Salon :: Tech & Business

Ask the pilot: Note to self: Never, ever underestimate the public's hatred for the airlines!

The response to my column on the art and science of weather delays was swift, brutal and all but unanimous. Not since my defense of the word "stewardess" a couple of weeks earlier had I been so relentlessly pummeled. By Sunday, readers had posted close to 200 letters, united in angry disagreement with my failure to endorse a federally mandated "Passenger Bill of Rights" as a way of avoiding incidents like the one that recently left thousands of JetBlue customers stranded aboard aircraft for up to 10 hours.

Taken together, the sentiment was blunt and overwhelming. Separately, those readers who weren't openly hostile, sarcastic and foul-mouthed were able to offer a cogent and persuasive argument that, in the end, has forced me to reconsider. Suffice it to say, the Passengers Have Spoken. But before I formally raise the white flag, let me reiterate a few points. Scanning the feedback, I'm perplexed by the number of people who seem to believe that I don't sympathize with the plight of stranded travelers. Upon reaching a sort of critical mass, the letters seem to draw more from each other than from anything posed in the original column.

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