Tango,

I cannot disagree with you about how the promises of the airlines have not been lived up to but i must offer a small rebuttal.

I too was stuck on the runway for four hours last night at DFW waiting our turn in line for take-off. While I agree that I would much rather be sitting in the terminal where I could be walking around or at least sitting more confortably, but I was also anxious to get home. Returning to the terminal would have only moved our departure time farther back buy moving us to the back of the line. But the real issue to me is how flight attendants and pilots handle things while you wait.

Your story is an example of why I prefer not to fly AA. I was on a Delta flight and they not only started a movie (2 in fact) but had a full drink service (minus alcohol for some reason) and a light snack. We weren't allowed to use our cell phones though which pissed me off. I finally just fired it up to leave a quick message for my Fiancee who was expecting me home on time since we had pushed back from the gate as scheduled. I was asked to turn it off and just said, "When I am done." The FA, just doing her job, scoffed and walked away.

I do not know what the AA flight attendants meant by having to go to the end of the line if they served food though? That seems like a cop-out to me. As far as I am concerned Delta went more than out of it's way to make the PAX feel comfortable and at ease. As for your friends AA experience, I think AA needs to figure out where it's priorities are. Is it customers or rules. My fear with more legislation is that it would prevent a company like DL from making a judgement call as it did last night in providing for it's PAX.

I have mixed feelings here. Yes you are right, many airlines drop the ball in these situations. I choose to fly the ones that don't. (Or at least the ones that in my experience haven't yet.)

Better luck to your friend next time. We have all been there. :-)

-rollyo11