I saw this post about a recent panel that tried to come up with guidelines for airlines as far as how long they could hold travelers hostage on a plane if delayed between the time they load the plane and take off. I've been a victim of this twice; one leaving Seattle where we sat on the plane for 3 hours due to a 'technical difficulty', and once in Orlando where we had to wait 30 minutes for lightening to stop before we could get off of the plane.

Ok, I'll grant that I don't want the baggage team getting zapped because I want off the plane, but waiting 3 hours and then doing a six hour flight is insane. The 'guidelines' suggest that airlines provide drinks and bathroom service...suggest? I haven't visited all the airline sites to see if they have a better policy (remember the JetBlue fiasco), but I suspect many don't. What's worse, this was a federal task force that as far as I can accomplished absolutely nothing. I'd like to see airlines self regulate on this, but clearly they won't, and it's not always as easy as selecting an airline with a good policy (Jet Blue doesn't fly Florida to Seattle for example).