That’s a whole lot of bag-tagging. Read the whole story at…

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2456usg

(That’s a tinyurl that will redirect you to the longer USA Today link, but note that you’ll be able to preview where it’s taking you before you redirect.)

The whole airline industry thing amazes me. I was in California on Friday when my wife had to be taken into surgery (her gall bladder had gone South). So I called the airline upon which I was holding tickets (American Airlines) and asked if they’d consider moving up my flights 3 days due to the medical circumstance. The lady was just a bit snippety as she responded, “Mr. Lucas, we no longer make medical exceptions — ever.” She wanted $600 for a seat on a flight that left in an hour. What I don’t get is that I hung up, then purchased a fare on Southwest that covered exactly the same ground for just $189. Who decides these insane rules and why wouldn’t an airline take $189 if it had an empty seat to sell? No wonder they’re going belly-up. Do you think I’m going to go out of my way to buy on AA again any time soon? What’s more, the Southwest folks didn’t charge for my bags and, of all things, they were *nice* to me! :-) (It was like they really did love to fly! :-) ) Go figure. (Thanks, Lissa [from Uganda], for the tip on the original article that started this rant. :-) )