jpezaris

Agreed. From personal experience, I know that I'm a lot more tolerant of delays when the pilot is up-front about causes and communicates often with the passengers. When there's no reason given, or when the pilot says, "we'll be sitting here for two hours due to ATC," and then never says anything else until we continue onwards, it makes me more likely to write letters of complaint.

Without any evidence to support the following speculation, it would seem to me that the major cause of travel rage is lack of control over one's situation, and being well informed significantly mitigates those feelings. If the pilots and crew would put a little more effort into communication -- and it doesn't really need to be the pilots, although messages from the top are highly valuable -- airlines, and specifically UA, would save a bundle.