Pilots and flight attendants are both hourly work groups. We get paid from brake release to door open time (block). All the other time we're on duty we're paid our per diem rates. It sure is awful to be on duty for 14 hours but only get paid for a few hours of that because of delays or weather. It's true in a way that until the brakes are released we're working for free. All the preflight duties we have to perform go unpaid. That's why there is such a strong push for trip and duty rigs.

Nice to see a passenger actually thinking about how these cutbacks are affecting the employees of the airlines!! Most passengers seem to think they're the only ones affected by the post 9/11 economical cutbacks.

As far as the corkscrew... We were flying from DTW-MBS (a 22 minute flight) and a first class passenger got so angry at one of our flight attendants for serving him coach wine (after explaining that a cork screw wasn't boarded by catering and this was the only alternative if he wanted wine) and demanded the captain ensure corkscrews are boarded in the future. HELLO??? If you're that desperate for a drink on a 22 min flight you've got other issues and PLEASE don't take crap like that out on our flight attendants.