The Prisoner

I always wondered about that. At some point doesn’t that become false arrest? I wonder what would happen if you called 911, and asked the police to come let you out? What state are you in?

Surely there’s a Markets in Everything solution to this: offer to pay them to let you off and page you when it’s time to go again?

Re mailing Delta, maybe let us know if we should threaten to tell Congress as well.

In this angry-mob political environment, I have to imagine such a threat is enough to make any big corporation think twice about what it’s doing. “You’re doing *what* to us?! But we didn’t even ask for a bailout!”

A haiku about a cat:
I once saw a cat
the cat was very adorable
and very tiny

richard.anderson@delta.com (CEO)

lee.macenczak@delta.com (head of flight operations)

daiquiri.gleaves@delta.com (customer relations)

also see this

I’ve wondered why passengers don’t engage in some type of disobedience that makes the plane return to the gate. For example, what if a bunch of passengers simply stood up from his or her seats? Surely everyone won’t be arrested.

Try pressing charges whenever you do get free. It’s either kidnapping or something similar. Chances are, the cops won’t listen, but it’s worth trying. Snowball doesn’t last long in hell, but it’s momentary existence there upsets the establishment.

I think this will lead to eventually airlines requesting that before everyone gets onboard that they sign a waiver that they must surrender their freedom to move around and are essentially held hostage until the time “the captain” chooses to release them.

As an environmental discipline, I have trying to go a whole year without flying (despite being an academic). [...] Making a big effort to meet interesting people in my area of work whenever they visit Boston so I don’t feel as much pressure to see them elsewhere around the country.

Well, as an environmental discipline, it sounds like you are just shifting to your colleagues the attribution of emissions associated with pow-wows between you and them. After all, how do they get to Boston? By flying?

Of course, you are also shifting the cost of the pow-wows on to them too, so it might still be a good idea.

@Fenn. Yes. You will also get in trouble trying to leave an airplane that is not stuck on the ground.

Reminds me of a 6 hour shutdown of Amtrak in Pittsburg on the way to ASSA in Philly. Fun…

The defense of this seems like blatant status quo bias. I mean, come on. If airports put even the slightest amount of effort into this, how hard would it be to work out a way for planes to go back to the gate to let passengers off without losing their place in line? Really now. This is one of many things that are the result of municipal ownership of airports. This simply wouldn’t be tolerated in privately owned airports. In Phoenix, we have the airport belching out jet fumes right over downtown, accounting for a large amount of our air pollution. If it was a private operation, it would have been forced out of town years ago, but instead, they’re expanding it & it’s hailed for all its economic benefits.

Maybe your name is on the slow fly list?

Maybe Obama finally unionized the seagulls and they are threatening a general bird strike?

Maybe the MIAC discovered there is a blogging critic of the government on the plane?

Maybe Ragnar Danneskjöld hijacked the plane but wants to hear the end of John Galt’s radio address (Maybe in real life, Rand heroes are more like Watchmen)?

(Nice, Nemo, I’m not a big fan of the “just be happy” or the “we have no inflation because technology is so great” memes, but that was nice.)

Last year I was on United and they would not let us leave the aircraft when it was parked at the gate with the doors open. I sent this email to customer service and was told United had no specific policy to force passengers to stay on the plane:

A mechanical problem on departure required the aircraft to be towed back to the gate and taken out of service. We arrived back at the gate around 6:20pm. Around 6:30pm the aircraft door was opened. I called United reservations on my mobile phone and was rebooked on UA1077 departing at 7:04pm. The gate agent would not let me off the plane even though the aircraft door was open. She said her orders were to hold all pax on the plane. She finally let us go at 7:00pm and I missed my rebooked flight. I would like to know if it is standard procedure at United to force passengers to stay on an aircraft when it is at the gate with the aircraft door open?”

Are flyers rewarded with miles for being kept on a stuck flight?

I imagine that after a reasonable margin, passengers should get
the same number of miles per hour on the ground as if they were
in the air, if not more. This would lead to more free flights,
and airlines would have more urgency to avoid long customer
incarcerations – I mean, delays.

Otherwise, passengers should be allowed to change into orange
jumpsuits if they’re stuck on a plan for over an hour.