Wednesday's video comes amid a period of dire public relations for the air travel industry, following several high-profile instances of airline staff apparently mistreating customers.
There have been recent though rare instances of airlines' returning to service the planes that they stored here.
If this was an especially brutal instance of an airline mistreating a paying customer, it was also a reminder of the everyday absurdity of how air travel works.
Since the video of the assault went viral, United issued a rather flaccid apology, with its CEO issuing a statement calling the event "upsetting" and saying, "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers". If this was an especially brutal instance of an airline mistreating a paying customer, it was also a reminder of the everyday absurdity of how air travel works.
Co-payments are yet another instance of the airlines' devaluing miles even as they push us into chasing evermore miles with credit cards and other promotions.
People at the airline denied that, characterizing his departure as an instance of putting the airline's interests first.
The change will of course not be immediate; it will take at least 60 days, for instance, for airlines to submit proposed routes and have them approved.
It is a law of airline travel, for instance, that two passengers separated by an empty seat will get into a conversation, but three passengers packed in a single row will not say a word to one another for the whole flight.
Also on Wednesday, Trans States Airlines, which flies regional jets for American, United and US Airways, canceled 94 of its scheduled 335 flights by midafternoon, temporarily grounding 24 planes in the latest instance of maintenance problems in the airline industry.
On Saturday night, for instance, the airline said that the 23percentt of flights it had canceled on Saturday and Sunday would also be canceled Monday.
