WASHINGTON - U.S. airlines have cut many flights and they are getting better at staying on schedule with their remaining flights, as more trips arrived on time in May than a year earlier. The Transportation Department also said Thursday that fewer flights were canceled and passengers reported fewer cases of mishandled baggage. Airlines have been cutting flights since last year, first in response to rising fuel prices, then to cope with a slump in travel due to the recession. In June, capacity — mostly measured in the number of flights — was down about 6 percent from last June at the largest U.S. airlines.
They should have responded immediately. And the fact that they handed me a mimeograph letter means this has happened many times before. That mimeograph machine is smoking! So if anyone is listening who has flown United, works for United, or can recognize what a United Airlines plane looks like and knows what’s in the certificate – please solve my mystery for me and tell me what’s in that certificate. This is ridiculous! And what makes matters worse is that the inconvenience on this plane was just getting started, because it’s a 13-hour flight between San Francisco and Shanghai. I like to work on these flights, and I like to plug my computer into their power port. Well, their power ports weren’t working. The only thing they had available at my seat to me for my viewing pleasure was one copy of the movie Australia. This is a movie that already bombed on the ground, so why would I want to watch it in the air? And then, to add insult to injury, on my return flight from Shanghai to Chicago, guess what? Same kind of plane, same deteriorating inside and the power ports weren’t working again. You would think things would get better on my flight from Chicago to Washington D.C. when they wheeled out an A319, meaning (relatively speaking) brand new, but the power ports didn’t work on that either.
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