Speaking of things that suck...new airline fees

[Enosekel]

Northwest Airlines Implements More Fees

It's not enough they keep laying people off and getting all these subsidies from the government. Now they plan to charge extra if you would like to use the bathrooms, overhead bin above your chair, or have the privilege to sit next to someone who won't scream or be fat or touch the arm rest.

[Aristotle]

They have finally recovered from the massive 9/11 inspired drop off in usage, so now they want to bilk people.

Most airlines are freakishly inefficient operations. Why? Simple. Unions.

Airlines are one of the best examples of what happens when unions get too much power. An airline has to deal with pilot unions, stewardess unions (sorry, you're not a flight attendant, you're a steward/stewardess), baggage handler unions, flight controller unions, and more. These unions wield an insane amount of power and they make airlines totally non-capitalistic enterprises.

Don't worry... I'm not ignoring the fact that some of these same airlines happily fucked over their employees before they unionized.

Regardless of how we got here, the fact is that right now the unions totally dominate and spoil this entire industry.

[Blog]

3 or 4 more airlines should already be bankrupt, I for one would welcome our new southwest overlords.

A very good article about how the United Mechanics Union screwed themselves out of jobs that paid twice as much as they're now making:

http://tinyurl.com/esnns