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If the pilot hadn't taken it upon himself to pull up to an empty gate, the plane might still be sitting there.

News coverage here stated that American Airlines kept bumping this flight down the list because it was trying to keep others on time. So yes, it does come down to money.

Regards,

Glenn

I agree -- it does come down to money. More than just keeping their other planes on schedule, I believe that the airline would have also had to pay for the priviledge of pulling up to a gate in Austin. Darn airport taxes...

I do hope that some form of airline bill of rights is passed, but am unsure of what a reasonable standard would look like. (Clearly, sitting on a plane for nine hours unscheduled is excessive...)

I don't think a law is necessary - or even desirable. JetBlue has shown that the market will respond more efficiently to the situation than Congress can. We can all vote with our money. If the airlines don't respond, don't fly with them again.

I wrote about this incident in more detail here
http://www.chaosscenario.com/main/2007/02/jetblue_nightma.html

and here
http://www.chaosscenario.com/main/2007/02/how_to_treat_cu.html

I'd love to get your response.

I saw that you have a page that discusses patent-related resources at http://www.customersarealways.com/2007/01/a_law_for_common_courtesy.html. I wanted to suggest adding www.freepatentsonline.com to the page. This web site has free PDF downloading (instead of having to page through TIFFs like at the US PTO). It is by far the best free patent searching site.