in allowing many of these pointless, expensive and demeaning security (theater) measures to be put in place. Too scared to rally for something more sensible, practical and worthwhile because the scare machine was in full force, the airlines bent over backward to allow it and we got bent forward to deal with it. Also, wasn't the money allocated only nine or ten days after 9/11? Are we really to believe they had any idea what the costs were going to be, much less what the changes were really going to be?

[2] This argument holds the least water. And the largest corollary to the auto industry. The airlines were deeply wounded by a change in the market so they got money to help them through it. Did they cause the market change? No, but perhaps better security would have prevented it. (Did the auto industry cause our economic issues? No, but they were already in trouble due to gas prices, which perhaps they could take some blame for after YEARS of fighting gov. mileage regulations. Use more gas, increase gas demand, lower gas supply, higher gas prices.) Was the airline industry positioned to deal with a crisis? I'm not sure, but in retrospect, it seems not. (The auto industry certainly isn't...blame the unions if you like, and I certainly will to some degree, but the build bigger philosophy did not position the US auto industry well).

And no matter how you look at it or phrase it, the airlines did get $5B in "direct payments", didn't they? You might not want to call it a bailout, Patrick, but you haven't convinced me not to.

I've just reread my post and your article. And I'm not sure either of us stuck to our original intent or point.

But I'm hitting publish anyway.

International competitors are allowed to operate in the domestic auto marketplace both on the manufacturing side as well as on the retail side. International airline competition is not allowed on domestic routes flown inside the U.S. nor are foreign manufactures allowed to set up shop in the U.S. The domestic auto industry is at a far greater disadvantage because of these facts.

I've already ranted about the stupidity of going to any of those nations that hate us and want to kill us, which is nearly all of them. Now we can start on domestic air travel, which is worse.

The price of tickets, the agony of TSA searches, delays and general sadism, and the way the entire process costs more and more money at every step...if you don't need to rush, why fly?

If part of the infrastructure rebuilding includes rebuilding the railroads, America may have a real alternative to air travel. And since most of us won't have jobs soon, we'll have time to take those improved trains. We might learn that we don't need, and soon won't be able to afford, air travel at all.

And maybe we might learn that we can't get anything on the other side of the country that we couldn't always get at the Wal-Mart down the block. Everyone who talks about how travel is "broadening" seem to be just as narrow as they were before they travelled.

Let's see:

Cram as many seats into economy as physically possible -- already done

Add fees for stuff like luggage -- already done

Surcharges -- done 30% of my last ticket price

Cut out any meal that can be cut -- done

The only thing they can do to make passengers happier is better communication. I'd love that.

Luckily for the airlines, there is HUGE room for improvement.